White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes, a stalwart in the vaping industry, will end all online sales for U.S. customers on March 26 at 4pm. In a post on its Facebook page, the vapor company stated that it will continue to fill international orders (the vape mail ban is for U.S. customers) and will post a list of retail stores that will still carry White Cloud products.
“This was not a decision we wanted to make, especially after putting so much effort into submitting our PMTAs to the FDA and ensuring our products never reached the hands of minors. But, after spending the last couple of months searching for a solution to the vape mail ban, we’ve reached the end of all possible options and there is simply nothing we can do to continue shipping domestically,” the post states. “We will be fulfilling all U.S. orders until March 26, and inventory is running out rather quickly, so we urge you to place an order as soon as possible to ensure you’ll have a chance to stock up on your favorite White Cloud products for the last time.”
The company asks that vapor industry advocates send a message to Congress, as well as support the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA), an advocacy group to raise awareness and protect consumers right to access reduced harm alternatives. CASAA has organized a campaign to fight the U.S. mail ban.
“CASAA has been made aware that some lawmakers are refusing to acknowledge the validity of organized consumer campaigns, and are insisting their constituents contact them directly via their website,” a recent CASAA statement says. “Therefore, CASAA is recommending that you also copy and paste your comments from our form below to the contact form on your lawmaker’s website. You can find their website by using our Legislator Lookup tool.”
Amid the economic devastation caused by Covid-19, one industry has actually thrived: the cigarette business. Some people are smoking to relieve the emotional and economic stress of lockdowns. But many others returned to smoking when the lower-risk options they relied on, such as nicotine vapor products, became too expensive or hard to find when compared with the combustible tobacco available at every gas station and corner store.
Now, Congress wants to eliminate the ability for adults to receive e-cigarettes by mail, a measure that will reduce access to these life-saving options even after the lockdowns end, Minton writes in National Review.
Buried within the omnibus spending bill passed at the end of last year was the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act.” The Act, colloquially called the “vape mail ban,” prohibits the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from delivering nicotine or cannabis vaping products.
One might think that e-cigarette makers could simply switch to private carriers, such as FedEx or UPS. But these private carriers don’t deliver to all addresses, particularly in rural areas. Private carriers actually rely on USPS to make “last mile” deliveries. Even if private carriers did deliver everywhere in the U.S., most — including FedEx, UPS, and DHL — have yielded to the anti-vaping mob, voluntarily ending e-cigarette deliveries.
For any carrier hoping to fill the gap, the new law also imposes strict requirements on records-keeping, tax collection, and reporting. These requirements will significantly raise the cost of e-cigarette deliveries, which will be passed on to consumers. And that added expense, even if relatively small, will be enough to discourage many adults — particularly those in lower-income brackets — from continuing to use e-cigarettes.
Supporters of the law seem to think that if they force adults to quit vaping, they will simply quit using nicotine altogether. They’re dead wrong.
Study after study has shown that policies that make e-cigarettes more expensive can reduce e-cigarette use. But they also increase smoking. The same is true for convenience: The harder it is for smokers to access e-cigarettes, the less willing and able they’ll be to choose e-cigarettes over combustible cigarettes, which are available almost everywhere.
Perhaps some think that more adult smoking is a small price to pay to protect children. More adults smoking is, in their mind, a small price to pay to stop the small percentage of minors willing to break the law to get their hands on e-cigarettes.
MIchelle Minton / Credit: Competitive Enterprise Institute
As the name of the law implies, the purpose of the Preventing Online Sales of E-cigarettes to Children Act is to stop those under 21 years old from illegally purchasing nicotine products online. But if that were really the goal, there are less-extreme approaches, such as requiring an ID check on delivery, a service offered by all major delivery services (and USPS) and that has proved sufficient for alcohol deliveries.
But that’s not the purpose of the law. The real goal is to hurt the legal vaping industry, which the vape mail ban will almost certainly do. It will also be a boon to the illegal vaping market, as well as the traditional cigarette business. What it won’t do is stop youth from buying e-cigarettes. Ironically, it may only make it easier, as less respectable businesses step up to fill the gap in the market that the law is creating.
Most of us would prefer to buy the things we want from licensed, reputable businesses, especially given the dangers associated with illicit goods. But, if regulation prohibits those things or makes them too expensive, it rapidly opens the door for illegal markets. The more unmet demand there is, the larger the illegal market. For example, New York City’s high cigarette taxes led to a vibrant underground market for cheap cigarettes.
The bootleg cigarette business became so widespread, in fact, that by 2013 more than 60 percent of all cigarettes sold in the state were illegal. The continued prohibition on recreational cannabis in some states and high taxes in states where it is legal also explain the continued existence of an illicit THC market, which in 2019 caused thousands of people to be hospitalized and several deaths due to contaminated products.
The illegal market for nicotine vapor is small at the moment, because there remains a relatively vibrant, legal market for adults. But it will grow if lawmakers continue their irrational push to make e-cigarettes as expensive and hard-to-get as possible. And the larger it grows, the easier it will be for youth to buy these products online. That is because, in addition to ignoring shipping laws and skirting taxes, dealers on Snapchat and Facebook aren’t likely to verify the age of their customers.
So, by banning vape mail, Congress is not only kicking legal vapor businesses when they are down, forcing adults back to smoking tobacco, and forfeiting much-needed tax revenue; it is also making youth vaping more likely and more dangerous by encouraging an illicit vapor market and forcing consumers into it.
Michelle Minton is a senior fellow specializing in consumer policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. The author’s opinion may not be the same as Vapor Voice staff.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice committed to phasing out the states income tax in his 2021 State of the State Address. His proposal, submitted days ago to the state legislature for review, includes a hike in the states e-cigarette tax from 7.5 cents per millimeter of e-liquid to 75 cents per milliliter.
Credit: Pasja1000
Under the proposal, a 100 milliliter bottle would carry a tax of $75, a 1000 percent increase. The bill also increases the tax on combustible cigarettes by 80 cents per pack, bringing the total to $2 per 20 cigarettes.
At 75 cents per ml, a standard 30ml bottle of e-liquid would carry a $22.50 tax, which is 12.5 percent higher than the proposed tax burden on a full carton of cigarettes (200 cigarettes) if taxed at $2 per pack.
In a story for Filtermag.com, many West Virginia vapers, vape shop owners, and tobacco harm reduction advocates—is that many will return to smoking or resort to a dangerous black market to save money.
“We won’t be able to stay in business,” said Cheryl Lockhart, the owner of Hazy Hollow Vapors in South Charleston, West Virginia. “Nobody is going to pay for that.” The tax on the bottle would be more than the cost of the bottle itself, and most of what Lockhart sells—she ballparked up to 90 percent—are 100 milliliter bottles of e-juice. “I don’t see any path around it,” she told Filter. “It’s just one more thing.”
Another concern is that West Virginia vapers may turn to neighboring states such as Kentucky and Ohio to make e-liquid purchases and denying the state any tax dollars from vapor products. This is what happened when Massachusetts increased its vapor tax.
“No other state has a one-size-fits all volume tax higher than 10 cents per milliliter, yet Governor Justice and his team concluded that 75 cents per milliliter is rational,” said Gregory Conley, the president of the American Vaping Association. “While they may see this tax hike as a ‘small’ part of their overall plan, this is going to anger a whole lot of voters and cause them to believe their elected officials would prefer they keep smoking cigarettes.”
Lawmakers in Ceredigion county, Wales want vaping and e-cigarettes to be treated the same as combustible cigarettes and be banned in public areas like schools, playgrounds and hospital grounds, according to reports.
Credit: Krystian Graba
New legislation came into force from March 1 banning smoking from school grounds, hospitals and play areas, with Welsh Government leaving the decision on vaping up to local authorities, according to Nation CYMRU. Ceredigion county councilors recommended that the same new rules banning smoking be the same for those using alternatives such as vapes and e-cigarettes but added that the same level of enforcement would not be possible.
Chairman of the healthier communities overview and scrutiny committee said on Monday, March 8 that seeing people vaping in playgrounds, combined with the different flavors available, could be “drawing children in.” He added he was a “little disappointed” the current legislation did not go further in allowing enforcement of vaping restrictions.
Cllr Bryan Davies supported this and said that vaping should be treated the same as smoking. Questions were raised about how the legislation covered council land leased by community councils and how enforcement would be resourced.
The council will be the enforcement body for premises while the police will enforce the ban on smoking in cars with children. The committee approved the report, adding that consideration be given to including vaping on any signage indicating where smoking is banned.
It is recommended that “steps are taken to ensure all Local Authority smoke-free settings comply with the new legal requirements.” It also noted the additional enforcement requirements on public protection services and “further recommends necessary changes to the Constitution to reflect the implementation of the Smoke-free Premises and Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2020.”
The litigants in two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Deeming Rule for vapor products have asked the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to take up the cases.
The cases are Big Time Vapes, Inc., et al. v. FDA, and Moose Jooce, et al. v. FDA.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Moose Jooce case filed a petition for writ of certiorari, a request to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider the case. On February 26, 2021, the Moose Jooce challengers filed their petition asking the Supreme Court to take up questions related to their challenge to the Deeming Rule under the “Appointments Clause” in Article II, § 2 of the Constitution.
The plaintiffs claim that FDA acted improperly because the person that issued the deeming regulations was not qualified to do so per the Appointments Clause. In this case, the rule was issued by Leslie Kux, the associate commissioner for policy, and not the commissioner himself, according to an attorney for Troutman Pepper.
FDA has argued that the commissioner—in both 2016 and 2019—ratified the regulations. Both the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia have ruled against plaintiffs in the Moose Jooce case. The district court and court of appeals held that these circumstances did not render the Deeming Rule invalid. The plaintiffs are represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation.
In the Big Time Vapes case, the challengers petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari on December 18, 2020. The case involves the claim that the statute purportedly authorizing the Deeming Rule is an unconstitutional delegation of Congress’ legislative power.
The challengers in the Big Time suit initiated their case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. The court granted the FDA’s motion to dismiss and denied the challengers’ motion for preliminary injunction and the Fifth Circuit affirmed the decision.
There is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will take up these cases. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the court accepts 100-150 of the more than 7,000 requests it receives each year.
The FDA will have the opportunity to respond to the challengers’ petitions before the Supreme Court acts on them. Review “is not a matter of right, but of judicial discretion,” and the petitions “will be granted only for compelling reasons.”
Currently, vapor businesses are still subject to the Deeming Rule.
VPR Brands has filed lawsuits against three more vapor companies for violating its “auto draw” patent. The company filed a lawsuit against three previous companies in February. The company owns intellectual property rights for one of the original patents filed for electronic cigarette technology.
Credit: VPR
The patent dates back to 2009 and includes independent claims covering vaping products containing an electric airflow sensor, including a sensor comprised of a diaphragm microphone. The sensor turns the battery on and off, and covers auto-draw, button less e-cigarettes, cigalikes, pod devices and vaporizers using an airflow sensor.
“Just this week we have filed three additional lawsuits which brings the total to six with many more expected and likely as almost every company in the vape space has at least one product which uses the Patented “auto draw” technology.” said Kevin Frija, CEO of VPR Brands. “We will be aggressively pursuing every company infringing on our patent no matter how small or how large they maybe.”
VPR Brands along with SRIPLAW has started to identify and notify over 50 of the leading companies. These companies were prioritized, based on sales volume and popularity. Most recently VPR Brands LP and its legal team, headed by Joel B Rothman of SRIPLAW, have filed litigation against Mong LLC, B&G Trading LLC, and Lightfire Holding LLC. The three previous suits were filed against Jupiter Research, Cool Clouds Distribution and XL Vape.
“We want to make sure VPR Brands Patent which is valid until 2030 is enforced and our Intellectual property rights are protected,” said Frija. “We intend to send a clear message to the industry that we mean business and of course, as they say, “business is business” it’s nothing personal, in the end its just business.”
When former President Donald Trump signed the amended Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, or PACT Act, into law late last year, the goal was to stop teenagers from buying nicotine vape products online.
However, the Tennessee Smoke Free Association’s (TSFA) executive director Dimitris Agrafiotis cited the “Youth source of acquisition for E-Cigarettes” survey from 2019 that shows most teenagers don’t get their e-cigarette products online. Instead, the survey, published in Science Direct, found that most kids get them from friends.
Dimitris Agrafiotis Credit: TSFA
A quarter of youth surveyed reported living with someone who uses e-cigarettes (26.1 percent). The most common location or source for getting e-cigarettes was a friend (51.5 percent), followed by a family member (16.4 percent), a vape shop (16.2 percent), and a retail location (12.3 percent).
Few of the survey participants reported getting e-cigarettes from another person that was not a family member or a friend (6.1 percent), the Internet (3.8 percent), or another place not listed (3.5 percent). The majority of adolescents reported getting e-cigarettes from one place (92 percent, data not shown), according to the survey data.
Agrafiotis says this law will do more harm to the older generation who rely on vape products to quit smoking cigarettes.
“The main point that I wanted to get across in this story is that in every corner of America you can buy cigarettes and a much less harmful product … [than] smoking is being squashed and eliminated,” Agrafiotis said.
If anyone wants to try to make a change, there are two things you can do, says Agrafiotis. First, call your representatives in Congress. Second, submit a comment to the U.S. Postal Service. Interested parties have until March 22nd to comment.
The PACT Act requires the Postal Service to begin enforcement starting on April 26, 2021.
Plans by Germany’s governing coalition to tax vapor products are a disaster for public health and the economy, according to the country’s e-cigarette trade association, VdeH. The move will make vapor products more expensive than combustible cigarettes, which are widely acknowledged to be considerably more harmful to health.
Under the plans, e-liquids will attract a tax of €4 per 10 mL bottle from July 1, 2022. On Jan. 1, 2024, the tax will increase to €8 plus VAT, i.e. €9.52 per 10 mL bottle. Based on an average sales price of about €5 per bottle, this amounts to a tripling of the retail price, says VdeH.
“These tax plans leave you stunned, and one initially suspects a calculation error,” said Michal Dobrajc, executive chairman of the VdeH, in a statement. Such a price increase, he added, could only have been passed with the intention to kill off vaping.
While not opposing e-cigarette taxation as such, the VdeH said fiscal measures should weigh the risks of vaping against those of smoking. Based on what is known about those relative risks, the tax on vapor products should not exceed 5 percent of that on tobacco products, according to the association. The governing coalition’s plans amount to 75 percent of the tobacco tax in Germany.
The VdeH urged the German government to heed the experience of other countries.
A similar tax policy in Italy caused the vapor market to collapse even as tobacco sales increased. Tax collections shriveled and the black market thrived. The Italian government was eventually forced to reduce the tax burden on vapor products by 90 percent. Estonia and Hungary had comparable experiences.
The biggest losers of the governing coalition’s plans, according to the VdeH, are former smokers who successfully quit their habit with the help of e-cigarettes and current smokers who will not attempt to switch under the new tax regime. A police union has already described the tax plans as a “startup for smugglers,” the association noted.
Solari Hemp is a Colorado-based fully integrated farm-to-shelf supplier of THC-free CBD products.
By Timothy S. Donahue
Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet. It’s motivated by the ever-growing popularity of the supplements on the global market. However, according to a Consumer Brands Association (CBA) survey, nearly four in 10 Americans incorrectly assume CBD is just another name for marijuana. The survey also found that consumers said that the quality and safety of the product were extremely important when making a CBD purchasing decision.
Solari Hemp, founded in 2018 in Longmont, Colorado, USA, is a fully integrated farm-to-shelf hemp company with on-premises growing, extracting, shipping and sales/marketing capabilities. The company sells only 100 percent THC-free CBD products. Solari Hemp maintains full control over the production/development process of its products from start to finish, according to Colin Gallagher, co-founder and CEO of Solari Hemp.
“For us, it’s about being a company that has roots in the C-store industry and understands the needs and complexities of operating with products that are in a regulatory gray area,” he says. “We want our partners to trust the team behind Solari and the people behind it; trust the brand and the quality of the product you’re getting. We test all the way through seed to shelf. We offer transparency in the testing. We are doing things the right way. It’s about being good retail partners. Our success is their success.”
Colin Gallagher / Credit: Solari Hemp
Solari means “land exposed to the sun” in Italian. As a child’s name, it can be translated to “beauty greater than the sun.” Gallagher says he and his team wanted to create a packaging design that didn’t have the in-your-face marijuana branding often associated with such products or that could be misconstrued as a pharmaceutical product. The sun became the logo. It even has a little hidden “S” in the middle.
Gallagher says he was working at Smoker Friendly International, and the CBD market was just starting to grow. The company decided it wanted to start carrying a CBD brand in its stores. Gallagher soon discovered that there was little transparency throughout the CBD supply chain, and many manufacturers could not guarantee consistent quality in their products. No product could meet the quality standards and quantities he needed. Gallagher wanted to do it better. He soon started talking with two industry colleagues and discovered they had similar ideas about what a CBD brand needs to be successful.
“We decided that we could all work together and create a new company … use our experience, our trust and established relationships within the C-store industry to create a brand and a product that had a full chain of custody from seed to shelf,” he says. “We decided to just get out there and do it ourselves.”
There is a lot of talent on the Solari team. Myorr Janha, co-founder and chief marketing officer, was previously responsible for global marketing, corporate communications and business development initiatives for Rush Communications and Simmons Design Group. With over 25 years of marketing experience managing a variety of brands spanning diverse sectors in entertainment, lifestyle and philanthropy, Janhaeads Solari’s marketing, advertising and PR strategy.
Jake Salazar, co-founder and Solari’s chief development officer, is a fifth-generation Colorado native. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the cannabis industry by High Times magazine in 2018 and 2019 for his accomplishments over the past 12 years in cannabis genetics and the hemp business. Salazar heads genetics R&D and business development for Solari. He also helped craft the original legislation to legalize marijuana in Colorado.
Gallagher oversees the daily operations of the company. He grew up around consumer product goods and convenience retail operations and previously served as the director of operations and business development for Smoker Friendly.
Back to the farm
While many things stand out about Solari, its farming operation is the foundation of the company. In 2017 and 2018, the CBD market was experiencing shortages of wholesale CBD. Gallagher didn’t want to go through the process of creating a product and launching a product only to have a supply shortage and not be able to support sales. That’s when the company started looking for its own farms.
“We found some farmers who had farmed hemp from early 2014 and then got out of it. They’re traditional, fourth-generation Colorado farmers. We brought them in as equity partners. We really wanted to learn about the product and be leaders in the industry,” explained Gallagher. “There’s still a lot of education that needs to happen in terms of just understanding hemp [compared to marijuana]. We are trying to be a leader in the market and do things the right way, our way, and have full transparency.”
The Solari team began its first farm on just three acres to test its product. In 2018, Solari farmed 150 acres (about 6,000 plants) and continues to have the ability to expand. Like many hemp farmers, Solari did not farm in 2020 because there was an excess of hemp biomass in the market due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company needed to step back. It was about survival.
“The pandemic put a damper on sales. We know a lot of farmers and extractors who went out of business. There are high capital costs in the extraction process, and you have to have high-yielding crops. The higher your CBD potency, the better your yields. It’s all about efficiencies and that effectively impacts your cost of goods sold,” says Gallagher, adding that farming is also expensive. “Farming is challenging. The harvesting technology, drying technology—especially when you have a large crop. You need to get it out of the ground and get it dried and ready for extraction so it doesn’t go bad.”
Hemp is like a vacuum cleaner, absorbing all that a soil has to offer, both good and bad. Gallagher says that heavy metals and pesticides on the plant or in the soil may be present in the resulting oil after the hemp is refined. The only way to avoid exposure to these contaminants is to know exactly where the hemp is grown. Solari’s seed-to-shelf process ensures its hemp adheres to the company’s high-quality standards. “Our crops are grown on our farms in Colorado without the use of any pesticides and our soil is consistently tested for heavy metals,” says Gallagher. “A reputable brand should always disclose the location [in which] the hemp was grown so a consumer has full disclosure prior to purchasing the product.”
To isolate the CBD-rich oil from the hemp plant, a multistep extraction process is used to remove fats, lipids, cannabinoids and terpenes. Different extraction methods can provide a variety of advantages; however, testing after extraction for pesticides, heavy metals and residual solvents that can be present during the extraction process is vital. “Extraction is just dialing in the equipment to get the highest yields from the crude. We consistently test all of our final products to ensure there are no harmful chemicals or contaminants present within its extracts before it is sent to a third party to be tested again,” says Gallagher. “We control the entire process. Our retail partners, and consumers too, like having that transparency. It gives us an advantage in the market because it’s a product you can trust and there’s traceability. We do third-party testing to ensure consistency and quality. We also use a CBD isolate that guarantees we have absolutely no THC in our products.”
Empire of the sun
Today, the Solari line of products is sold in 2,000 stores to 3,000 stores, including Smoker Friendly, Rutter’s Farms, Town Pump, Food Lion and numerous independent C-stores. The company offers 23 SKUs, including gummies, tinctures, soft gels and topicals (balms, roll-ons and creams).
Credit: Solari Hemp
Gallagher says that launching a brand at the end of 2019 going into 2020 was greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the C-store channel, it’s about face-to-face meetings, building trust in each other and building trust in the product, according to Gallagher. He says that not being able to fully develop those relationships and not being able to go to trade shows and sample the products was a nightmare.
“It was a challenge, for sure. But we adapted. For us, it is more about just being able to be fully transparent and able to deliver a high-quality but affordable product. That’s another one of our big things: affordability. In the C-stores, we don’t [expect people] to come in and pay $50, $60 for a tincture,” explains Gallagher. “It’s something that’s kind of a grab-and-go item, so our lowest-priced item is $6.99. Then it’s supporting the brand, supporting the retailer and understanding their business, and working with them to make the product successful. I think this dedication to the retailer separates us from the pack. It’s about those relationships and doing things the right way and not creating more work for our partners.”
Moving forward, Gallagher says Solari must remain innovative, whether it’s a function of product or delivery. He says the company is currently working on some new products that are expected to come on the market this year. There is so much competition in the CBD industry that Gallagher says you have to think outside the box to survive. He says that CBD beverages, for example, are a fast-growing CBD segment, and that could potentially be part of Solari’s portfolio.
“We see a huge future for the beverage industry, and that’s on our radar. If you’re going to release a new product, it’s got to be something that grabs people’s attention. I mean, at the end of the day, your product has to work, right?” Gallagher asks. “People have to believe in the product itself and then it needs to be different. If you take something that’s like a pull on the cap of a beverage and you push it down and shake it up, that’s different, right? We are trying to be innovative and thinking about things that aren’t currently on the market.”
Regulations are also coming soon for the CBD market in the U.S. The FDA has already announced proposals for the industry. Today, most CBD products are manufactured by smaller companies, and, absent consistent regulation, it is up to the individual businesses to invest in the research that protects consumers. Gallagher says he wants to see responsible regulation, and the industry needs to help decide what those regulations may entail.
“I don’t think it’ll be like the PMTAs [premarket tobacco product applications] the FDA uses with tobacco and vapor. We need input from the industry to get things done the right way. Part of that is keeping the bad actors out,” says Gallagher. “I think this administration will certainly be more friendly to cannabis in general [than it was toward tobacco and e-cigarettes]. I think there will be more regulation on the smokable side, meaning it’s something that you inhale. Anything that is like a tobacco product and used in a similar fashion and is not currently taxed … will be regulated.”
For Solari, the company remains focused on continuing to being an innovator in the industry, focused on becoming a household name. “We want to be a recognizable label,” says Gallagher. “We want Solari to be the brand that people associate with quality and trust. That’s something that will never change.”
Pandemic-related anxiety, boredom, and irregular routines were cited as major drivers of increased nicotine and combustible tobacco use during the initial Covid-19 “lockdown,” according to research released by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Credit: Columbia University
“Pandemic response policies that intentionally or inadvertently restrict access to lower risk products – through availability, supply chains, or even postal service slowdowns – while leaving more harmful products widely accessible may have unintended consequences that should be considered during policy development,” said Daniel Giovenco, PhD, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia Mailman School, and the study’s lead author.
The study highlights ways that public health interventions and policies can better support quit attempts and harm reduction, both during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The findings are published in the International Journal of Drug Policy.
Nearly all participants reported increased stress related to Covid-19 – namely, fears about the virus, job uncertainty, and the psychological effects of isolation – and described this as the primary driver of increased nicotine and combustible tobacco use. Decreased use, while less common, was prevalent among “social” tobacco users, who cited fewer interpersonal interactions during lockdown and a fear of sharing products.
Between April-May 2020, the researchers conducted telephone interviews with adults across the US who use traditional cigarettes and/or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), such as e-cigarettes. Participants in the study were recruited using an advertisement campaign on Facebook and Instagram.
During this window, nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population experienced some form of state lockdown, with 40 states ordering non-essential businesses to close and 32 states enacting mandatory stay-at-home orders. At the time of their interviews, all participants were voluntarily isolating at home unless required to leave the house.
At the community level, retail access impacted cigarette and ENDS use differently. While cigarettes were universally accessible in essential businesses, such as convenience stores and gas stations, access to preferred ENDS products was more limited, since “vape shops” and other specialty ENDS retailers were typically deemed non-essential and required to close or limit hours, according to a press release.
This drove some ENDS users to order their products online, which often resulted in long wait times due to shipping delays, or product backorder as a result of high demand. As a result, some dual users of cigarettes and ENDS increased their use of readily-available cigarettes.
