Your freedom to sell adult vapers the products they prefer is now in grave peril. Traditional channels have been closed and the hearing on the future of vaping in South Carolina will be held on 2/29/2024. There will be no testimony that day, but South Carolina vapers can and must submit their story to terrakelly@scsenate.gov. 

Make your voice heard. Explain how your business and customers will be impacted when the Big Tobacco Protection Act removes trusted independent vape brands from the market and forces South Carolina taxpayers to pay for a Big Tobacco monopoly. 

Big Tobacco Protection Act South Carolina

South Carolina now has a PMTA Registry Law under discussion. These laws are a de facto vape ban designed to put the marketplace rivals to Big Tobacco out of business and leave their more expensive and lower-margin products as the last vape standing.

While advocates of the bill claim it exists to fight a teen vaping epidemic, not only has youth vaping dropped sixty percent and dropped for four consecutive years, but the FDA themselves refuse to apply the term "epidemic" to declining numbers and fewer than 3 percent of teens vaping daily. 

The bill in question is S 994 and known to advocates has been introduced and referred to the Senate Committee on Medical Affairs. Feel free to complete the call to action below in conjunction with the email directly to the South Carolina Senate, address in graphic shown above. 

PLEASE CLICK THE CALL TO ACTION IMAGE ABOVE OR HERE. THE PMTA REGISTRY BILL SCHEME IS DESIGNED TO REMOVE CONSUMER CHOICE BY BANNING PRODUCTS FROM THE INDEPENDENT VAPE INDUSTRY AND PROVIDE BIG TOBACCO WITH A MONOPOLY.  You can also use the Legislator Lookup to find who represents you and let them know that you vape, you vote, and that this scheme will destroy jobs and lives.

These laws are carefully crafted and appearing in statehouses across the country. While turning state governments into an enforcement arm for the FDA, they are not in truth acting on the wishes of regulators.

The tobacco industry products that will still be permitted under PMTA Registry Laws have not received PMTA authorization either.

If the FDA were to issue an MDO against them, all vapes would be barred 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. 

Consumer Freedom

A legally enforced monopoly will provide the tobacco industry with the freedom to raise prices further and the profit margin for resellers.  

Every popular disposable will be gone from the market if this passes, leaving Vuse, Juul and MyBlu with a virtual monopoly.

A recent FDA study showed that flavor bans increase cigarette sales. Vape shop owners have seen firsthand how many customers have benefitted from alternative vaping products. The crime should be funneling these loyal adult customers back onto cigarettes not providing adults with access to vapes in the flavors they prefer.

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.

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