“Legal-age adults should be allowed to make the decision as to whether to use tobacco products or not without government stepping in and dictating what these young adults can and cannot do.”
The overarching regulatory problem for vapor is a good, old-fashioned conflict of interest, says Kathy Hoekstra, the regulatory policy reporter for Watchdog.org. She recently opined that rather than promote what is potentially a lifesaving alternative for smokers, the public health establishment in the U.S. warns against using vapor products for smoking cessation based on “potential health risks,” when, in reality, many vapor opponents have serious conflicts of interest due to financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies that manufacture FDA-approved cessation products.
Taxing Triumph
Meanwhile, there is some good news to report where local vapor legislation is concerned. Recently, the New York Legislature eliminated all language for vapor product regulations from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $152.3 billion executive budget proposal that would have imposed a 10-cent per milliliter excise tax on e-liquid. Andrew Osborne, vice president of the New York State Vapor Association, praised the move, saying, “We’re happy to see New York take a step back from these aggressive regulations that would have essentially decimated the entire industry in the Empire State.”
Dr. Edward Anselm, a senior fellow at R Street Institute, also applauded the decision, saying that “common sense appears to have prevailed in the state Senate.” He recognizes, however, that controversies and the need for continued improvement in the state’s performance on tobacco control still exist. He believes the local administration should “convene a panel to review the evidence and set meaningful policies that address the needs of all New Yorkers.”
Pennsylvania’s Senate Finance Committee is also moving on a bill to kill vapor product excise taxes. The bill would eliminate the state’s current 40 percent excise tax on vapor products and replace it with a new, lower excise tax.
Despite all the local legislation vapor momentum, some good, but mostly bad, the industry itself is reportedly on the rise. Florida-based Premier Vapor recently released a statement reporting that, from the inception of the vapor industry, “there has been an exponential growth of up to almost $7 billion in revenues within just a couple of years, with no indications of slowing down.”
– Story by Renée M. Covino
This story first appeared in the July/August 2017 issue of Tobacco Business magazine. Members of the tobacco industry are eligible for a complimentary subscription to our magazine. Click here for details.
