Tag: Virginia

  • Virginia Vape Registry, Flavor Ban on Governor’s Desk

    Virginia Vape Registry, Flavor Ban on Governor’s Desk

    Credit: FotoMak

    Flavored vaping products lacking authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could be pulled from Virginia shelves, as a pair of identical bills head to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk for his signature. The governor has previously said he would sign the bills.

    Del. Rodney Willett, and Sen. Creigh Deeds, say their bills would help eliminate the 50 percent of illegal, unregulated vapor and e-cigarette products currently being sold in the commonwealth. Both lawmakers said the bill’s intent are to also curb underage vaping, as no flavored e-cigarettes or vapes are currently authorized by the FDA.

    “It’s a very serious situation and what this bill is intended to do is protect children,” Willett told the Virginia Mercury in an interview last week. “It’s to protect adults who are lawful consumers and then also the wholesalers and retailers themselves.”

    Willett said the bills would create a registry of non-flavored products that can be sold in the Commonwealth. These products must be FDA-authorized or under the agency’s application process.

    Both legislators said several businesses have sent them letters in support of the bill because they want to make sure they’re selling legal products. Willett said the businesses also “want to protect legal consumers from ingesting undisclosed, harmful chemicals that are found in the unlawful vaping products.”

    Representatives from tobacco company Altria emphasized that the bill would clarify for retailers which devices they can and cannot sell. Altria spokesman Steve Callahan told the House of Delegates’ ABC and Gaming Subcommittee in February the legislation “is a common sense solution.”

    However, opponents of the bill said it serves to only benefit big tobacco companies at the expense of small businesses and Virginians trying to quit smoking through vapor products.

    Tony Abboud with the Vapor Technology Association said there are currently 13 million vapers across the U.S.. Yet, only six different types of FDA-authorized e-cigarettes are currently on the market. He said tobacco companies like Altria would reap the benefits from the legislation and compared the bill to a scenario in which all beer except for Bud Lite and Miller Lite are removed from stores.

    “Bud and Miller would love it, right, because they are definitely going to pick up some more customers,” Abboud said.

  • New Virginia Vape Rules, Tax Likely to Become Law

    New Virginia Vape Rules, Tax Likely to Become Law

    Credit: TS Donahue

    Virginia’s 2024 legislative session is likely going to send two bills regulating vaping and a new vaping tax to the governor’s desk.

    Among the bills with a presumably higher impact is one that would create a new state registry that would limit sales to only FDA-approved products.

    “It’s an important step to address childhood vape use,” said Rodney Willet, a cosponsor of the registry effort, according to media reports. The Henrico-based delegate says it would still open the door to sell plenty of vape products for consumers, but Midgette said the trendiness of the industry makes it hard for any one brand to stay popular.

    “It’s an evolving business. There’s one brand everyone wants, then a few months later people want a different one,” Midgette said.

    Midgette also pushed back on the FDA approval requirement, suggesting the products the federal government had approved represent a small and low-quality collection of brands.

    Another bill would block any new shops from opening within 1000 feet of a school or daycare center.

    But the business owner also noted a carve out made in Lopez’s bill for convenience stores and gas stations.

    Last on the list is a new six-cent-per-mil of nicotine tax on vape products currently in the Senate budget.

    “Six cents? That’s nothing,” Midgette joked, noting North Carolina added a five-cent tax already, and it’s handled by his distributors before being passed down to consumers.

  • Virginia Proposes Flavor Ban, Approved Product List

    Virginia Proposes Flavor Ban, Approved Product List

    Credit: FotoMak

    Virginia has long been the epicenter of the tobacco industry, Now, two bills that would ban flavored vaping products have been filed with the state’s General Assembly.

    Sponsors say Virginia should step in where Washington has been ineffective in blocking unregulated flavored e-cigarettes, such as Elf Bar disposables, off of store shelves.

    The bills, House Bill 1069 and Senate Bill 550, call for a fine of $1,000 a day for each product sold that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized to be marketed in the U.S.

    The Attorney General would maintain a directory of legal products, much like Alabama and Louisiana. Products not listed in that directory could not be legally sold in Virginia.

    The bill states any retailer and wholesaler that sells or distributes any liquid nicotine or nicotine vapor product in the state is subject to scheduled or unscheduled compliance checks carried out by the Attorney General’s Office for enforcement purposes.

    Manufacturers must certify, in a filing with the Attorney General, that their product is covered by an FDA marketing authorization order, or is exempt from that because it was sold in the U.S. before 2016 or subject to a premarket tobacco product application dating from before 2020.

    “It’s a public health issue,” said Del. Rodney Willett, who sponsored the House of Delegates bill.

    “They’re targeting kids with the flavors,” he said, according to media reports. “When I walk into a convenience store, I’m just stunned by the number of these products that are for sale.”

  • Attorney General of Virginia Pens Letter to U.S. FDA

    Attorney General of Virginia Pens Letter to U.S. FDA

    Credit: RawF8

    Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner asking for increased regulation of illegal electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products.

    Miyares emphasizes that despite efforts to curtail underage access to vaping and e-cigarette products, there is no centralized enforcement mechanism or license to hold shops accountable.

    Additionally, many illegal knock-off ENDS products are being brought into the country from China and pose the risk of being laced with fentanyl, Miyares claims. He says the FDA must focus on bolstering enforcement and regulation to mitigate the possible risks associated with youth-targeted products.

    The letter states that “the Associated Press recently advanced the opinion that the influx of illegal disposable ENDS products are due to ‘the Food and Drug Administration’s inability to control the tumultuous vaping market more than three years after declaring a crackdown on kid-friendly flavors.’”

  • Virginia Alcohol Board to Asses Scheme for Liquid Nicotine

    Virginia Alcohol Board to Asses Scheme for Liquid Nicotine

    Credit: Adobe

    The Virginia ABC will assess a regulatory scheme for liquid nicotine, with the consultation of stakeholders, and issue a report and recommendations.

    On April 12, the Virginia General Assembly enacted House Bill 2296 and Senate Bill 1350, incorporating recommendations of Governor Glenn Youngkin to have the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) “assess” a potential licensing scheme for liquid nicotine manufacturers, distributors, and retail dealers, as well as administrative and enforcement matters relating to liquid nicotine licensing, age verification, product verification, and advertising restrictions.

    These bills effectively instruct the ABC to tell the Virginia General Assembly whether and how the Commonwealth should regulate liquid nicotine. The ABC’s report and recommendations are due by November 1, and will be informed by stakeholder input, according to attorneys with Troutman Pepper.

    The enactments specify that the ABC will conduct its assessment “in consultation with stakeholders, including public and community health organizations, retailers, tobacco and vaporized nicotine companies, and wholesalers.”

  • Virginia is First Southern State to Legalize Marijuana

    Virginia is First Southern State to Legalize Marijuana

    Virginia became the 16th U.S. state to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana on Wednesday. Under the new law, adults ages 21 and over can possess an ounce or less of marijuana beginning on July 1 this year, rather than Jan. 1, 2024.

    marijuana leaf
    Credit: Rex Medlen

    Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, proposed moving up the date, arguing it would be a mistake to continue to penalize people for possessing a drug that would soon be legal. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, also a Democrat, broke a 20-20 vote tie in Virginia’s Senate to pass the bill. No Republicans supported the measure.

    Democratic House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn hailed the plan, according to NPR. “Today, with the Governor’s amendments, we will have made tremendous progress in ending the targeting of Black and brown Virginians through selective enforcement of marijuana prohibition by this summer,” she said in a statement.

    Republicans voiced a number of objections to what they characterized as an unwieldy, nearly 300-page bill. Several criticized measures that would grant licensing preferences to people and groups who’ve been affected by the war on drugs and make it easier for workers in the industry to unionize. Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment also questioned Northam’s motives.

    “We have a governor who wants to contribute to the resurrection of his legacy,” Norment said, referring to the 2019 discovery of a racist photo in Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook.

    The accelerated timeline creates an unusual situation for Virginia cannabis consumers. While it will be legal to grow up to four marijuana plants beginning July 1, it could be several years before the state begins licensing recreational marijuana retailers. And unlike other states, the law won’t allow the commonwealth’s existing medical dispensaries to begin selling to all adults immediately.

    Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML, called legalization “an incredible victory” but said the group would continue to push to allow retail sales to begin sooner, according to NPR. “In the interest of public and consumer safety, Virginians 21 and older should be able to purchase retail cannabis products at the already operational dispensaries in 2021, not in 2024,” Pedini said in a statement. “Such a delay will only exacerbate the divide for equity applicants and embolden illicit activity.”