US
Massachusetts recently placed heavy restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine vaping products, with GOP Gov. Charlie Baker signing into law a set of sweeping tobacco controls.
The legislation outlaws any flavored tobacco products, including mentholated cigarettes and flavored nicotine-based e-cigarettes, except those sold for on-site consumption in specialty smoking bars. The law puts a 75% excise tax on non-flavored e-cigarettes sold in the state and restricts the amount of nicotine that can be in non-flavored vapes sold anywhere but a specialty shop.
“The new law will also make sure that electronic cigarettes are treated the same way as traditional tobacco products concerning taxation and point-of-sale restrictions,” Baker said.
The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group of vaping manufacturers and retailers that has sued Massachusetts and other states over executive orders banning flavored vaping devices, called the ban “the wrong policy.”
“Bans don’t work, they never have,” Tony Abboud, VTA’s executive director, said in a statement to CNN. “A ban will drive people back to combustible cigarettes […] or lead to illegal sales with a new and larger black market.” Abboud added that the group supports efforts to raise the age for vaping to 21 nationwide. Massachusetts raised the statewide age to 21 last year.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, across the country, over five million middle and high school students are currently using e-cigarettes and 68% of high school students are vapers. The Massachusetts law is notable in its prohibition of menthol cigarettes, a first for statewide legislation.
A similar bill working its way through the Illinois General Assembly dropped a provision to ban combustible menthol cigarettes earlier this year during its amendment process. Flavored traditional tobacco products – snuff, chewing tobacco, cigars, pipe tobacco, and menthol cigarettes – will be legal to sell in Massachusetts until June 1, 2020.