A tobacco flavor ban that includes vaping products has cost the state of Massachusetts nearly $75 billion in taxes. According to a study by the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association (NECSEMA), excise tax lost income in Massachusetts from selling fewer menthol cigarettes alone amounted to $62 million in the first six months of the ban. No specific figures were given for electronic nicotine delivery systems in the release.
Credit: Ruben Bagues
That loss also simply transferred to Massachusetts’ neighboring states. Cigarettes excise tax stamp sales dropped 23.9 percent in Massachusetts while New Hampshire gained $28,574,340 or 29.7 percent. Rhode Island gained $12,100,000 or 18.2 percent in excise taxes.
The estimated Massachusetts loss including the sales tax is $73,008,000 while Rhode Island saw a gain of $14,066,740.
“With every month that passes, the state’s ban on flavored tobacco becomes increasingly absurd,” said Jonathan Shaer, executive director of NECSEMA. “All anyone needs to do is look at the excise tax stamp numbers from June through November to understand how ineffective and ridiculous this ban is. Rhode Island and New Hampshire have combined to sell 18.9 million more stamps than they did over the same period in 2019 while Massachusetts has sold 17.7 million fewer. Indisputably, menthol cigarettes are purchased in neighboring states and then brought back into Massachusetts for personal consumption or illicit market sales.”
NECSEMA opposed the flavored tobacco ban in 2019 when it was first presented, and continues to monitor sales data to demonstrate the failure of the law and the wrongful impact to its members. The association represents both chain and independent convenience store owners, including many in urban communities that NECSEMA states are being disproportionately affected by the flavor ban ban.
According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), there are 3,360 convenience stores in Massachusetts with 54,000-plus employees accounting for $17 billion in sales annually. Over 89 percent of legal cigarette sales occurring at convenience stores.
“I challenge anyone to demonstrate how this ban has been effective,” Shaer said. “New Hampshire and Rhode Island imports have replaced sales once made in Massachusetts by licensed retailers. In fact, the latest data shows an uptick in cigarette sales when you combine the increases for non-flavored cigarettes in Massachusetts with total cigarette sales gains in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Massachusetts small businesses have lost, the Massachusetts budget has lost, public health has lost, and youth who this law was allegedly intended to protect have lost since prevention revenue has greatly diminished.”
The Blinc Group has successfully raised a $1.5 million in bridge funding until its next round of funding, Series A. The financing of was led by Equitas Partners Fund, WGD Capital, LP, and 7thirty Capital.
Credit: Pasja1000
“The Blinc Group puts quality and safety at the forefront of its vape technology and since day one, that dedication to the highest standards has brought us the endorsement of institutional investors focused on the cannabis industry,” said Arnaud Dumas de Rauly, CEO and co-founder of the Blinc Group. “Our team navigated 2019’s vape crisis helping set standards and advise regulators on testing and compliance, and last year the company saw our best quarter yet amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the industry learned the benefits of safety and traceability. We have shown that we are a resilient company that puts consumers first, which has made all the difference.”
In 2020, Blinc Group, a regulatory-focused designer and provider of premium, customized and bespoke vaporizer technologies, more than tripled its orders with over 330 percent YOY growth, showcasing the technology company’s ability to scale and flourish in a difficult regulatory landscape, according to a press release.
Dumas de Rauly attributes much of the company’s success to the emphasis it placed on safety, compliance throughout the vape crisis of 2019 and the Coronavirus pandemic. The company has serves clients around the globe including Canadian heavyweights because of its unique ability to meet Health Canada’s rigorous standards.
Arnaud Dumas de Rauly
“We began underwriting our initial investment in Blinc near the onset of the so-called vape crisis in 2019 and it became quickly apparent that the team’s experience within the vape technology space and its focus on quality, traceability and customer service would see them through and enable them to emerge as a market leader,” said Andi Goldman, Managing Member and co-founder of the Equitas Partners Fund. “While others turned more attention towards safer vaping products after the crisis, safety had always been a major pillar of Blinc’s products and part of its DNA, which attracted us as investors and gave us confidence that they would be able to substantially expand their business into Canada and elsewhere.”
The Blinc Group has also stayed ahead of the industry in part due to its strong ties in Shenzhen, China, and employing a manufacturing line dedicated to their products, which helped eliminate hiccups in the supply chain, according to the release. The Company’s China-based team is the backbone of Blinc’s “Powered By Blinc” offering, a certified product manufactured to the highest international standards of safety and compliance with complete quality control and full traceability of the product, process, and each sub-component across the entire supply chain.
“We have watched the Blinc team over the past few years as they have grown their business and dedicated their focus to safety and traceablity within the vape hardware sector. Blinc’s reputation for putting these important factors first has secured customer wins with some of the leading cannabis operators in North America”, said Michael Mitgang, managing director and Co- Founder of the WGD Opportunity Fund.
Proceeds from this financing will go towards expanding Blinc’s sales team, opening an office in Toronto, as well as expanding the team in Shenzhen, and the research and development of new innovative materials and vape technologies.
“The vape category is one of the primary revenue drivers in every market and satisfies the demands of some of the most committed cannabis consumers. Providing high-quality products is a must for any brand looking to win and retain loyal shoppers,” said 7thirty’s director of Research, Ben Richardson “The Blinc Group’s focus on vape safety and compliance, in addition to CEO Arnaud Dumas de Rauly’s leadership roles with International and European committees on vaping products, position the Company as a leading voice in this fast-growing category.”
In 2020, The Blinc Group worked closely with Colorado’s Science & Policy Committee on the adoption of new testing standards for the emissions from vape devices. This kind of work is just one example of the dedication that the Blinc Group team puts on aligning the cannabis industry with best practices for the safest products possible.
The Blinc Group also received additional funding from the Arcview Collective Fund and the Panther Opportunity Fund.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent its first set of warnings letters to manufacturers of electronic nicotine delivery devices (ENDS) that did not submit premarket tobacco product applications (PMTA) by the Sept. 9 deadline.
On Jan. 15, the agency issued warning letters to 10 firms who manufacture and operate websites selling ENDS products, specifically e-liquids, advising them that selling these products, which lack premarket authorization, is illegal, and therefore they cannot be sold or distributed in the U.S.
Per court order, applications for premarket review for certain deemed new tobacco products on the market as of Aug. 8, 2016—including e-liquids—were required to be submitted to the FDA by Sept. 9, 2020. For companies that submitted applications by that deadline, the FDA generally intends to continue to defer enforcement for up to one year pending FDA review, unless there is a negative action taken by the FDA on the application.
The FDA plans to post a list of products for which the agency has received applications; however, before making such a list available, the FDA is verifying certain information about these products so that publication of a list complies with federal disclosure laws.
Stephen Hahn
“The premarket application process ensures that new tobacco products, including many already on the market, will undergo a robust scientific evaluation by the FDA,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn in a statement. “Scientific review of new products is a critical part of how we carry out our mission to protect the public—especially kids—from the harms associated with tobacco use. In addition to the important premarket scientific review, prioritizing enforcement against those who violate the law by selling unauthorized products is how we help protect public health.”
The 10 firms receiving warning letters are Little House Vapes; Castle Rock Vapor; Dropsmoke; Perfection Vapes; CLS Trading; Session Supply Co.; Coastal E-Liquid Laboratory/GC Vapors; Dr. Crimmy; CMM Capital LLC; and E-Cig Barn.
Mitch Zeller
“These warning letters are the result of continued surveillance and internet monitoring for violations of tobacco laws and regulations,” said Mitch Zeller, director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “We want to make clear to all tobacco product manufacturers and retailers that the FDA is keeping a close watch on the marketplace and will hold companies accountable for breaking the law.”
The FDA has requested responses from each firm within 15 working days of receiving the letter detailing how each company intends to address the agency’s concerns.
The Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA) announce the results of its recent elections. In a press release, the vapor industry organization said Robert Arnold (Saffire Vapor) will return as board treasurer. Also returning are board president and CEO April L. Meyers (Northeast Vapor Supplies), board vice president Dave Morris (Vape Gravy) and acting board secretary Lindsey Stroud (Taxpayers Protection Alliance).
New to the board this year are Taylor Cage (Trace/Verify) and Shaun Casey (FlavourArt, N.A).
“Our Board of Directors is comprised of a diverse team of leaders committed to providing strength, longevity, and stability to the vapor business community,” said Meyers. “We are excited to channel Taylor and Shaun’s skills, expertise, and energy into furthering SFATA’s mission. We are delighted they are participating at SFATA’s board level.”
Cage and Casey join SFATA as the association readies to roll-out the Trace/Verify segment of its flagship Responsible Industry Network (RIN) Program. The program’s goals are keeping its member businesses viable and flavored vapor products in the hands of adult consumers, according to the release.
Now seated, the 2021 SFATA Board will begin its work, planning strategy alongside Executive Director, Mark Anton. The board will decide on the association’s annual budget and select its officers during a two-day meeting before March.
A recently proposed ban on vaping flavors in the Netherlands will endanger public health, according to the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA).
Around 65 percent of adult vapers in Europe use fruit or sweet liquids. According to the IEVA, the variety of flavors is one of the most important reasons for smokers to switch to e-cigarettes and for vapers not to go back to smoking.
Ignoring this fact, the Dutch State Secretary Paul Blokhuis announced a ban on all e-cigarette flavours except tobacco flavors in the Netherlands, to discourage youth smoking.
“This measure risks very negative consequences for public health and tobacco harm reduction,” the IEVA wrote in a statement. “With only tobacco flavors left, vapers’ threshold to relapse on tobacco smoking dangerously lowers.”
A public consultation on the plan will run until Jan.19, 2021. The vast majority of the comments so far come from vapers and scientists who reject the government’s plan.
According to the IEVA, the Dutch plan ignores important facts:
The number of young people in the Netherlands who have ever tried e-cigarettes has decreased by a quarter in the past five years.
Only 0.2 percent of 14-16 olds in the Netherlands vaped regularly in 2019.
8 percent of all Dutch users of e-cigarettes come from smoking.
“Removing flavours will not affect the rates of youth cigarette use,” said Riccardo Polosa, professor of internal medicine and specialist of respiratory diseases and clinical immunology at the University of Catania. “But, it will certainly reduce the number of options available for those adults who seek to quit smoking for good and find flavoured e-cigs effective.”
The IEVA also expressed concern about the impact of the Dutch flavor ban on the debate at the Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is scheduled to take place in November in The Hague.
“Implementing the ban on flavorings could have negative effects on the conference,” cautioned IEVA Chairman Dustin Dahlmann. “Rather, COP9 should pay attention to the topic of harm reduction through e-cigarettes, so that the number of smokers worldwide could be significantly reduced”
“Flavour is not a gateway to youth uptake of smoking. No evidence substantiates the association between vaping flavours and subsequent smoking initiation. We call on the Dutch government to drop this plan. There are no winners in a flavor ban, only losers.”
A former employee of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World claims she was fired for raising concerns about the organization’s ties to the tobacco industry, reports Bloomberg Law.
Lourdes Liz, who worked at the Foundation as social media director from February 2018 until February 2020, says she was terminated after objecting to activities “designed to increase the profits of and to do the bidding of Philip Morris International and Altria Group.”
Liz maintains that the group’s close ties to the tobacco industry violate its status as an independent nonprofit organization.
The Foundation, which has received millions of dollars in funding from PMI, has met fierce opposition from health groups. Shortly after its creation in 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it would not interact with it, citing a fundamental conflict of interest between the tobacco industry and public health.
The Foundation is led by Derek Yach, an anti-smoking crusader who, while working at the WHO, was the primary architect of that agency’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
A new year and new resolutions. In 2021, many Americans will attempt to lose the weight gained after weeks – and months – of stay-at-home orders. Some may have been inclined to reduce their Zoom time, but for many smokers the beginning of a new year marks a resolution to quit smoking.
Credit: Marko Tomic
This particular resolution is difficult. A 2016 study from the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) reported that “quitting smoking is the most difficult resolution to keep,” and that among Brits who reported making a resolution to quit smoking, “41% kept this for a month, [and] 13% [stuck] with it after a year.” A study from the University of Scranton found “only 8 percent of people who make resolutions [to quit smoking] meet their goal.”
Regardless if one is choosing to quit smoking as a New Year’s resolution, giving up cigarettes is difficult any time of the year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less “than one in 10 adult cigarette smokers succeed in quitting each year,” and in 2018, only 7.5 percent of smokers had successfully quit smoking.
There are many options for smokers to use to help aid their smoke-free journey, including traditional nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) like gum and patches, medication, and switching to electronic cigarettes and vapor products. In the aforementioned RSPH report, the agency noted vapor products “are becoming increasingly popular, and RSPH [recognizes] the growing body of evidence that for many they can be an effective smoking cessation tool.”
A landmark October 2020 review published in the Cochrane Library Database of Systematic Reviews examined 50 completed studies on e-cigarette use, which represented more than 12,400 e-cigarette users. The authors found that there was “moderate-certainty evidence, limited by imprecision, that quit rates were higher in people randomized to nicotine [e-cigarettes] than in those randomized to nicotine replacement therapy.” Indeed, the authors found that of “every 100 people using nicotine e-cigarettes to stop smoking, 10 might successfully stop, compared with only six of 100 people” using NRT or “nicotine-free e-cigarettes.”
Despite the science presented, many lawmakers are disregarding the evidence and seeking to limit and/or prohibit adult access to vapor products. Currently, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island have banned the sale of flavored vapor products. Massachusetts has a current ban on both flavored combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and California’s own flavored tobacco and vapor ban is currently delayed as officials verify signatures for a referendum that would create a ballot measure to repeal the flavor ban in 2022.
Worse, politicians have used the novel coronavirus to push through legislation that bans the United States Postal Service (USPS) from delivering vapor products. Literally “buried” in the thousands of pages in the December COVID-19 relief package is the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” which orders the USPS to “promulgate regulations” to apply the Jenkins Act – which currently forbids the shipment of cigarettes by the USPS – to vapor products. The legislation also imposes greater tax reporting requirements on business sales of vapor products that are shipped by the USPS.
Although addressing youth use of e-cigarettes is laudable, essentially preventing online sales of vapor products will harm consumers of those products as retailers are forced to rely on an even limited number of delivery services to ship their products. FedEx recently announced that beginning on March 1, 2021 the delivery service “will begin prohibiting electronic cigarettes, vaping liquids, and other vaping products in the FedEx global network.”
New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t be broken because of government regulations. Former smokers should not be fearful of a possible return to cigarettes because policymakers are preventing access to tobacco harm reduction products. Perhaps the only good thing is that this year, unlike other New Year’s resolutions, smokers can blame the government on their broken resolution to quit smoking.
The views expressed in the above opinion are those of the authors’ and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Vapor Voice or its parent organization.
Lindsey Stroud is the creator and manager of Tobacco Harm Reduction 101 (www.thr101.org), a website that provides analysis and insight on tobacco and vapor products. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
The Missoula County Commissioners in Montana has provisionally voted to expand the city’s vape ban five miles beyond city limits in what commissioner’s say is an effort to reduce youth access to vape products.
Credit: Antonin Fels
The ordinance restricts self-service display of all vaping and tobacco products and prohibits the sale of flavored e-liquids and other tobacco products, according to an article on khq.com. The approval is provisional, meaning it will be discussed again on Jan. 28 before there is a final vote of approval.
Public comment is available online, via mail or at the county commissioners meeting on Jan. 28.
In late November, the City of Missoula, Montana banned flavored vaping products and not flavored combustible tobacco products. Now, Missoula County is considering using its extraterritorial powers to extend the city’s ban on the sale of flavored vapes and their display five miles outside city limits next week.
New Year resolutions always include commitments to quit smoking. Most people fail not for want of trying but for want of options that can help them. Our interventions to date are not good enough. Will the World Health Organization’s (WHO) campaign to help 100 million people quit tobacco (WHO News Release Dec 8, 2020) make a difference? Is the WHO willing to embrace new methods and emerging scientific data to course correct and in the process save millions of lives?
Credit: Martin Budenbender
The WHO depends upon “new contributions from partners” to help smokers quit (WHO News Release Dec 8, 2020), Derek Yach and Chitra Subramaniam write in an opinion for Business Insider. They are as diverse as Amazon Web Services, Facebook, and Google. These digital giants are not known for their solutions to help people quit. Worse, WHO has turned to Allen Carr’s Easyway that has published studies of dubious quality and has a strong opposition to the use of nicotine even in nicotine replacement therapy (NRT Allen Carr, BMJ 2006).
Unfortunately, most of the countries listed as priorities for this campaign have yet to include NRTs in their national drug formularies despite WHO having included it in the Essential Drug list way back (Application for Inclusion of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, WHO, 2009).
WHO should conduct an independent review of the evidence of each partners’ interventions in the very diverse set of countries where they will be tested. Such a review is a basic requirement for making global recommendations. It must be as rigorous and science-based as the processes that were put into action to approve COVID 19 vaccines. (WHO News Release Dec 31, 2020)
Florence, WHO’s robotic digital health worker was launched with this campaign to help smokers quit. Dr. Yach tried it (see Speak to Florence) but found Florence true to its name – robotic and unable to answer simple questions and clearly out of depth when asked real world questions outside of the algorithm. A gimmick of this nature is disrespectful as it mocks those seeking to quit.
It seems that WHO is far more interested in ending the use of tobacco harm reduction products than in saving lives.
The latest Global State of Tobacco Harm reduction (GSTHR) report (GSTHR, Burning Issues 2020) indicates that almost 100 million people are now using a range of such products with most completely off combustible cigarettes and toxic smokeless tobacco products. This report provides convincing evidence that harm reduction products, including snus, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, are more effective means of quitting than the use of NRTs, and substantially lower exposure to harmful products of combustion seen in cigarettes and bidis.
In contrast, WHO’s latest report from their expert committee on Tobacco Product Regulation, released December 23rd, recommends banning and prohibiting e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. This echoes a call by the Union, a Bloomberg Philanthropy financed NGO, to all low and middle income countries (LMICs) to ban such products to “avoid being distracted” by them (WHO Expert Committee Meeting Report, Dec 23, 2020).
Distraction from what one may ask?
This “expert” report did not address snus. That may be because WHO accepts the EC ban as being the basis for its policies despite the recent USFDA decision that led to it being the first class of tobacco harm reductions products to pass its rigorous evaluation process (FDA News Release, Jul 2020).
Before the FCTC negotiations began 20 years ago under Dr. Yach’s leadership of the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) WHO invited tobacco industry scientists to present to the fledgling Tobacco Products Regulation Expert Committee on their progress in developing safer tobacco products. The presentations were not useable then for any specific harm reduction recommendations to be made. The hope remained that in time scientific progress would follow. For that reason – and in good faith – harm reduction found its way into the very definition of tobacco control used in the FCTC (WHO FCTC 2004).
Decades have passed and tobacco consumption continues to kill people mainly in LMICs. Science and innovation have permeated every sector of society. Dirty legacy industries are now leaders in driving sustainable development. This is underway in the oil and gas, transport, mining and food sectors. And as the GSTHR and our Tobacco Transformation Index (https://tobaccotransformationindex.org/) bears out, such transformation is underway in the tobacco sector as well. This transformation should be embraced by the WHO not shunned.
Instead of looking into the future and enabling global leadership, the United Nation’s (UN) top health agency is digging into its past with a ferocity that is difficult to comprehend. Ignoring decisions by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Cochrane Collaborating Centers and other regulatory and science oversight groups indicating the power of THR to increase quit rates more effectively than NRTs for example, or the potential to sharply reduce risks associated with combustible cigarettes or toxic smokeless products.
One hopes that as 2021 unfolds, WHO will take a fresh look at the power of THR to accelerate an end to smoking. A good way to start would be to summon the leading scientists from tobacco and e-cigarette companies to present to the WHO Tobacco Product Regulations Expert Committee in a series of open sessions. The aim could be simple: to assess whether industry has made material progress in developing products able to end smoking in order to truly judge whether the unilateral bans and prohibitions are warranted.
From what we know, the answer is yes. WHO’s unambitious aim of helping 100 million of the 1.1 billion tobacco users quit could be revised upwards dramatically if they were to open up to rapid progress underway in the very companies we rightfully condemned 20 years ago.
Knowledge that ignores science cannot help public health. We are seeing it with the COVID 19 crisis. We are seeing it differently in tobacco control. Time is not on our side.
The views expressed in the above opinion are those of the authors’ and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Vapor Voice or its parent organization.
Derek Yach is president of the Smoke Free Foundation, USA. He has spent four decades advancing global public health especially chronic diseases. He was a key architect of the WHO’s FCTC.
Chitra Subramaniam is the founder of CSD consulting Switzerland. A journalist by training and a media entrepreneur she writes on public health, development and trade
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport working in conjunction with agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have seized 33,681 units of e-cigarettes with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $719,453.
Credit: SFGate
In December 2020, CBP seized 42 separate shipments arriving from China destined to various Texas counties. The shipments included individual disposable flavored e-cigarette cartridges resembling the Puff Bar brand, including Puff XXL and Puff Flow.
As part of an ongoing joint operation with FDA, officers and agents were looking to intercept counterfeit or other violative e-cigarettes, including certain flavored e-cigarettes imported to the U.S. that did not meet the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requirements, as amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
“Many counterfeit, unapproved or unauthorized products are likely produced in unregulated facilities with unverified ingredients posing a serious health concern to consumers. It is especially alarming when these types of counterfeit and unauthorized products find their way into the hands of children as studies indicate,” said CBP Port Director Timothy Lemaux in a statement. “We will continue to take every opportunity to work with our partners at the FDA to intercept and seize products that threaten U.S. consumers.”
Tobacco products including e-cigarettes imported or offered for import into the U.S. must comply with all applicable U.S. laws.
“The FDA continues to prioritize enforcement against e-cigarette products, specifically those most appealing and accessible to youth,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “We are very concerned about how popular these products are with youth. This seizure makes clear to tobacco product manufacturers, retailers and importers that the FDA is keeping a close watch on the marketplace and will hold accountable those companies that violate tobacco laws and regulations.”
CBP’s trade enforcement mission places a significant emphasis on intercepting illicit products that could harm American consumers. In fiscal year 2020, CBP seized 93,590 units of e-cigarettes that did not meet U.S. federal regulations.
In July 2020, the FDA issued a warning letter to Cool Clouds Distribution (doing business as Puff Bar), to remove their flavored disposable e-cigarettes and youth-appealing e-liquid products from the market because they do not have the required premarket authorization.
“Protecting American consumers from illicit and especially harmful tobacco products, such as counterfeit or flavored e-cigarettes, is of utmost importance to the FDA,” said Judy McMeekin, FDA associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “We will continue to investigate and remove from the marketplace products that pose a particular danger to the public health.”
While the Puff Bar website appears to have recently stopped online sales and distribution in the U.S, it does not mean that the firm ceased distributing products to other retailers or selling products at brick and mortar retail stores, according to the FDA. The website’s store locators are still active, indicating that potential consumers can still search for products located for sale at retail stores.
