Trump backs off flavored vape ban he once touted
Some highlights:
Vapers who were proactive against Trump's proposed flavor ban appear to have had an effect on Trump reconsidering it. "Officials said the blowback to Trump’s vow to ban most flavored e-cigarettes had rattled him.
In an aggressive social media campaign — #IVapeIVote — advocates claimed the ban would shut down thousands of shops, eliminating jobs and sending vapers back to cigarettes. The president saw protesters at events and read critical articles. His campaign manager, Brad Parscale, privately warned the ban could hurt him in battleground states, said a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Trump was now upset with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who had taken the lead in rolling out the plan, said three officials familiar with the discussions.
“He didn’t know much about the issue and was just doing it for Melania and Ivanka,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share the discussions.
Late last week, more than a dozen White House officials met to try to find a way forward. “
Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma,” Trump tweeted last week. “Children’s health & safety,
together with jobs, will be a focus!”
...
just before stepping down, Gottlieb proposed restricting sales of most flavored e-cigarettes to adult-only stores, or ones with adult-only sections and heightened age verification. But the proposals were never finalized and by late summer, officials began getting new data that showed a second sharp increase in teen vaping. FDA and HHS officials decided an outright ban would be easier to enforce and more effective.
Joe Grogan, the head of the Domestic Policy Council, told reporters it was “a huge waste of time” for the agency to regulate tobacco products and wondered if there was a better place to do so. Internally, aides said there was no longer a united front.
On Nov. 9, Trump’s helicopter, taking him to the Alabama-LSU football game,
flew over hundreds (it was actually thousands--Baditude)
of vaping enthusiasts organizing to protest the flavor ban gathered on the Ellipse.
Emboldened vaping advocates said if the industry beats back a federal flavor ban, it must continue to flex its muscle to address proliferating state and local prohibitions, as well as a court-ordered deadline of May 2020 when manufacturers must file applications with the FDA to continue selling e-cigarettes. Firms that don’t file could be forced off the market.
“We need to reignite the issue and make the administration and the reelection team aware that the magnitude of the threat in May 2020 is just as huge and industry-crushing as the flavor ban is today,” said Greg Conley of the vaping association."
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Despite giving vaping advocates some newfound optimism, we can not slack off from continued calling the White House, emailing the President, and contacting our state representatives concerning this issue.
