Washington residents, your access to vaping productsis in danger. Big Tobacco's newest scheme is to eliminate the independent vape industry is to pass a series of PMTA Registry Bills at the state level across the nation. Washington Bill SB 6118 is one of the vape ban laws. 

These laws 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.

These restrictions are already in place in Oklahoma, and Louisiana. CASAA refers to this self-serving piece of legislation as the Big Tobacco Protection Act. They are a de facto vape ban. Click here to make your voice heard. 

If passed, PMTA Registry bills will 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. 

Washington is the most recent target of this full-court press.

We urge you click on this call to action to make your voice heard by completing the form. 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 vaping, and remove virtually every product from the market that is not made by Big Tobacco.

Washington Senate Bill SB 6118: Vape Ban

SB 6118 is a “PMTA Registry” law and has been introduced and referred to the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.

This bill is scheduled for a public hearing on:

MONDAY, January 22, 10:30 AM

Senate Hearing Room 1

John A. Cherberg Building

304 15th Avenue SW – Olympia WA 98504

Please make plans to attend and or testify at this hearing. Details on options for presenting testimony can be found, here, on the Senate Committee Sign In Page.

If enacted, this law would effectively make the state of Washington 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 Washington residents at risk of returning to smoking, or delaying transition to non-combustible alternatives.

Please take a minute to send an email to your lawmakers urging them to oppose SB 6118. 

Consumers Will Pay More

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 price increases to nearly $350. A Lost Mary MT15000 Turbo costs a $63 to vape the same amount of e-liquid.

This does not even account for the fact that a legally enforced monopoly will provide the tobacco industry with the freedom to raise prices further.

Under the Washington 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.

National Scourge of PMTA Registry Bills 

The tobacco industry has been unwilling or unable to compete with the independent vape industry in terms of price and innovation. 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 PMTA Registry Bills are a heavy-handed gambit to claim a monopoly on the market.  

Due to a ban on flavored pods that passed in response to 2018 “Teen Vaping Epidemic”, Big Tobacco are unable to offer the flavors that adults prefer. 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 Washington Vape Sales Ban is to pass.