Loopholes Bury Connecticut Flavored E-Liquid Ban

A measure that would have banned flavored e-cigarettes in Connecticut died in the state Senate late Tuesday after its main advocate said the ban was “riddled with major loopholes,” leaving tens of thousands of children and teens unprotected.

“The Connecticut Legislature is making it quite clear that it will sell out Connecticut’s kids to do the bidding of Juul and Altria instead,” Matthew Myers, president of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a written statement earlier Tuesday, according to The Telegraph.

Earlier this year, the legislature’s Public Health Committee passed a bill that would have banned all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, but that bill was diluted. Then over the last few days, it was gutted further. In the General Assembly’s special session this week, the measure was added to the 857-page budget “implementer” that lawmakers adopt at the end of each spring session.

Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, co-chair of the public health committee, said earlier Tuesday he and fellow Democratic co-chair Sen. Mary Abrams were not consulted about the changes, and that he was first alerted to them by “one of the interested parties.”