Attention Nebraska residents. Your access to vaping products is in grave danger.

The Big Tobacco Protection Act hopes to accomplish this by killing the independent vape industry and funnel sales to their own products. Nebraska’s state government will be enlisted to work as enforcement arm for federal regulators and Nebraskans will foot the bill. 

The Nebraska version of the Big Tobacco Protect Act must be stopped. We urge you click on the call-to-action banner below above to make your voice heard. You can also click here to make your opposition to LB1296 known. It is a comprehensive ban on the most popular products of the independent vaping industry. 

PMTA Registry Bills are a scheme that leaves either tobacco-industry manufactured fauxbacco flavored pods or actual cigarettes as the only two products left on convenience store shelves. 

You can also use CASAA’s legislator lookup to find who represents you and let them know that you vape, you vote, and that adult freedoms and consumer choice should not be stripped away to benefit the lobbyists with the deepest pockets.  

The tobacco industry hopes to destroy access to flavored vape. A recent FDA study showed that flavor bans increase cigarette sales. A Barclay's analysis of Altria's financials based on a shareholder meeting clarifies their goals.

Nebraska LB 1296: Vape Ban

A bill (LB 1296) known to advocates as “PMTA Registry” legislation has been introduced and referred to the General Committee. This bill is scheduled for a hearing on

• Monday, February 5, 2024
  1:30 PM
  Room 1510
• Advocates in Nebraska are encouraged to submit written testimony. You can do so by using the committee’s Online Comment Form. 

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.

A bill (LB 1296) known to advocates as “PMTA Registry” legislation has been introduced and referred to the General Committee. This bill is scheduled for a hearing on

• Monday, February 5, 2024
  1:30 PM
  Room 1510
• Advocates in Nebraska are encouraged to submit written testimony. You can do so by using the committee’s Online Comment Form.

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

Nebraskans Foot Bill for Big Tobacco Monopoly

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  Nebraska 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

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 conservatives Senators raise questions about the fairness of the entire process. 

To tilt the playing field decisively in their favor, Big Tobacco has 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 Nebraska Vape Sales Ban is to pass.