Authorities in Ector County, Texas started selling e-cigarettes to inmates at their Law Enforcement Center started on May 8th. Jail Captain James Mckinney started with 2,000 vapes. One costs about $14.
“Regular, menthol, peach, ice peach and then berry. I ordered 400 of each and we were sold out last week,” said Mckinney.
They were so popular, Mckinney just ordered 4,000 more, according to CBS7.
In total they’ve made $19,476.50, profiting $11,776.50 on the e-cigarettes in just one month.
“If you’re making money off the inmates it has to go back to benefit the inmates, whether it be the mattresses I buy for them, the clothes, sheets, anything that benefits them, basketballs,” said Mckinney.
They’ve only had about 10 inmates alter the products out of the hundreds currently at the jail.
“If they tamper with them we’ll take them away for 14 days, if they tamper again with them, we’ll take them away for 21 days, if they tamper a third time then we’ll take them away until we say they can get another one,” said Mckinney.
Many countries continue to limit access or have outright banned vaping and e-cigarette products.
By Norm Bour
As much as we would like to think that vaping and the sale of vape products is universally accepted, that is not the case. The world has changed a lot over the past 10 years, and the medical community’s support has carried some weight, but old customs and rituals die hard. Here is an overview of where the status of vape remains iffy.
Turkey
You can use vape products where tobacco is permitted, but the Turkish government is vehemently anti-vape—regardless of the medical documentation that shows the advantages of vaping over combustible cigarettes. Since 2009, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led the campaign against all tobacco products, including cigarettes, regardless of their popularity.
Turkey banned the import of e-cigarettes and related products on Feb. 25, 2020. The ban covers e-cigarettes, accessories, spare parts and solutions (e-liquids) as well as e-cigarette products that use heating or incineration, like electronic hookahs. The country had already banned the sale of electronic cigarettes.
Erdogan’s aggressive posture has resulted in the seizure of almost 18 million packs of cigarettes in 2020 and 140,000 e-cigarettes. The government offers a hotline for people to call and blow the whistle on illegal products, and 1,500 teams scour the country doing random inspections. For vapers, the online channel remains open, and there are many foreigners who vape in the street without concern.
India
With a population of 1.38 billion, India has banned vaping products since 2019. With an estimated 120 million people lighting up, India has the dubious honor of having 12 percent of the world’s cigarette smokers. The country loses about 1 million people per year to tobacco-related illnesses.
India’s aggressive anti-smoking posture has proven successful as the number of smokers has dropped significantly over the past 20 years. In 2000, it was estimated that one-third of the male population smoked, with 5.7 percent of the female population smoking. A decade later, those numbers had dropped to 23 percent for men and 2.5 percent for women. Currently, an estimated 14 percent of the country’s population smokes.
With a 28 percent luxury tax on tobacco, there are huge incentives to quitting smoking in India. The bad news is that vaping products are lumped into the tobacco pile, but evidence for the relative safety of e-cigarettes is gaining ground. The anti-vape campaign was geared toward the young smokers, but there may be light at the end of this tunnel.
Under the guise of preventing potential health risks to the country’s youth, India banned the “import, manufacture, sale, advertisement, storage and distribution” of e-cigarettes in September 2019. However, according to Research and Markets, the Indian e-cigarette market reached a value of $7.8 million in 2018, and it is further predicted to witness a CAGR of 26.4 percent during the forecast period (2019-2024) even with the ban in place.
There is very little regulatory enforcement for vaping products in India. Vaping products are even being displayed on some store shelves. A few of the biggest paanwalas in the cosmopolitan cities reportedly sell Juul and other high-end hardware. It’s not plainly obvious everywhere, and the specialist “vape only” vendors are all clandestine, according to several sources. Most of the specialists are discerning and do not entertain new customers without a reference from a known customer.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia has been a teeter-totter in terms of vapor regulations. In October of 2021, it declared all nicotine products illegal without a doctor’s prescription. The prescription is intended only for the patient and may not be shared or sold. The sole light at the end of this this tunnel is that nicotine- free products are excluded from this heavy-handed ban.
Devices and liquids can be sold in all eight territories, though advertising and promotion is legal in some but illegal in others. Spotty monitoring and enforcement have resulted in a lively online trade in vapor products.
Compared to many countries, the perceived “problems” of youth smoking are modest with percentages of vapers and smokers under 20 percent among different age groups. According to 2021 research from the Australian National University, about 16 percent of current e-cigarette users in Australia are non-smokers who have never inhaled tobacco, while the remaining third are ex-smokers. There are about 400,000 e-cigarette users in Australia.
While often lumped in with Australia by outsiders, New Zealand has followed its own, more reasonable, path in vapor regulation. The small island country of just 5 million people estimates that 11.6 percent of its population smokes. Its priority is on reducing underage vaping and smoking.
The Middle East
Excluding the North African countries sometimes included in the Middle East, this part of the world is home to almost 0.5 billion people and encompasses about 20 percent of the Muslim world. While Islam frowns on tobacco use, many Muslim countries have high smoking rates. While tobacco use has been grudgingly tolerated, vaping was initially disdained, with some countries banning the practice. That is changing, as was evidenced in September 2021 when the World Vape Show was held in Dubai, which has now legalized vaping.
Tim Phillips, managing director of ECigIntelligence, says the United Arab Emirates is leading the Middle East in vape product sales and access, but considering it started from scratch, the numbers are still small. As tobacco-oriented as this part of the world is, buyers prefer flavored liquids with three out of four sales being sweeter fruit flavors followed by menthol flavors.
Across the Middle East, the rules are in constant flux. Currently, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain offer legalized vape, but Qatar and Oman do not. Market intelligence company Mordor Intelligence projects a growth rate of almost 10 percent through 2025 in the regional vapor market.
In late 2020, a Euromonitor International study found only a very small minority of smokers used e-cigarettes to quit smoking in the Middle East region. Analysts found just 1.8 percent of smokers in the region took up alternatives to conventional cigarettes in 2020. The figure is up from 1.4 percent in 2017 but it remains significantly low when compared to other parts of the world.
South America/Latin America
On the other side of the globe, South America’s 433 million people also face an ever-changing landscape of vaping laws. The largest country, Brazil, allows vaping, with some restrictions in enclosed areas. Sales are highly regulated by the Health Surveillance Agency, which closely monitors underage sales, though enforcement of sales and production is weak.
No. 2 by population, Argentina has banned vaping for a decade and shows no sign of changing its policy. The ban extends to nicotine-free products, and there are virtually no sales, production or importation of e-cigarettes. Ironically, Argentina reportedly accounts for as much as 15 percent of total tobacco consumption in South America.
Contrary to some of its neighbors, Peru has been open-minded about vaping—to the point where the government appears to turn a blind eye to the practice. With an estimated 2.3 million smokers—just under 10 percent of the population—Peru has no official numbers on the vapers and vape products. It seems the country has higher priorities and has decided to leave vapers alone.
According to Mordor Intelligence, as enforcement of e-cigarette laws are often open to local authorities, vape shops are often found in places where they are technically illegal in the region. In the entire region only five countries allow the legal sale of e-cigarettes: Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay, and Costa Rica.
Following the recent enactment of smoke-free laws in Paraguay, every South American country has now banned vaping and smoking in most public places. Under Decree No. 4624, approved by Paraguay’s presidency on Dec. 29, consuming lit, heated, or electronic tobacco products is permitted only in uncrowded open air public spaces that are not transit areas for nonsmokers.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com
Smokers’ rights campaigners have rejected a claim that smokers cost society £17 billion ($23.3 billion) a year in the U.K.—£5 billion more than previously estimated.
On Jan. 14, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) published an economic analysis of U.K. data suggesting that the cost of smoking is significantly higher than previous estimates have shown.
The higher estimate is a result of a new assessment of the impact of smoking on productivity. According to ASH, smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to become ill while of working age, increasing the likelihood being out of work and reducing the average wages of smokers. Smokers are also more likely to die while they are still of working age, creating a further loss to the economy.
The report also cites smoking-related fires as a major cost to society, in the form of fire-related deaths, injuries and property damage.
“The suggestion that smokers are a significant economic burden on society is absurd,” countered Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest.
“More than 80 percent of the cost of tobacco in the UK is tax and the revenue from the sale of legal tobacco is almost £10 billion a year. That’s a fact.
“In contrast, the contrived claim that smoking costs society £17 billion is based on nothing more than estimates and calculations.
“As well as making a huge contribution to the public purse, smokers make a significant contribution to the local economy because without the money they spend on tobacco many village shops and convenience stores would lose a regular source of income.
“The health risks of smoking are well known. If adults choose to smoke that’s a matter for them not government. Ministers must remember that and not be swayed by exaggerated claims about the cost of smoking to society.”
The Truth Initiative has revealed a new anti-vaping campaign titled “It’s Messing with Our Heads.”
The group says its campaign exposes “nicotine’s role as a contributor to the worsening youth mental health crisis and the tobacco industry’s ongoing attempts to distort public perception about the health effects of vaping products.”
As part of the campaign, the makers created a fake vape company called Depression Stick! to raise awareness of the fact that nicotine can worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression and underscore the mental health impact of real e-cigarette products.
According to the Truth Initiative, the Depression Stick! campaign follows the playbook of its e-cigarette competitors “complete with kid-friendly flavors, aiming to reach and engage young people through influencer unboxings.”
“Vaping has become so normalized in pop culture and many young people don’t even see it as an issue,” explained Mo Said, founder and chief creative officer of Mojo Supermarket, the independent agency that created the effort, in a statement.
“With everything happening in the world young people’s number one concern is their mental health. We believe that if we could show the connection between vaping nicotine and anxiety and depression, they’d never look at a vape the same way again.”
According to the U.K. Vape Industry Association (UKVIA), leaked EU plans for a “Tobacco Free Generation” would increase controls on e-cigarettes, despite their proven value in smoking cessation efforts.
This latest EU plan could include the following proposals:
Extend taxation to “novel tobacco products,” including e-cigarettes
Extend the coverage of smoking bans, both indoor and outdoor, to vaping
A full ban on flavored products
The enforcement on plain packaging for vaping products
John Dunne
“We at the UKVIA are seriously concerned by reports that the European Commission is considering such regressive action, which will likely reduce the positive impact that vaping has on people’s lives,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA.
“While we completely support efforts to combat the scourge of cancer in our society, the creation of artificial barriers to harm-reduction products is clearly counterproductive. Adult smokers must be empowered to make positive change, rather than being discouraged.
“Cancer Research UK, along with the Royal College of GPs, have confirmed vaping’s significant harm-reduction compared to cigarettes, as well as its efficacy in smoking cessation. The EU’s plans are out of step with this latest evidence.
“It is vital that the U.K. now take advantage of the legislative and regulatory independence afforded by Brexit, to safeguard this country’s proportionate, evidence-based approach to vaping.”
The document was leaked ahead of the announcement today of the EU’s “Beating Cancer Plan,” which among other things calls for reducing tobacco use to less than 5 percent of the EU population by 2040.
Following the recent enactment of smoke-free laws in Paraguay, every South American country has now banned vaping and smoking in most public places.
Under Decree No. 4624, approved by Paraguay’s presidency on Dec. 29, consuming lit, heated, or electronic tobacco products is permitted only in uncrowded open air public spaces that are not transit areas for nonsmokers.
“This is a great achievement for the people of Paraguay,” said Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, in a statement. “The country has taken an enormous step toward protecting its citizens from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke.”
Credit: Ye Jinghan
Following Paraguay’s recent ban on public smoking, all South American countries have comprehensive smoke-free laws.
“This is a great moment not only for the health of Paraguayans, but for the entire region of South America,” said Adriana Blanco, head of World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat. “Paraguay’s decree creates a subregion of the Americas that is totally free of tobacco smoke.”
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, some 430 million people are now protected by laws requiring smoke-free public places and workplaces. These laws also ban designated vaping or smoking areas.
This progress is the result of years of commitment and action from political leaders and civil society groups in South America working to fulfill their obligations under the FCTC.
When the FCTC came into force more than 15 years ago, only one country in South America, Uruguay, provided its citizens with broad protection against secondhand smoke and vapor.
In the form of mass-marketed consumer products, e-cigarettes do not help smokers quit cigarettes, according to a new study published Dec. 22, 2020, in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from the University of California San Francisco.
The authors examined both observational studies, which question people “in the wild” without specific guidance to quit, and clinical trials, in which smokers trying to quit were given free cigarettes under medical supervision.
While e-cigarettes led to more quitting than some other therapies in clinical trial settings, the authors noted no such effect in observational studies.
Richard Wang
“It’s important to recognize that in clinical trials, when certain e-cigarette devices are treated more like medicine, there may actually be an effect on quitting smoking,” said study leader Richard Wang.
“But that needs to be balanced against the risks of using these devices. Also, only seven e-cigarette devices were studied in the clinical trials. Whether the effect observed with these seven devices is the same or different than that of the thousands of different e-cigarette products available for sale is unknown.”
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act charges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with allowing e-cigarettes on the market only when manufacturers can prove their tobacco-based products are “appropriate for the protection of public health.” The FDA is currently evaluating thousands of applications to sell e-cigarettes.
“If e-cigarette consumer product use is not associated with more smoking cessation, there is no population-level health benefit for allowing them to be marketed to adults who smoke, regardless of the relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with conventional cigarettes,” said Wang.
“Moreover, to the extent that people who smoke simply add e-cigarettes to their cigarette smoking—becoming so-called dual users—their risk of heart disease, lung disease, and cancer could increase compared with smoking alone.”
Excluding the North African countries sometimes included in the Middle East, this part of the world is home to almost 0.5 billion people and encompasses about 20 percent of the Muslim world. While Islam frowns on tobacco use, many Muslim countries have high smoking rates. While tobacco use has been grudgingly tolerated, vaping was initially disdained, with some countries banning the practice. That is changing, as was evidenced in September 2021 when the World Vape Show was held in Dubai, which has now legalized vaping.
On the other side of the globe, South America’s 433 million people also face an ever-changing landscape of vaping laws. The largest country, Brazil, allows vaping, with some restrictions in enclosed areas. Sales are highly regulated by the Health Surveillance Agency, which closely monitors underage sales, though enforcement of sales and production is weak.
