NY bill (SB 4365) would tax e-cigarettes at 95% of wholesale price, hike moist snuff tax from $2 to $3.33 per ounce

[Bill Godshall]

NY legislation (SB 4365) would tax e-cigarettes at 95% of wholesale price, would increase tax on moist snuff from $2 to $3.33 per ounce, referred to Health Cmte.
Bills

 

[dsy5]

AND ALSO INCLUDES ANY OTHER
7 PRODUCT CONTAINING tobacco OR NICOTINE THAT IS INTENDED OR EXPECTED TO
8 BE CONSUMED EXCEPT FOR ANY SUCH PRODUCT THAT HAS BEEN APPROVED BY THE
9 U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION FOR SALE AS A tobacco USE CESSATION
10 PRODUCT OR FOR OTHER MEDICAL PURPOSES AND IS BEING MARKETED AND SOLD
11 SOLELY FOR THAT APPROVED PURPOSE.

Seems the only way around this one is to get ecigs classified as a cessation product - and that probably won't happen or would take years to be classified as such. Time to move out of NY...

 

[SilverCloud]

Yep...Big tobacco is getting ...... off again. They're losing money from their lack of cancer stick sales. Eeeek.

 

[dsy5]

Bill, I sent the sponsor of this bill the following comment:

Thanks for attempting to outprice the only thing that has successfully gotten me off smoking cigarettes. I'm referring to the personal vaporizer or as it is commonly mis-named, the electronic cigarette. This is in fact one of the most effective cessation devices I have ever used and I have tried them all (with the exception of the mind altering and dangerous Chantix, which has been fully endorsed by this state). Perhaps you have never smoked and don't have the need to have an alternative method of relieving the addiction of cigarettes. I fully agree that tobacco products are dangerous to ones health and that taxation can be a way to influence its use. But you are attempting to tax something that has benefitted the health of many hundreds of thousands of people. By pricing these devices out of the reach of individuals, you will surely drive them back to the thing that you apparently want us to stop using: cigarerttes. I would ask that you reconsider the inclusion of personal vaporizers, aka electronic cigarettes, and their associated accessories from this bill.

I'm sure I will get a canned response from State Sen Jose' Rivera, but more vaping New Yorkers should flood his office with responses...

 

[mgmrick]

It has always been about the tax