Is Big Tobacco on the Verge of an E-Cigarette Takeover?

[Ardo]

French E-Cigarette Ruling Looms Large For U.S.

 

[AgentAnia]

Good article, well worth the read. I question this, however:

“Most of the people who sell e-cigarettes in the U.S. already have a tobacco license," said Spike Babaian, co-owner of e-cigarette retailer VapeNY. "The only ones that don’t are the mom-and-pop shops."

That means many e-cigarette shops won't have to halt sales if the FDA demands they get a license to sell tobacco. Lucky for those small-shop owners, obtaining the license doesn't cost much time or money—about two weeks and $200 in New York City, according to store managers.

I was under the impression that most B&Ms that sell anything more than cigalikes are "mom and pops" and do not have tobacco licenses. And I'm not sure it's quite as easy as expressed to obtain one. Don't municipalities control rather strictly who gets a tobacco license and who doesn't? Or am I wrong?

 

[2coils]

Good article, well worth the read. I question this, however:



I was under the impression that most B&Ms that sell anything more than cigalikes are "mom and pops" and do not have tobacco licenses. And I'm not sure it's quite as easy as expressed to obtain one. Don't municipalities control rather strictly who gets a tobacco license and who doesn't? Or am I wrong?

Even if its not hard to get a license NOW, we all know that can change. Just something else that can be slipped into legislation.

 

[AgentAnia]

The more I think about it, though, comparing US to France may be apples to oranges. It looks like France controls tobacco licenses on the national level (?) while in the US it's controlled at the state and local levels (?).

 

[Uma]

A license is the LAST THING we need. Trust me. Changelabsolutions has it laid out in black & white how to distract with petty fights, sneak licensing in, then shill us out of business one by one. Please take serious notice of how the councils ALWAYS says, "vaping is fine until some ONE complains". Nobody ever even fights that phrase because the council knows they've played the petty game well.
Fight the til some ONE complains, & fight any required licensing of a non pharmecutical, non tobacco, non harmful, optional non nicotine product.
changelabsolutions. org/sites/default/files/Final%20TRL%20presentation_20130628.pdf

 

[Cool_Breeze]

“Most of the people who sell e-cigarettes in the U.S. already have a tobacco license," said Spike Babaian, co-owner of e-cigarette retailer VapeNY. "The only ones that don’t are the mom-and-pop shops."

If once considers the number outlets offering any form of ecig, the traditional tobacco retailers (Wal-Mart, corner cigarette shops, convenience stores) vastly outnumber the mom and pop ecig specialty shops. Those outlets would have a tobacco license.

 

[pamdis]

The bigger problem with a tobacco license is that it (I believe) requires you to purchase from a licensed distributor. That is so they can track and collect the tobacco taxes. So if a license is required, it would not only put some shops out of business because the locality decides there are enough licenses out already, but those that do get them would only be able to sell whatever their distributor makes available to them. And how many of them do you think will carry anything other than BT cigalikes and their sealed cartridges?