Fda To Regulate E-Cigs As Tobacco Products

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Grimloki

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Apr 4, 2011
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What are you going to tax? PVs? Nicotine? PG? VG? If they get sold in a 7-11 then yes, you may get taxed. If you buy them off the internet like cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff, shisha, etc... then there is really no way they can enforce taxes, or bans, or any of that stuff.

Cigarette smokers are used to getting tax. Pipe smokers have happily been avoiding those taxes for, well.. forever. I think e-cigs are certainly up and coming... but its going to be much harder to pass those sin taxes on a relatively safe product... without looking like a real ........

I think as e-cigs get more mainstream, and people realize what they mean for health and welfare, that its going to become very uncool to discourage their adoption as doing so means encouraging smokers to continue to smoke.
 
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5vz

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Jan 19, 2011
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Errmmm....Isn't it illegal to ship tobacco products....or something like that?

I'm not sure. I used to order cigarettes online. It became illegal for a few months, then it was decided that the company you ordered from needed your name, address, social security number, to send to the government for taxing purposes. Taxing you I am assuming, I'm not sure, I did not want to do that so I quit ordering cigarettes online, that is when I started looking into ecigs after I got tired of paying store prices for regular cigs. I was looking for an excuse to quit bigger than cigs are bad for me anyway, so, there was one big enough for my pea brain. :facepalm:
 

bombtrack311

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Apr 6, 2011
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Atlanta, GA
Worse case scenario everyone will just have to buy unflavored ejuice and mix their own. You can't regulate food flavorings if they are purchased seperately. I think this will be a situation where the states most beholden to big pharma ad big tobacco will push for strict bans but most other states will settle for tighter safety regulations, which will increase costs by decreasing competition in the market. Ultimately the safety regulations are crucial for the long-term survival of our products, but that doesn't mean I wont get in the market while the oppurtunity for mom and pop stores stays open for the next year.
 

anim8r

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ECF Veteran
Oct 11, 2009
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Worse case scenario everyone will just have to buy unflavored ejuice and mix their own. You can't regulate food flavorings if they are purchased seperately. I think this will be a situation where the states most beholden to big pharma ad big tobacco will push for strict bans but most other states will settle for tighter safety regulations, which will increase costs by decreasing competition in the market. Ultimately the safety regulations are crucial for the long-term survival of our products, but that doesn't mean I wont get in the market while the oppurtunity for mom and pop stores stays open for the next year.

I've yet to see any instance where government involvement has done anything except to: remove freedom of choice, enact rediculous amounts of regulation and taxes on business owners, and drive the cost of any regulated product through the roof.

I hope you're right and people can simply mix their own flavors, but I would be willing to bet any amount of money that you'll need to get some sort of "dealer's license" to buy nicotine fortified mixing liquid (aka, "liquid tobacco product" in any amount even remotely useful over the internet.

Once the bigger companies get involved and start greasing the palms of their elected officials, our vaping choices and community are going to start changing significantly and none of it will be "better" than we have now.
 

WaltTheWerewolf

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Dec 11, 2010
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It sure is.

Plus, as far as I know, most states ban any flavoring in tobacco other than; natural (tobacco-flavor) and menthol.

naw, it kinda varies possibly by state, but you can usually buy NON-cigarette styled tobacco online such as Cigars etc. Some cigarette online stores exist but they alwqys looked shady to me. Flavors seem to only be controlled on Cigarettes, tobacco shops usually sell cigars in a wide selection of flavours, especially the Pipe stuff...and PVs seem more like a Pipe Hobby than regular cigarettes...but the whole E-Cig label could toss us in the cigarette section which i dont like!
 

anouk

Full Member
Feb 20, 2010
36
0
West Coast USA
Errmmm....Isn't it illegal to ship tobacco products....or something like that?

This was my understanding, as a law student (but not researched or perfected):

The Interstate Commerce Clause gives the federal government the right to control any sale of products from one state to another--to regulate or prevent. The federal Jenkins Act was instituted in 1950 or so; it put the burden on the purchaser to self report the purchase and pay appropriate state taxes to the state. It was a pretty toothless means of obtaining taxes since there was really no incentive for the buyer to report taxes.

It was legal until very recently for Indian tribes to sell on a retail basis to individuals WITHOUT the Jenkins taxation controls. As putative sovereign nations, they were outside of the reach of the Interstate Commerce Clause. But Jenkins was modified by the PACT act, which effectively brought Indian tribes under the purview of Jenkins. (see http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0362.pdf --note it is a biased source).

So the loophole was closed up--and made a lot of tribes really angry, both because it bypassed the point of their sovereignty and more importantly that they were making a ....load off of new internet sales. There were even some near riots at Indian cigarette outlets in New York. But PACT made unfeasible to continue making a profit and the dangers in failing to comply correctly made it dangerous to continue. So domestic sale of tobacco (except for pipe and cigar, strangely enough) is really hard to find.
 

LibertyValance

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Apr 28, 2011
112
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Tampa, FL
I am REALLY looking forward to the regulations, even if they raise prices and limit choices. As has been pointed out, nothing can prevent you from adding your own flavoring. People don't realize just how much the government contributes to food and drug safety. I really look forward to ending the days where anybody can sell anything made from anything and not even list the ingredients.
 
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