Act Now to Stop the Maryland Vape Ban!

Maryland Bill HB 1033 has been introduced and referred to the House Committee on Economic Matters. HB 1033 is scheduled for a hearing on

• Tuesday, February 20, 2024
• 1:00 PM
• House Office Building, Room 230

*Written Testimony can only be submitted on Friday, February 16 between 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Please see “Witness Signup and Testimony Upload” below for instructions. You will need to create a free MyMGA account in order to upload your comments and sign up to testify in person or virtually. You can also click here or the banner below to visit the CASAA page dedicated to the Maryland vape ban. 

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

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.

MARYLAND HB 1033 VAPE BAN

Maryland Senate Bill HB 1033 is a classic “PMTA Registry” law. Similar versions are hitting every statehouse in the nation thanks to the lobbying of the tobacco industry.

Impact on Your Business

• Disproportionate Burden: Small to medium-sized vape businesses will face overwhelming financial and operational burdens due to extensive documentation and fees required.
• Threat to Business Viability: Over 90% of vaping products sold in stores today would become illegal, potentially forcing many businesses to close.
• Boost to Illicit Markets: The stringent regulations could drive consumers towards unregulated markets, compromising public health and safety while undermining legitimate businesses.
• Inhibits Innovation: The bill disproportionately affects disposable vaping products and stifles innovation in the vaping industry.

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. 

PMTA Registry Laws

PMTA Registry Laws are worded so that Big Tobacco’s products, the commercially viable models having not received PMTA authorization either, are still permitted for sale while rival products are barred from the state in every form and criminalized.

Big Tobacco is unwilling to provide higher margin products to businesses for resale or lower cost products per consumer, charging several times more per ml than their rivals. With unchecked control of the market, it is reasonable to assume these prices, and reseller profit margins, will continue to shrink. 

Your business is at stake and must make your voice heard. Big Tobacco’s vape products are lower margin products that simply are not as popular. If they could compete on a level field of play, they would not have to lobby for laws that create a monopoly and criminalize the competition. 

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 as the only option for inhaled nicotine products. Other than cigarettes. 

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 Maryland Vape Sales Ban is to pass.