A bill (HB 5069) known to advocates as “PMTA Registry” legislation has been introduced and referred to the House Executive Committee. 

This law will serve as a vape ban by inconsistently applying FDA regulations, at the expense of Illinois taxpayers, to create a tobacco industry monopoly. Only seven vapes have actually received PMTA authorization, and millions languish. These laws are structured to allow the tobacco industry to continue to sell their unapproved and pending products while barring the competition. 

HB 5069 is scheduled for a hearing on

• Thursday, March 21, 2024
• House Executive Committee
• 10:00 AM
• Room 118, Capitol Building
• Illinois Advocates are encouraged to submit a witness slip for this hearing (suggested talking points are below if you need help with your comments).

This sleight of hand must be stopped. Please click the CASAA call to action banner below or click here to make your voice heard.

With a wave of Big Tobacco friendly legislation sweeping the nation, it was inevitable that Illinois would soon be in the crosshairs. 

Illinois House Bill HB 5069 is PMTA Registry legislation and would put vape shops out of business across the state.

It bars the most popular products with adult vapers based on the FDA’s failed PMTA regulatory scheme but is worded so that Big Tobacco’s vape pod kits are allowed to remain on the market, despite the fact they have also not received PMTA Approval.

Adult vapers and business owners who sell or use vaping products in Illinois are encouraged to take this opportunity to send a message to your state senator or representative an urge them to oppose HB 5069 and any other legislation that would severely restrict you access to alternative nicotine products.

You can also visit the Vapor Technology Association Action Center to submit your concerns directly to your representative. 

FLAVOR BANS INCREASE CIGARETTE SALES

A recent FDA study showed that flavor bans increase cigarette sales. Vapers know this firsthand. It is no accident that the artificial flavors popular with adult vapers are the same artificial flavors found in every beverage from kombucha to hard seltzer, plus countless processed foods.

But the obvious popularity of these fruit flavor profiles with adults has been lost on a pair of sternly anti-vaping Illinois politicians. While their goal to eradicate smoking and pursue total nicotine abstinence and prohibition is cloaked in language about protecting children and public health, Senator Dick Durbin and US Rep Raja Krisnamoorthi do not seem to realize how their actions are simply creating a Big Tobacco monopoly over the vaping industry. Their flavor ban obsessions could end up increasing smoking rates by denying adult vapers the products they prefer and potentially funneling them back onto combustible cigarettes. 

Anti-Vaping Propaganda

Beware wary of anti-vaping talking points. In Hawaii, advocates of a similar bill continue to cite the 2016 to 2019 Youth Tobacco Survey from the CDC as evidence. Why would they do that for an annual report that has been released every year since. 

Because youth vaping has plunged since 2019 and myriad studies that show vaping outperforms nicotine replacement therapy products have been released. So why aren’t they following the science? 

Adult vapers deserve better than a few fauxbacco flavors grudgingly allowed by ill-informed politicians. Access to age-restricted electronic nicotine delivery systems in palatable flavors should be a given. 

But thanks to the tireless lobbying efforts of Big Tobacco and groups like the Bloomberg-funded and Orwellian-named Truth Initiative, adult vapers have been denied access and even stricter measures like the Big Tobacco Protection Act are being proposed. 

PMTA Registry Bills and Inflation

In 2023, inflation is pretty much a universal in their concern. PMTA Registry Bills dramatically increase the amount adult vapers pay per 30ml of e-liquid. This is on top of removing the products adult vapers prefer and a law that would limit them to vapes flavored with artificial tobacco notes.

Of course, the city of Chicago already has an ill-advised flavor ban, and in fact was one of the regions examined in the study that found flavor bans increase cigarette sales.