Iowa City Council is working to change some of the rules regarding the amount of tobacco and vape stores in town.
In a work session on Tuesday, councilmembers discussed a 55 permit limit in the city (down from 62), a 500 ft. barrier from tobacco shops being near school or university property, and the ban of the sale of kratom, an herbal substance the gives stimulus effects, according to media reports.
This is in addition to the moratorium on new tobacco permits that’s in place until December.
Up in Smoke is among the tobacco and vape shops that sell kratom. While the owner is happy there won’t be as much competition in town, he said it is concerning that the city is looking to ban kratom, as the shop is already dealing with the aftermath of the new state law limiting THC in products.
A federal judge has given hope to 10 companies looking to block the enforcement of a new Iowa law, which they argue unfairly prevents them from selling products containing hemp-derived THC.
During a hearing about their request for an injunction against the law, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose stated that their argument that the law is unconstitutional is unlikely to succeed. However, she acknowledged that there may be merit to their claim that the state is applying the law in a discriminatory manner.
The Hemp Amendments, a law passed by the Iowa Legislature during this year’s session, became effective on July 1. Under this law, the sale of hemp products to individuals under the age of 21 is prohibited. It also mandates compliance with new regulations that restrict the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) allowed in a serving and requires specific labeling, according to media sources.
Rose already turned down an injunction request by two of them: Field Day, a Johnson County maker of THC sparkling water, and Climbing Kites, a Des Moines-based joint venture of the Lua and Big Grove breweries, maker of a THC-containing seltzer. She rejected their argument that the law was unconstitutional because it failed to define a serving size but said at the time that she had “serious concerns” about how the law would be enforced.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller in the U.S. announced that Juul Labs Inc. will update its advertising and retail practices, and pay $5 million over a four-year period in order to resolve potential violations of Iowa law.
Miller alleged that the e-cigarette manufacturer exposed Iowans under the age of 21 to its nicotine delivery system which would be a violation of Iowa’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
“This agreement strikes a balance in truthful advertising and promotions of Juul devices and pods,” Miller said. “E-cigarettes should be promoted to smokers as a less harmful alternative, but not to youth,” according to KCRG.
As part of the agreement, Juul Labs will send $1.25 million each year to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The funding will then be used to:
provide Iowans with assistance in quitting e-cigarette use
fund education or prevention programs
establish research in support of preventing ENDS use
facilitate the adoption of age-verification technologies
enforce related programs in support of Iowa and federal laws.
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it was delaying premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) decisions, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says he become concerned about the impact the regulatory agency’s actions. What worried him was the unintended consequences of pulling from the market less harmful alternatives to combustible cigarettes.
Iowa AG Tom Miller
“We believe the best information available indicates that most youths are not getting e-cigarettes from vape shops and that a significant number of adults are using products from vape shops to move away from combustible cigarettes. Let’s not forget the overwhelming risk to public health: The CDC estimates the burden of tobacco use in the United States is 480,000 lives a year, all of which is due to the use of cigarettes,” Miller wrote in a statement. “We believe in the strong, science-based regulation of alternative tobacco products, and the FDA is the best agency to undertake that task. Policy makers must strike the right balance between making accessible potentially lifesaving lower-risk nicotine products while discouraging use by those who wouldn’t smoke, especially youth.”
On Sept. 9, the FDA finally made its announcement on the fate of millions of PMTAs. However, only small businesses that submitted PMTAs for flavored products got any answers. The FDA issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) to more than 130 companies requiring them to pull an estimated 946,000 products from the market. There were no updates provided on several high-profile submissions, such as those submitted by Juul Labs, BAT and Japan Tobacco International. The agency also offered no response to any submitted open-system hardware products or tobacco-flavored e-liquids.
The following day, the agency increased that number to 168 companies that were issued MDOs for an estimated 992,000 products. According to a press release, the regulatory agency released a revised listing of MDOs that includes 125 company names but not any specific products that were denied.
“We continue to work expeditiously on the remaining applications that were submitted by the court’s Sept. 9, 2020, deadline, many of which are in the final stages of review,” the agency wrote in its announcement. “For premarket tobacco product applications, our responsibility is to assess whether applicants meet the applicable statutory standard for marketing their new products. As we have said before, the burden is on the applicant to provide evidence to demonstrate that permitting the marketing of their product meets the applicable statutory standard.”
The governor of Iowa has signed a bill into law that raises the legal age to purchase vaping and other tobacco products to 21. The bill was passed by the Iowa Senate in March, but due to Covid-19, the Iowa House was delayed from taking up the bill until June.
“This law brings Iowa into alignment with the federal Tobacco 21 bill, which was signed into law in December 2019,” said Iowa Department of Public Health Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Division Director Jerilyn Oshel, in a story with wowt.com.
The release states that there are no exemptions or grandfather clauses to the Iowa or federal law. Under the law, it is illegal to supply or sell covered tobacco products to someone under the age of 21. It is also illegal for someone under the age of 21 to attempt to purchase or purchases the products.
