Your access to vaping products has never been in more danger. Big Tobacco's newest scheme to eliminate the independent vape industry involves passing a series of PMTA Registry Bills at the state level across the nation. Reliably red Indiana will find their conservative government forced to act as an enforcement arm for unelected state regulators under this bill. SB 227 is one of these bills and has arrived in Indiana. 

These laws will ban virtually every top selling vape product from the market, leaving only tobacco industry manufactured pod kits and a smattering of refillable e-liquid brands left standing. The banner below and this link will guide you to the CASAA websites where you can made your concerns about this intrusive Big Tobacco Protection Act know. 

The tobacco-industry lobbyists carefully worded their PMTA Registry scheme so that it bars products released after 2016, using the FDA’s shaky PMTA process as a guideline. Notably, the FDA has not approved the most popular Big Tobacco industry vape pod products.

PMTA Registry laws are already in place in Oklahoma, and Louisiana. CASAA refers to this cookie-cutter and self-serving piece of legislation as the “Protect Big Tobacco Act”. Make no mistake. They are a de facto vape ban. If the FDA were to reject Big Tobacco’s products, the vape industry would cease to exist on the open-market.

When passed, PMTA Registry bills force vape shops to close, decimate the industry, deny adults access to vape products, and leave the tobacco industry with uncontested control of the market.

Indiana is the most recent target. This law would make the state government an enforcement arm for FDA regulators and criminalize business owners.

Act Now to Protect Vaping

We urge you click on the call to action banner above to make your voice heard. You can also use CASAA’s legislator lookup to find who represents you and let them know that you vape, you vote, and that Big Tobacco is pulling the wool over their eyes.  

While vaping has been under siege for many years, this bill will criminalize vape sales, and remove virtually every product from the market that is not made by Big Tobacco.

Criticisms of PMTA Registry Bills

1. Structured so that the tobacco industry’s vape products remain on market, despite also not having received PMTA authorization, while barring their less expensive competition.
2. Serves as a flavor ban, denying adult vapers the flavors they prefer. An FDA funded study found cigarette sales increase in areas with flavor bans.
3. Bars easy to use disposable vapes, which are ideal for initiates and not coincidentally compete head-to-head with prefilled pod kits made by Big Tobacco.
4. Harms small businesses, vape shops and convenience stores, by removing high-volume and profitable products while leaving lower margin tobacco industry vapes on shelves.
5. Contrary to spirit of consumer choice and entrepreneurship, barring products released after 2016.

Consumer Choice Denied

The price difference between independent vape industry products and those made by Big Tobacco is staggering. It costs over $200 to vape 30ml of e-liquid from a Vuse Alto. For Juul users, that cost increases to nearly $350 per 30ml.

A Lost Mary MT15000 Turbo costs a $63 to vape the same amount of e-liquid. The difference for the average user can equal a car lease or student loan payment. 

This table does not even account for the fact that a legally enforced monopoly will provide the tobacco industry with the freedom to raise prices further. What is the worst that can happen? Profitable cigarettes sold in place of vapes?

Under the Indiana PMTA Registry Bill, all vape products released after 2016 will be barred. This means every popular disposable will be gone, leaving Vuse, Juul and MyBlu with a virtual monopoly. A recent FDA study showed that flavor bans increase cigarette sales.

PMTA Registry Bills Nationwide

The tobacco industry has been unwilling or unable to compete with the independent vape industry in terms of price and innovation. Instead, they have opted for attempted regulatory capture of the FDA and lobbying politicians. 

Youth vaping rates have fallen every year since 2019, and the odds of a national flavor ban that would only benefit the tobacco industry seem more remote than ever. The FDA's PMTA debacle is under fire as Senators raise questions about the fairness of the entire process. 

To tilt the playing field decisively in their favor, they have devised state level restrictions based on the FDA’s flawed PMTA system. The only issue is that only a couple of defunct cigalikes have been approved by the FDA. As lobbying at the state level is a negligible expense for the deep-pocketed tobacco industry, these laws are expected to be proposed in every state.

The tobacco-industry lobbyists carefully worded their PMTA Registry scheme so that it bars products released after 2016, as the FDA has not approved the most popular tobacco industry vape pod products either.

With the FDA's shaky PMTA application process as the guideline, these laws essentially convert state governments into an enforcement arm for clueless federal regulators. Adult vapers, and smokers will pay the price for this political maneuvering and thousands of jobs will be destroyed in the process.

Consumer freedom, choice and your pocketbook will take a huge hit if the Indiana Vape Sales Ban is to pass.

Initial Hearing Information

A bill (SB 227) known to advocates as “PMTA Registry” legislation has been introduced and is scheduled for a hearing on

TUESDAY, January 23, 2024

9:00 AM

Senate Committee on Taxation and Fiscal Policy

Room 431 

If enacted, this law would effectively make the state of Indiana an enforcement arm of the Food and Drug Administration empowering state authorities to enforce the disastrous federal anti-vaping regulations. This would put hundreds of independent vape shops out of business, hundreds of workers out of jobs, and thousands of Hoosiers at risk of returning to smoking, or delaying attempts at quitting.

Please take a minute to send an email to your lawmakers urging them to oppose this SB 227!