A series of PMTA Registry laws have been unleashed on state legislatures across the US. The goal of these laws is to kill the independent vaping industry and give the tobacco industry control over the e-cig market. 

Dubbed the Big Tobacco Protection Act, these cookie-cutter laws earn this name by banning the products most popular with adult vapers and leaving tobacco industry vape pod kits on store shelves with a monopoly.

SF107 is the Wyoming PMTA Registry Law.  At the moment, no hearing is scheduled but this can quickly change. Click here or on the call-to-action banner below to visit CASAA and use their customizable email template to make your voice heard.

Under the Wyoming 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. This law flies in the face of that science and would leave less popular artificial-tobacco flavors as the only option.

Youth vaping rates have fallen every year since 2019 yet these laws represent the most aggressive attempt yet to kill the independent vape industry and deny adult vapers access to their preferred products and flavors. 

What if Wyoming SF107 Passes?

If enacted, Wyoming SF107 law would effectively make the state of Wyoming an enforcement arm of the Food and Drug Administration empowering state authorities to enforce the disastrous federal anti-vaping regulations.

Only a few obsolete nicotine vaping products have received full PMTA approval from the FDA and the entire process is under fire. While the most popular Big Tobacco manufactured products and Juul have also not received approval, they would be permitted due to the wording of the law. More cost-effective disposable vapes, still sold in the flavors that adult vapers prefer, would be barred.

In the event Big Tobacco's pod kits were to receive a marketing denial order from the FDA, there would literally be no e-cigs left to buy, as the approved devices are largely out of production and hopelessly obsolete cigalikes.

All of this would quickly put independent vape shops out of business, force convenience stores to sell expensive and lower margin products, put hundreds of workers out of jobs, and risk funneling thousands of vapers back onto combustible tobacco products as their preferred devices and flavors would be ripped from 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.

WYOMING Will 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?

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