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WISCONSIN: (CALL TO ACTION UPDATED!) While reducing tax from 71% retail, State budget still adds UNJUSTIFIED 5¢/mL SIN TAX (plus sales tax) to vapor products and increases tax – higher than any other tobacco tax at 100% – on LOWEST RISK moist snuff/snus.
WI – Stop an outrageous tax on vaping!
RESEARCH: Six year study of 4,000 adults, ages 25-35, will track how environment, lifestyle (including vaping) and physical activity habits affect respiratory health. (Of course, that’s only if vapor products are still available after 2021.)
OPINION: “San Francisco protects cigarettes to own the vapers.”
“Using the specter of nicotine-addled children to deny adult smokers a lifesaving alternative isn’t just demagogic, it’s disastrous public health policy.” — @gbentley1
San Francisco protects cigarettes to own the vapers
COLUMBUS, INDIANA: (HEADS UP!) City considering prohibiting businesses from allowing vaping in their own establishments. ANTZ misrepresent risks and use convoluted reasoning that vaping in bars, casinos and vape shops will somehow curb youth use.
City asked to include e-cigarettes in smoking ordinance
IN THE NEWS: Nebraska ACLU concerned over legality of nicotine testing of students in schools.
“Several studies have demonstrated that in districts that have tested [for drugs] for a decade or more, there was no demonstrable change in substance abuse.”
Nebraska ACLU tells Fairbury schools it’s not a fan of schools testing for nicotine
ADVOCACY: (Philadelphia) Harm reduction and treatment advocates protest rehab smoking/vaping ban, calling it an unnecessary and cruel “barrier to treatment in the middle of an overdose crisis.”
Story: Six months in, Philly assesses its smoking ban in inpatient rehabs
NEW HAMPSHIRE: (HEADS UP!) Lawmakers sneak previously stalled Tobacco/Vapor 21 law into state budget at 11th hour. No evidence T21 lowers youth use, but clearly denies adults 18-20 who smoke access to far safer alternatives. BUDGET VOTE IS ON THURSDAY!
Smoking age increase added to New Hampshire budget
IN THE NEWS: (Massachusetts) A multi-defendant lawsuit has been filed against several local BOH over flavor bans “developed and advocated by a private organization” that “created anti-competitive marketplaces that grant monopolies to specialty stores.”
Cumberland Farms to Fight Local Tobacco Regulations in Court
LIVERMORE CALIFORNIA: (UPDATE) City bans sale of ALL vapor products, denying adult smokers local access to low risk alternatives, while leaving cigarettes to be freely sold.
Without irony, Councilmember Trish Munro says, “One of the best ways to change behavior is to avoid having the product present.” Hmmm….
Livermore Bans Flavored Tobacco Sales, Enacts School Buffer Zone For Retailers
IN THE NEWS: (Kentucky) Detention center exempts vapor products from existing tobacco ban to bring in revenue & (hopefully) reduce tobacco contraband. Devices “contain about as much nicotine as two packs of traditional cigarettes,” priced at $12 per unit.
BSRDC inmates to see sale of e-cigarettes
YOUNGSTOWN & GIRARD, OHIO: (HEADS UP!) Cities considering ordinances denying adults 18-20 who smoke access to far lower risk alternatives, although T21 laws have failed to show they work to prevent youth use in other municipalities.
Will local officials approve Tobacco 21 legislation?
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA: (HEADS UP!) Public hearing JULY 2 for ordinance that would deny adults 18-20 who smoke access to far safer products, mislead public to believe risks are the same and more likely to support laws such as flavor/online bans & sin taxes.
Flagstaff council votes to ban sale of tobacco to people under 21