Act Now to Stop Utah Vape Ban!

Attention vape resellers, and wholesalers. Your livelihood is in jeopardy.

SB 61 is a proposed Utah law that will serve as a comprehensive ban on nicotine vapes. SB 61 was amended along the way to include a ban on flavors other than mint, menthol, or tobacco in vapor products to appease anti-tobacco activists.

**Utah’s legislative session ends on March 1, 2024 and we expect this bill to move rapidly.**

Act Now to Stop Utah SB61

Click here or on the call-to-action banner below to visit CASAA and use their customizable email template to make your voice heard. 

Utah’s legislature is playing both sides of the field by banning flavors to placate health groups while doing cigarette companies the favor of quashing their competitors in the vapor market. Meanwhile, consumers are being pushed into the dark corners of an underground nicotine market as special interest groups tally up donations and cigarette makers rack up sales.

If enacted, this law would effectively make the state of Utah 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, hundreds of workers out of jobs, and thousands of people at risk of returning to smoking, or delaying attempts at quitting.

Please take a minute to send an email to your lawmakers urging them to oppose SB 61!

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.

Utah PMTA Registry Bill

Under the Utah 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. It also bars flavors.

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 Utah SB61 Passes?

If enacted, Utah SB61 would make the state of Utah 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.

This law would put independent vape shops out of business, force convenience stores to sell expensive and lower margin tobacco flavored products, put hundreds of workers out of jobs, and force thousands of adult vapers to choose between less-appealing artificial tobacco flavored pods and combustible cigarettes. Both being manufactured by the tobacco 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.

Utah WILL PAY FOR A 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 Utah Vape Sales Ban is to pass.