Tag: vapor

Attendance High as First Post-Covid Trade Show Opens
An estimated 2,500-3,000 people visited the Tobacco Plus Expo (TPE) on the opening day of the 3-day event. The TPE is normally the first industry trade show of the year. Before the show floor opened, several hundred attendees waited at the entrance to see the more 350 exhibitors.
Credit: Timothy S. Donahue
This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the show was moved to May from its typical January date. It is also the first major trade show to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) since it closed in March of 2020. There is a noticeable reduction in the number of nicotine vaping companies showing on the floor. There are however numerous CBD companies presenting, with most pushing their Delta-8 products.
Several attendees said they were surprised by the size of this year’s show and the turnout. George Cassels-Smith, president of eLiquitech, a Maryland based e-liquid manufacturer and flavoring house, said it was more than he expected. “The turnout was much more than I thought, there were people talking and enjoying a return to a bit of normalcy,” he said. “It was nice to see friends and associates that we haven’t seen in over a year.”
Several new products are launched during the TPE. This year, Southern California-based Humble Juice Co., for example, recently released its new e-liquid flavor, Sweet Citrus. The company also had several core product offerings, all of which were included in the brand’s premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submitted to the Food and Drug Administration in Sept. of 2020.
“We are excited that Humble Juice Co. will be back at Tobacco Plus Expo in the flesh after last year’s event taking place virtually,” said Daniel Clark, CEO of Humble. “Humble is one of the e-liquid brands that have completed the preliminary PMTA review phase and is awaiting the start of the substantive review process. We are proud to introduce those attending TPE to our brand and share information about our focus on compliance and quality products.”
Bantam Vape also showcased several of its products that have a PMTA submitted including Sour Strawberry, Jasmine Milk Tea and Butterscotch. The brand’s PMTA application is currently queued for formal scientific review with the FDA.
“We will be sharing our science-backed, PMTA-filed flavors with buyers and will have brand reps [available] to answer questions face-to-face,” said Bantam Director of Sales Michelle Gottlich. “TPE poses an exciting opportunity to share our high-quality products with other established leaders in the vaping category.”
The TPE also has several cigar companies, hookah and other tobacco-affiliated products. The show does require wearing a face covering unless vaping, eating or drinking. The TPE runs from May 12-14. The TPE was ranked as one of the top 50 fastest growing trade shows in 2018 and 2019.
May 13, 2021
First City in Taiwan Drafts Rules to Ban Vapor Products
The New Taipei City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance to ban the sale of e-cigarettes. If approved by the Executive Yuan, the legislation would make New Taipei the first of the nation’s six special municipalities to impose such a ban if it is approved.
Credit: Busara
The draft regulation prohibits manufacturing, importation, sale, display and advertising of vaping devices, and heated tobacco products and components without an individual drug or medical device license issued by the city government, according to the Taipei Times. Violators of the ban would be fined NT$10,000 to NT$100,000, and sales licenses of repeat offenders would be suspended, the draft regulation states.
It also prohibits people under the age of 18 to use smoking devices banned from sale in the city and violators of the rule must attend smoking cessation classes, and those who fail to attend the classes would be fined NT$2,000 to NT$10,000. New Taipei City Department of Health Director Chen Ran-chou said that the ordinance seeks to protect people from the health risks of e-cigarettes and safeguard public health.
The draft regulation was sent to the Executive Yuan and would take effect three months after it is approved, she said. The Taipei City Council is also reviewing a similar draft regulation, which is expected to clear the council next week.
On the national level, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has proposed an amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, seeking to raise the legal age for smoking from 18 to 20 and regulating e-cigarettes and related products. That amendment would move to the legislature for approval if approved by the Executive Yuan.
April 30, 2021
Group Launches Platform for Vapers to Share Quit Stories
The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has launched vapersvoice.ca, a national initiative that provides adult vapers a platform to share their story on how vaping helped them quit smoking. The aim of the initiative, sponsored by Flavourart Distro, is to remind Canadians and regulators that punitive vape regulation has real consequences for adult smokers that have chosen vaping to reduce their harm.
Credit: Tumisu
The website will enable adult vapers to upload short videos detailing, where they live, how long they smoked, how long they have been smoke-free, the flavor and nicotine concentration they used, and what they would do if flavors were to be banned. Canadian’s need to hear from adult vapers, not the industry. The CVA encourages all adult vapers to share their story, according to a press release.
“Globally, the conversation around vaping has lost sight of the millions of lives that can be saved through vaping. Vaping has presented an unparalleled harm reduction opportunity and flavors are the key to adult adoption and success quitting smoking,” the release states. “Vapersvoice.ca will highlight the importance of flavored products and the positive impact vaping has had on the lives of millions of adult smokers.
April 15, 2021
U.S. Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General

Photo: forcal35 from Pixabay
Vivek H. Murthy
The U.S. Senate on March 23 confirmed Vivek H. Murthy as United States surgeon general, reports The Washington Post.
The surgeon general, also known as the “nation’s doctor,” typically serves as a prominent spokesperson on public health issues but has a limited role in policymaking. President Joe Biden wants him to be a key public voice on the Covid response to restore public trust in medicine.
The surgeon general also oversees the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed service of about 6,000 public health workers who have helped staff the coronavirus response and administer vaccines but struggled earlier this year to get vaccinations of their own.
Murthy first served as surgeon general during the Obama administration, working on public health issues such as the opioid crisis. He also pursued his own work combating loneliness and the stigma of mental illness. He was the nation’s first Senate-confirmed Asian American surgeon general.
His original 2013 nomination was stalled in the Senate for more than a year, in part because gun rights organizations faulted Murthy for saying gun violence was a public health problem—a stance Murthy has continued to espouse.
Murthy is an advocate of e-cigarette regulation. In 2016, he released “E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults,” calling for action to reduce the use of vapor products among young people.
Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, at the time described the report as scientifically dishonest.
Siegel said the report essentially lied about the single most important fact that the public needed to understand about electronic cigarettes and vaping products: that they do not contain tobacco and therefore vaping is not a form of tobacco use.
March 25, 2021
Philippine House Committees Endorse Vapor Rules
In the Philippines, three committees of the House of Representatives have endorsed to the plenary the approval of a measure that will regulate all vapor products, whether they contain nicotine or not. The rule will also apply to heated tobacco products (HTPs).
House Committees on Trade and Industry, on Health and on Appropriations has submitted Committee Report 873 for the proposed Non-Combustible Nicotine Delivery Systems Regulation Act (House Bill 9007), according to politics.com.ph. The rule applies to electronic nicotine- and non-nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS/ENNDS).
The measure provides that the allowable minimum wage to purchase, sale and use ENDS/ENNDS or HTPs shall be 18 years old, although there is debate to raise that age to 21 or even 25. The seller would also be required to verify the age of the buyer by requiring any valid government-issued identification card bearing the picture, age or date of birth.
“It shall not be a defense for the person selling or distributing that oneself did not know or was not aware of the real age of the purchaser. Neither shall it be a defense that oneself did not know nor had any reason to believe that the product was for the consumption of a person below 18 years old,” the committee report read.
The use of ENDS/ENNDs or HTPs will be banned in all enclosed public places except in designated vaping areas if passed, and the use of product will be prohibited in schools, hospitals, government offices and facilities intended particularly for minors. The bill prohibits the sale or distribution of ENDS/ENNDS or HTPs within 100 meters from a school, playground or other facility frequented by minors.
It also prohibits manufacturers of ENDS/ENNDS or HTPs from sponsoring any sport, concert, cultural or art event, as well as individual and team athletes or performers where such sponsorship shall require or involve the advertisement or promotion of the products.
Violators of the proposed law will be fined P500,000 for the first offense and P750,000 for the second offense. On the third offense, a fine of P1 million and/or imprisonment of not more than six years. The business permit and licenses of the company will also be revoked or cancelled.
If the offender is a foreign national, they will be deported only after serving their sentence.
March 19, 2021
First Tennessee Vapor Shipping Reports Due May 10
Tennessee has announced the starting date for its PACT Act requirements. The state’s Department of Revenue states that beginning May 10, 2021, and the 10th of every month thereafter, any entity shipping electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) or related products into Tennessee from another state is required to report all such shipments to the department.
It is expected that all states will require PACT Act reporting to begin on May 10. Effective March 28th, 2021, recipients of all vaping products purchased online will be required to present ID and sign for their delivery. The United States Postal Service mail ban on vaping products will go into effect on April 27th, 2021. After this date, customers will no longer be able to receive vaping products by way of USPS delivery.
The amended PACT Act provides that any person who sells, transfers, or ships for profit ENDS in interstate commerce, or who advertises such products for sale, must register with the tobacco tax administrator of the state into which the shipment is made. The company must also file monthly reports with the tobacco tax administrator no later than the 10th day
of each month.
Under the PACT Act, a delivery seller faces violations that may result in civil penalties of up to
$5,000 for the first violation, $10,000 for the second violation, or 2percent of the gross sales during the prior 12 months. Additionally, there are penalties for common carriers or other persons providing delivery services of up to $2,500 for a first violation or $5,000 for any other violation within one year of a prior violation.
March 16, 2021
Minton: Mail Ban Will Push Vapers Back to Cigarettes

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.
March 11, 2021
Germany: Plans For Vapor Taxation a ‘Disaster’

Photo: Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
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.
March 5, 2021
Logic Ending All U.S. Online Product Sales March 16
Logic brand e-cigarettes will end the online sales of its products, according to an email to customers. “Unfortunately, as of March 16, 2021, we will discontinue online sales of Logic products. Due to recent regulations, Logic will be unable to ship online orders after this date,” the email states. “Logic has worked tirelessly to make sure we provide you with the best possible vaping and shopping experience. Always have, always will.”
Credit: Logic
The company states that the recent amendment to the 2009 All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act prevents the company from being able to mail its products to consumers. In late December, former President Trump voted into law a $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief bill that contained a provision banning the USPS from delivering vapor products.
The USPS was already prohibited from delivering cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to consumers under the PACT Act. The law passed in December extends the act’s original definition of “cigarette” to include electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS).
Tobacco and vapor companies may use private services to ship their products to consumers, but the PACT Act requires them to register with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the tobacco tax administrators of the states into which a shipment is made. Delivery sellers are further required to verify the age and identity of the customer at purchase and maintain records of delivery sales for a period of four years after the date of sale, creating substantial administrative burdens.
Critically for the vapor industry, the most popular carriers, Federal Express (FedEx) and United Parcel Service (UPS), have recently announced that they would cease all deliveries of vapor products.
Age-verified adult consumers can order Logic products at logicvapes.us until March 16 at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. In order to help consumers locate Logic products, the company has updated and improved its online store locator.
“We believe that all age-verified adult vapers and smokers should have the choice to purchase vapor products online to be delivered to their home. However, as a responsible company, we always remain committed to regulatory compliance,” the email states. “We’re dedicated to doing whatever it takes to deliver pleasurable vaping moments you can truly enjoy.
Acquired by Japan Tobacco in 2015, Logic is not the first vapor company to cease online sales in the wake of the shipping ban. In February, Securience, which manufactures Durasmoke, Forge and other brands, announced it would be closing its doors in March due to the restrictions. Lizard Juice e-liquids also said it would stop mailing products to consumers.
When the legislation took effect, experts predicted that small companies would bear the brunt of the measure.
March 4, 2021
22nd Century to Speed Up Marketing of Cannabis IP

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
22nd Century Group has secured an exclusive agreement with CannaMetrix for the use of that company’s proprietary human cell-based testing CannaMetrix EC50Array technology. The technology will enable 22nd Century to accelerate the commercialization of new disruptive hemp/cannabis plant lines and intellectual property.
Since reporting third quarter earnings, 22nd Century has refocused its hemp/cannabis strategy to target the upstream segments of the cannabinoid value chain. In particular, the company seeks to accelerate the delivery of valuable commercial-scale plant lines and intellectual property for the life science, consumer product and pharmaceutical end-use markets.
With the addition of CannaMetrix, 22nd Century has now secured four out of the five key partnerships needed to maximize each component in the upstream segment of the cannabinoid value chain: plant profiling (CannaMetrix), plant biotechnology (KeyGene), plant cultivation (Panacea-Needle Rock Farm) and ingredient extraction/purification (Panacea). The company is also in final discussions with top-tier plant breeders that will be announced soon.
“22nd Century is extremely excited to add CannaMetrix into our secured network of value chain partners to increase the speed at which we develop and offer disruptive plant lines and intellectual property for the hemp/cannabis industry. For example, a plant line that would typically take 10 years or longer to develop can now be achieved in two years,” said James A. Mish, CEO of 22nd Century Group, in a statement.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with 22nd Century Group,” stated Harold Smith, founder and CEO of CannaMetrix. “They are the ideal partner, bringing decades-long experience in plant biotechnology with unmatched ability in developing valuable commercial plant lines. We believe that through this exclusive partnership, the development of new hemp/cannabis lines for large-scale cultivation and production will advance at a rapid pace and transform the hemp/cannabis industry.”
March 3, 2021