New Jersey’s Assembly Bill A1810 seeks to ban the sale of flavored cigarettes, non-premium cigars, and oral nicotine pouches. As a business owner, you must make your voice heard.

Below is a VTA call to action and we have also provided instructions for how to quickly navigate the Angel Fire level website that your taxpayer dollars have paid for below that. 

You can also fill out the VTA’s Call to Action here.

What If I Want to Personally Contact An Elected Official?

It will only take a few seconds to get to the "Contact Your State Representative Page" and it is crucial that you make your wishes known. Politicians represent you and answer to the voters. 

1. Click New Jersey Legislator Lookup
2. Either click on district map or enter your address
3. The map will remain static but a See District Details Button will appear at the top. Click on that to pull up your state assembly rep and state senator.
4. In this case, A1810 is an assembly bill but it is worth contacting all of the politicians listed using the form template provided. It is probably most powerful if you speak in your own voice about how your business and customers will be negatively impacted by this latest restriction on adult consumers. But just in case, we have provided a script below. 

What Should I Say to My to Local Representative?

Keep in mind that adult access to nicotine alternatives is a topic you care deeply about but your local legislator may not know a thing about, or more likely they are being influenced by tobacco-industry and prohibitionist lobbyists. Stay civil at all times.

It is unlikely they know about the huge declines in underage nicotine use, new studies verifying the efficacy of nicotine alternatives, or how the vape flavor ban of New Jersey is killing their constituents by increasing cigarette sales. 

1. I am a taxpaying business owner who responsibly verifies the age of my adult customers and responsible.
2. Underage sales of nicotine pouches to minors are negligible, while underage vaping rates have fallen to ten year lows.
3. There is an ever growing body of evidence about the advantages that alternative nicotine products have over combustibles such as cigarettes.
4. Flavor bans destroy jobs by limiting the products that law abiding businesses can sell. A recent study also showed that flavor bans destroy lives, as the New Jersey vape flavor ban increased cigarette sales.

Problems With AB1810

The classist impulse to ban flavored cigarettes and "non-premium" cigars whilst premium cigars are untouched and indoor smoking still permitted at cigar bars is not new. The lobbyists pushing for these laws likely know not a single vaper or smoker, yet have to answer to their friends at the country club who are not eager to have their freedoms curtailed for a contrived moral panic which just happens to boost the sale of regular cigarettes and the tax revenue they generate in the process.

Tobacco-free oral nicotine pouches have inexplicably been caught in the cross hairs this time. New Jersey's vape flavor ban increased cigarette sales and has been in effect for years at this point. With vaping levels at ten year lows and oral nicotine, there is no justification for the New Jersey Bill A1810 and it is a travesty their vape flavor ban has not been rescinded. These prohibitionary laws only inflict harm and misery.

Business Owners Must Make Their Voices Heard

As a business owner, A1810 is a direct attack on your business and adult customers. Popular products will be stripped from your store shelves and your business directly impacted.

You must make your voice heard or be deprived of revenue by a tobacco industry intent on creating a monopoly on shelves. Nicotine prohibitionist lobbying groups and Big Tobacco make strange bedfellows but their vision of restricting consumer freedom and funneling adult nicotine users back onto combustible cigarettes has come into focus with this New Jersey flavor ban.

Action Steps for Consumers

Fill out the VTA’s Call to Action here.  

Assembly Bill A1810 takes aim at oral nicotine pouches. These products are free from tobacco ingredients, being made from synthetic nicotine. Their rate of use is negligible among minors and previous efforts to ban popular ZYN flavors led to a major political backlash one year ago.

The ban on vape flavors has led to a rise in oral nicotine pouch use among adults. Restricting this alternative could have serious consequences. The people making these laws may not care about the consequences for adult consumers, but as a business owner your voice carries more weight.