Attention New Hampshire residents, your access to vaping products is in danger. 

Big Tobacco has unleashed a wave of state laws across the country that will destroy the independent vape industry and funnel vapers directly into their waiting arms.  

Referred to as PMTA Registry Bills, they will make the state serve as the enforcement arm for failing FDA policies. And they are written so that even though the tobacco industry’s most popular vape products have not received FDA authorization either, they will be permitted to stay on store shelves while rival products will be barred.

ACT NOW TO PROTECT VAPING

We urge you click on the call-to-action banner below above to make your voice heard. You can also click here or 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.  

HB1591 Is an End-Run Vape Ban by Sponsored by Big Tobacco

HB1591 known to advocates as “PMTA Registry” legislation has been introduced and referred to the Committee Commerce and Consumer Affairs. This bill is scheduled for a public hearing on:

• Tuesday, February 6, 2024
  11:00 AM
  Legislative Office Building (LOB) Room 305

• New Hampshire advocates are encouraged to submit written testimony through the House of Representatives Online Submission Portal.

If enacted, this law would effectively make the state of New Hampshire 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.

Please take a minute to send an email to your state representative urging them to oppose HB 1591!

PMTA Registry laws are already in place in Oklahoma, and Louisiana. All told, similar laws are being proposed in dozens of states. CASAA refers to this cookie-cutter wave of laws as the “Protect Big Tobacco Act”. Make no mistake. It is protecting Big Tobacco by enacting a de facto vape ban.  

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.

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.

Adult Vapers Pay More for Less Under Law

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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire Vape Sales Ban is to pass.