VOTE NO on SB0763 by Yager / HB0968 by Hawk

This legislation seeks to create new state-level registration and enforcement systems targeting vapor products, particularly flavored options. Under the guise of strengthening FDA compliance, these more burdensome measures would require retailers to prove federal or judicial authorization for every product they sell – an impossible standard given the current regulatory environment and pending litigation, including a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead, this bill picks winners and losers by creating a de facto ban on most vapor products to the benefit of Big Tobacco, forcing small businesses to either remove products from shelves or face severe criminal and civil penalties.

While proponents claim these bills protect public health, it is a market consolidation tactic used by Big Tobacco to eliminate competition and boost profits in the vapor industry as cigarette sales continue to decline. This overreach threatens to destroy an entire industry of legitimate businesses.

This bill does nothing to address the youth vaping crisis in our state. TACIR recently considered a registry approach and did not recommend it is an effective way to combat youth access. Instead, a registry solidifies convenience stores as the main sales location of vapor products and rewards bad actors for being

The bill also proposes an unfair wholesale tax scheme with cigarettes being taxed at $0.62/pack, other tobacco at 6.6%, or $0.07/ml for closed vapor systems. Meanwhile, open-system vapor products that are only sold at vapor specialty stores would be taxed at a higher rate of 10%.