NJ Considers Banning Vape Flavours
On May 17th 2016, New Jersey lawmakers had stepped up their focus on laying down more restrictions for tobacco use in the State. A Senate panel had advanced plans to ban the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes and the sale of any tobacco products in pharmacies. This latest move rests itself on top of many attempts to increase the minimum smoking age alongside the elimination of smoking in all public beaches and parks (except for the small sections which are excluded).
The proposals however, have received some resistance from lawmakers who are of the opinion that the proposed new rules may be an attempt of a nanny state overreach. The ban had inspired two hours of testimony in the Senate health committee on Monday, from advocates who had stated that flavored liquids will end up becoming a pathway to lure kids, while critics had said that a ban would make it harder for cigarette smokers to switch to an option that would help them to quit.
Corinne Orlando, who is the government relations director of the American Heart Association, said that the Food and Drug Administration now holds the power and authority to regulate e-cigarettes, however its limitations lie in its inability to ban flavors.
Orlando however, said that 7 in 10 middle and high school students who use tobacco use a flavored product and that it is a gateway for approximately a quarter-million children a year who have never before picked up a traditional cigarette in their lifetime.
“E-cigarettes are offered in a variety of fruit and candy flavors that appeal to children. There are literally thousands of choices,” Orlando said.
Support for the bill wasn’t unanimous. State Senators Diane Allen and Dawn Marie Addiego, both whom are Republicans from the Burlington County, voted against it, and State Senator Robert Gordon, from D-Bergen County, abstained, reiterating his concerns that the outcome would cut off a path for smokers who quit their traditional ways of smoking by making a switch to e-cigarettes, which may contain less to zero content of nicotine.
“This legislation may be taking us down the wrong road,” Gordon said.
Olivia Watkins of Firehouse E-Cigs and Vapours in Cherry Hill, who herself quit smoking after 15 years by using e-cigarettes, dubbed the proposal as rather “disheartening” and stated that it would be a major setback to public health.
“I work every single day hand in hand with women, men, people who have smoked for 15, 20, 45, 55 years and have had no other way, none, to quit, other than to use flavoured e-cigarette vapour,” Watkins said.
New Jersey was the first state to banned sale of the sale flavoured tobacco products, in 2008.
Vitale said both proposals are about improving people’s health. He mentioned a rather staunch position on how pharmacies should refrain from selling items and products that are addictive with the possibility of being “ultimately fatal”.
“I thought this would be a good statement to make,” Vitale said. “It’s not going to stop someone from smoking, but it kind of amuses me when I pull up to my local Walgreens and I see the tagline on the sign that says, ‘At the intersection of happy and healthy.’ I don’t know what’s happy or healthy about selling cigarettes.”
Corinne Orlando further stated that in San Francisco and Boston, where all pharmacies have seen the hammer of being been banned from selling cigarettes, the number of tobacco users have dropped by a strong 5.5%, in accordance with a recent published preliminary study conducted by CVS Health.
The bill has been indicated for change in order to expand the prohibition beyond regular pharmacies and instead to include several different retailers as well. Supermarkets have been indicated to be included as part and parcel of the bill in the event it is expanded, though Vitale has mentioned that it would not consider big-box stores the likes of Target or Walmart that sublet to pharmacies in their stores.
Mary Ellen Peppard, the assistant vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Food Council, had said that this is indirectly making retailers choose whether to have a pharmacy department or a tobacco section.
John Holub from the New Jersey Council of Chain Drug Stores had also said that cigarettes are still a legal product, and for as long as they remain a legal product, pharmacies and other drug stores should have the right of option to sell them.
Senator Diane Allen, R-Burlington, and Robert Singer, from R-Ocean County, had voted against the ban on cigarette sales in pharmacies. Singer said that the Legislature should avoid the creation of two classes of retailers.
“We keep limiting the rights of the public to make choices. These are about adults making choices,” Singer stated, further reiterating “I don’t smoke. I’m not a supporter of that. But I’ll fight for you to have the right to do something that’s legal.”