California Vape Flavor Ban Passes
During the November election, California voters had the opportunity to approve or oppose Proposition 31, which banned the sale of flavored tobacco products. The vote approved the flavor ban by a wide margin, meaning the retail sale of flavored vapes will be banned starting December 21st, 2022.
This vape flavor ban bill was actually passed in 2020 by the California state legislature. However, vape and tobacco companies collected over 600,000 signatures from state residents that opposed the ban. This led to the flavor ban being up for vote in the general election this year.
What Vape Products are Banned in California?
According to the new state law, all vape and tobacco products other than those that are a tobacco flavor, are now banned at California retail locations. The few exemptions to the law are cigars, pipe tobacco, and shisha tobacco, which is commonly used in hookah devices. Therefore, all vape juice and disposable vape devices that include any flavor other than tobacco will be banned starting on December 21st, 2022. This ban, opposed to many other vape flavor bans, also includes nicotine-free vape products. Therefore, adult vapers who do not use nicotine will still be restricted to tobacco-only flavor options.
Products that are still allowed are: tobacco flavored cartridges, tobacco disposable vapes, tobacco vape juice flavors and refillable vape kits that are not prefilled with vape juice. Even though brick and mortar smoke shops and vape stores are restricted from selling flavored vapes, online vape retailers can continue to sell to residents in the state of California.
UPDATE:
Adult vapers in California will be able to purchase flavored vapes online! The proposition 31 text described a YES vote as meaning “In-person stores and vending machines could not sell most flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers”.
The ban specifically restricts tobacco retailers from selling tobacco products “directly to the public from a retail location". However there are many cities and municipalities that have vape flavor bans already in place. Online retailers are not allowed to ship to these locations.
California Locations with Existing Vape Flavor Bans
As previously mentioned, since there are already vape bans in place across many locations in California already existing, the California vape flavor ban actually will not affect vapers residing in major cities. The major cities below have already enacted a vape flavor ban:
- San Francisco (All Vapes are Not Allowed)
- San Jose
- Sacramento
- San Diego (Flavor Ban goes into effect January 1st, 2023)
- Los Angeles (Flavor Ban goes into effect January 1st, 2023)
What Happens Next for the California Flavor Ban?
The states of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island also have flavor bans in place. However, Massachusetts and California are the only states that have banned menthol cigarettes. The California ban of menthol cigarettes has led RJ Reynolds (maker of Newport) to file a lawsuit against the state of California. It is yet to be seen whether this lawsuit will change anything. We will provide updates in this article if there are any changes to effective dates.
Update: The Supreme Court has denied the move for an emergency injunction that would have put California’s flavored vape ban on hold. The court posted its decision without comment, offering no explanation.
If you are an adult vaper in the state of California that currently prefers vape flavors other than tobacco, we recommend that you stock up before the ban goes into effect. If you can not find your favorite vape at your local retailer, find a trustworthy online vape site that you can order from going forward.
What Should California Vapers Do?
If you are an adult vaper in the state of California, it will be impossible to find flavored vapes after December 20th. If you prefer flavored vapes (other than tobacco flavor), we highly recommend that you stock up with as many flavored vapes as possible before that date. If you are regular disposable vape user, it might make more sense to get bottles of vape juice and a rechargeable vape pod kit for a couple of reasons:
- Vape juice has a better shelf life than disposable vapes
- Using a vape juice with a refillable vape pod device is more cost effective than using disposable vapes. You can stretch your vaping budget and stock up for a longer amount of time by purchasing vape juice instead of disposable vapes.
Alternatively, if you are a regular vape user that buys from brick and mortar retail locations such as smoke shops and vape shops, you should now look into finding a respected online vape retailers to purchase vapes from going forward.
13 comments
I hate this I truly I just do not understand how this could be legal. California has way bigger problems than people vaping this is all a money scam and they are not even being discrete about the fact that Philip morris is monopolizing on the sales of ciggerettes. Worry about the tenderloin that’s flooded with fentanyl leave us alone. Now I have to order my vape juice to Pennsylvania and have family mail it me. What a pain in the ass. I would love just because if this if I could right now
I agree with everyone on here, and this is just gonna open up for more black markets and whatnot. I don’t see the big fn deal of vaping vs the fact that regular cigarettes are more harmful…
This is ridiculous my lads and relatives have been using mods and flavors to get off of cigs and now they want us back on them??? It’s so dumb, Karen’s have major issues ruining it for adult vapers🤨
Im not sure I fully understand. They say that online sales are not banned but I can’t ship to my address. I live in San José CA
Hi,
Welcome to communist California. With democrats overreaching thinking they know what’s best for us. They have now made it so thousands of smokers in California who have stopped or cut way down on cigarettes. Due to flavored vapes. Only one option. That’s to go back to cigarettes. So all these busy bodies who spent their time( since they have nothing better to do than try to dictate how we live) getting people to stop smoking. Have now driving most of them right back to cigarettes. My wife quit smoking on flavored vapes. Now she’s back to almost a pack a day. They are killing us. While the generation they are trying to save. Are overdosing on fentanyl and heroin. If they can get that. I’m sure getting a flavored vape won’t be a problem at all. Then think of the livelihoods they have destroyed by shutting down vape stores. Well just fricken genius. And Welcome to Commie Cali. It’s coming to a state near you or yours. We need to stop this BS right here. Their angle of they are only made for kids is total BS. These companies could never stay in business if only under age kids were buying it. The tobacco companies let us down. Donated way to little to help us. So when you have to buy more nicotine in any form. Maybe steer away from the major companies. Time to move.
So you can buy all sorts of berry or punch flavored alcohol or an assortment of THC candy or pastries but let’s not allow for flavored smoke products. Can’t wait to watch the tax revenue fall by the millions with this ridiculous idea. California is far from a free state. It lives up to its name. COMIEFORNIA !
This is fn ridiculous, the government and Karen’s are ruining. Kids will still get them, they really think this will stop them? All they are doing is hurting the business and now possibly get more people back on cigarettes. These have been the only thing that helped me quit nasty cigarettes!! So over CA!!
As someone who was smoking cigarettes for YEARS and switched successfully to vaping about 4 years ago. This is BS. Kids will always get their hands on whatever they want. Coming from someone who has 3. Idk if I’ll even be able to buy coils anymore. Not even the non-nic are allowed??? Ridiculous
I’m not understanding how it’s our responsibility to parent other people’s kids. Overreaching government needs to stop. If I were a teenager, you better believe I’d be buying them online instead of inside a store. Let’s ban alcohol too, then. I’ll be a Karen. I don’t like drinking, so no one should be allowed to drink. Gavin Newsom could rot in front of me and I wouldn’t help him for anything.
This is devastating!!
I love my flavors. Let’s turn this around.
So much for this being America. 🖕🏻
This is not fair to a life Ling smoker who has a hand to mouth addiction, I got down to 0 nicotine.
I’m stocking up, but can i buy coils? Or I have 7 pods, they do break, can I purchase coils and pods? I get nord 2 pods.
I’m 53, it should be 21 years and older and I’m old enought to choose. I hate nicotine flavors, I even smoked berry flavored smokes on-line.
So can I get coils and pods? Or spend every dime I have on everything? I only know people in Oregon where I’m from, but it’s illegal to get the shipped there..
So do I use up my credit card on pods and coils, no coils, no smokes…
Help!
Luckily since I heard of this, I’ve been buying all my favorite ejuices but I’ll need coils and possibly pods.
Can I buy those online? The company is in CA, so it’s 2 day shipping, not 3 weeks like the others, and I have diy, but not enough..I need sweetener..takes 3 weeks.
So not fair for x smokers with 0 nicotine…
Teri 😡
