FDA Imposes a Slow-Motion Ban on E-Cigarettes

Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced what amounts to a slow-motion ban on e-cigarettes, ignoring the pleas of harm reduction advocates who say it makes no sense to prevent smokers from switching to nicotine products that are indisputably much less hazardous than the ones they are using now. The FDA rule, a preliminary version of which was published two years ago, effectively requires e-cigarette manufacturers to get their products approved as "new tobacco products," an expensive, arduous, and time-consuming process that will be prohibitive for most of them.

Each application is expected to cost $1 million or more, and a separate application will be required for each version of a product—an impossible burden for small businesses that sell vaporizers along with dozens of custom-made fluids. Even large companies that can afford to apply for approval may be unable to persuade the FDA that "permitting such tobacco product to be marketed would be appropriate for the protection of the public health," a requirement set by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Such appropriateness "shall be determined with respect to the risks and benefits to the population as a whole, including users and nonusers of the tobacco product, and taking into account (A) the increased or decreased likelihood that existing users of tobacco products will stop using such products; and (B) the increased or decreased likelihood that those who do not use tobacco products will start using such products."

The "population as a whole" standard means the FDA may reject products even when they are clearly much less dangerous than conventional cigarettes (as e-cigarettes are), based on concerns about how nonsmokers might react to them. Will teenagers who otherwise never would have tried tobacco experiment with e-cigarettes, get hooked on nicotine, and then move on to smoking? There is very little evidence that is happening, but how can a company prove to the FDA it won't happen? And when it comes to assessing the relative hazards of vaping and smoking, will the FDA be satisfied by the observation that e-cigarettes, as noncombustible, tobacco-free products, produce far fewer toxins in much smaller amounts than conventional cigarettes do? Or will it demand long-term research that is impossible given the short history and uncertain future of e-cigarettes?

The FDA's press release, which parrots the CDC's scientifically absurd position that increases in adolescent vaping wipe out the public health gains from decreases in adolescent smoking, does not bode well for companies that hope to meet the agency's demands. "While there has been a significant decline in the use of traditional cigarettes among youth over the past decade," the FDA says, "their use of other tobacco products continues to climb." The FDA, like the CDC, counts e-cigarettes as "other tobacco products," even though they contain no tobacco. That label implies a false equivalence. "As cigarette smoking among those under 18 has fallen, the use of other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, has taken a drastic leap," says Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. "All of this is creating a new generation of Americans who are at risk of addiction. Today's announcement is an important step in the fight for a tobacco-free generation."

Burwell seems to think that what matters is the "risk of addiction," as opposed to the risk of smoking-related disease. She also seems to believe that a "tobacco-free generation" is one that not only consumes no tobacco but does not dabble in e-cigarettes either—even the nicotine-free kind, by far the most popular choice among teenagers. If these are the principles that will guide the FDA's regulatory decisions, the e-cigarette industry is well and truly screwed.

But not immediately. "The FDA expects that manufacturers will continue selling their products for up to two years while they submit—and an additional year while the FDA reviews—a new tobacco product application," the agency says. "The FDA will issue an order granting marketing authorization where appropriate; otherwise, the product will face FDA enforcement."

An amendment approved by the House Appropriations Committee last month would protect the vaping industry from that threat by allowing e-cigarettes currently on the market to stay there without winning approval as new tobacco products. (The current grandfather date is February 15, 2007, when the industry barely existed.) Even that solution would impede innovation and safety improvements, since pre-market approval would still be required for new products. The FDA's regulatory scheme, in other words, privileges the most dangerous nicotine delivery devices (conventional cigarettes) while threatening to eliminate much safer alternatives and blocking the introduction of even better products. All in the name of public health.

Resource : http://reason.com/blog/2016/05/05/fda-imposes-a-slow-motion-ban-on-e-cigar

Best Place To Buy Electronic Cigarettes Online in 2016

Electronic cigarettes are extremely popular, and rightfully so. They are a great alternative for quitting cigarettes, fun to tinker with and understand how the electronic components rate within, and are generally just pleasant to sit and puff on with so many flavors to taste and try. However, they can quickly spiral out of control in price. The truth is, electronic cigarettes don’t require a user to break the bank in order to get the best experience possible. Many places, typically brick-and-mortar, physical stores would charge a premium for some electronic cigarettes.
Best Place to get an Electronic Cigarette Starter Kit: MigVapor

I had heard a lot about MigVapor through forums and discussions, so I was curious to learn more about their website and the electronic cigarettes offered. MigVapor offers several custom starter-kits, which run Mig Vapor exclusive rigs. The most deserving of the honorable mention is the SR72 Aspire 1300 kit. Mig Vapor constantly changes their electronic cigarettes around, as well as the starter kits and what is sold to customers, and the 1300 is the biggest step in the right direction to date. The SR72 Aspire 1300 kit runs an Aspire clearomizer metal tank, engraved with the Mig Vapor logo. This metal tank is fairly resistant, and while it


does unfortunately have a little plastic window, this tank can hold juices which are known to scald or destroy plastic tanks (at a low enough mg, typically under 12 mg.) The atomizers/coils can be found throughout, and are on the cheaper side in terms of coils (online, I was able to find a 5 pack of coils for $7.99 – for a hardcore user who changes coils once a week, that should last a little over a month). Included in the SR72 Aspire 1300 starter kit are two custom-built EVOD type batteries, two tanks custom engraved with MigVapors’ logo, 5 replacement coils, a carrying case, and a few more little bells and whistles. The SR72 Aspire 1300 starter kit is available for just under $100 at the time of this writing, and for what seems like a high price, no maintenance should have to be performed on it for at least 2 to 3 months for a new user or the average user.

MigVapor also has numerous other products, including hand-crafted artisan juices, any coils for any of the tanks they sell, and numerous other starter kits which can be found for far cheaper than the afore-mentioned $100, but not as complete of a package.

Best Place to Shop for Electronic Cigarette Parts and Juice: VaporFi

VaporFi is relatively new to the electronic cigarette scene, yet has made a far-reaching resounding impact. VaporFi has numerous starter kit options, which range from a low $29.99 for an evod-stick style type electronic cigarette, all the way up to the holy grail of the Vice Starter Kit at $99.99. VaporFi offers a great deal of customization for their customers, and also include a free bottle of juice on most orders. VaporFi has a variety of products, and also includes “cig-a-like” options with refillable cartridges. The website also has a Custom Vaporizer Builder, which is a neat feature that allows a user to select a battery, pick out a tank, and add accessories and juices for a discount. Pro kits are also available, which are considered entry-level electronic cigarettes, but also include a nice variable wattage for those who aren’t sure of what type of vape they want yet. VaporFi is very flexible in its options for not only starter kits but also its options – high quality, VaporFi custom boxes are available, which seem to be on the higher end of things (the VaporFi VOX TC in particular caught my eye), as well as other well-known brands, such as Kangertech and Innokin.

VaporFi is very flexible in its offerings to anyone who is looking to get into the electronic cigarette world.
Resource : http://gazettereview.com/2016/01/best-place-buy-electronic-cigarettes-online/

3 men severely burned when e-cigarette batteries explode file lawsuit

Three California men filed lawsuits against the makers, wholesalers and retailers of e-cigarettes Thursday, alleging that the products’ batteries exploded, causing severe injuries, including second-degree burns, shattered teeth and in one case, the loss of half a finger.

The three men, one of whom is a former L.A. Galaxy player, are seeking damages as well as hoping to raise awareness about the lack of regulation in the making of e-cigarettes, battery-operated devices that deliver nicotine with flavorings, said their attorney, Gregory Bentley.

In a press conference held in Glendale, Bentley called the e-cigarette industry unknown territory because 90 percent of the products and batteries are made in China, and there is no way to hold those companies accountable.

The device’s batteries can explode during vaping, charging, or during transport, Bentley said.

“This is an unregulated industry this is causing harm across the country,” Bentley said. “It’s been a national problem and public safety is at risk.”

• VIDEO: Lawyer Gregory Bentley, victim Vicente Garza talk at press conference

Data compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency found 25 incidences of e-cigarette explosions from 2009 to 2014. The e-cigarette industry started to gain ground in the United States in 2007.

But that data may be incomplete, Bentley said, because FEMA compiled that information based only news reports.

Each of the plaintiffs said they suffered injuries from explosions this year:

• Daniel Califf, an Orange County resident and former Major League Soccer player who played with the Galaxy from 2000 to 2005, suffered second degree burns on his neck, ear and face, as well as facial fractures after an e-cigarette he was using blew up in February.

• Gregory Phillips, Jr., a Bakersfield resident, suffered second-degree burns to his left leg after his e-cigarette exploded in his pocket in September; the burns resulted in the need for skin grafts at the Grossman Burn Center at San Joaquin Community Hospital.

• Vicente Garza, also a resident of Bakersfield, suffered injuries to his mouth and tongue, as well as shattered his teeth in October in an explosion while vaping the e-cigarette; the explosion shattered his bathroom mirror and he lost half of his left index finger.
“It was a traumatic experience,” Garza, 23, said during the press conference. A former smoker who worked in the oil fields of Texas, Garza said he turned to e-cigarettes to help him quit tobacco a year ago.

“I still feel pain in my finger and I can’t sleep,” he said. “I never thought in my life this would happen.”

No federal agency oversees the e-cigarette industry, said Ray Story, founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association. The nonprofit trade association works to create a sensible and responsible electronic cigarette market, Story said.

Story said he initiated the litigation against the FDA, claiming e-cigarettes was indeed a tobacco product and should be regulated as such. He won the suit five years ago and the FDA submitted its proposal for regulations to the White House last month.

• PHOTOS: Injuries victims suffered from exploding e-cigarette batteries

But Story said most e-cigarette products and the lithium batteries and chargers are safe, although it’s up to the wholesalers and retailers to buy products that are better known. In the drive to make money, some business owners choose cheaper products, he added.

“The retailer has some responsibility,” Story said. “They’re going to have to buy quality, not quantity. That is a big problem.”

Story also said explosions occur when the product is misused. Despite that, he said e-cigarettes are helping millions of people cut tobacco use.

The federal government does have some idea as to the possibilities of danger. Last month, the Department of Transportation issued a ban on passengers and air crew members from carrying e-cigarettes on board airplanes. No e-cigarettes are allowed in luggage.

Bentley said the trio of lawsuits weren’t his first. In September, a Corona woman he represented won nearly $2 million after she plugged in her e-cigarette charger in her car and it exploded, burning her dress and causing second-degree burns on her thighs.

With the popularity of e-cigarettes increasing and an industry that is said to be worth more than $2.5 billion and growing, Bentley warned that more injuries are possible. He said ever since he won the Corona case in September, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

“We have a problem with this industry with a lack of accountability,” he said. “This is a problem that is going to continue to grow.”

Resource : http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20151119/3-men-severely-burned-when-e-cigarette-batteries-explode-file-lawsuit

Smokers stub out traditional cigarettes in favour of ‘vaping’

South Africans are vaping up a storm.

E-cigarette franchises, between 60 and 70 in the country, are reporting exponential growth in the local market as traditional cigarette smokers use the devices to quit tobacco based cigarettes.

One of the biggest local brands, Twisp, reports that it grew 4,000% between 2012 and 2016.

The owner of four e-cigarette stores in Gauteng, Sharri Van Zyl, said she believes the local growth in the habit is because South African smokers are discovering what she did in 2012: "They can still get their hit of addictive nicotine without being out of breath and struggling up stairs."

She and her business partner Warren Pleass were so convinced by how e-cigarettes helped them quit smoking in 2013 that they started Vape King, a shop selling e cigarettes. Growth of 10% a year for two years, was followed by the 65% growth of their four vape shops in Gauteng in the past year and the doubling of their customers from 8,000-15,000.

Some customers come once a week to get the latest model, said Van Zyl, whose shop offers regular upgrades, accessories, covers, different flavours and longer lasting batteries.

"It’s like any gadget in the technology world. "What was cool six months ago is not cool now. Devices have advanced so much in recent years," said Pleass.

There is even a one day conference for vapers in August. In its second year, the conference will draw 40 exhibitors, double last year’s amount. Events include competitions to blow different sizes and shapes of vape "smoke".

"It’s a community," said Van Zyl.

While many doctors and scientists support e- cigarettes as a way to quit smoking, a new study has raised concern that an increasing number of teenagers who had never smoked cigarettes are experimenting with e-cigarettes.

The study, published in the journal of American Academy of Pediatrics found that: "E-cigarettes are not merely substituting for cigarettes … e-cigarette use is occurring in adolescents who would not otherwise have used tobacco products."

But in SA, a survey conducted by Twisp of 4,000 of its clients found that 98% were previous smokers.

The Electronic Cigarettes Association of SA says its member organisations do not provide e-cigarettes to teenagers, do not sell e-cigarettes with dangerous chemicals that can cause popcorn lung, and provides warning labels on liquids to warn that children should not swallow them.

Derek Yach, former head of tobacco control at the World Health Organisation says there are two choices — let a million people die from lung cancer a year globally or offer them e-cigarettes

Resource : http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/health/2016/07/13/smokers-stub-out-traditional-cigarettes-in-favour-of-vaping

New California tobacco laws in effect

California is the second state in the nation, following Hawaii, to raise the minimum age for tobacco sales from 18 to 21

SACRAMENTO — The minimum age of sale for tobacco products in California now is 21. For the first time, e-cigarettes are added to the existing definition of tobacco products. California is the second state in the nation, following Hawaii, to raise the minimum age for tobacco sales from 18 to 21.

“[This] marks a significant moment in California history as new tobacco control laws go into effect statewide. This is the first time the Golden State has raised the age of sale for tobacco since the law first took effect 144 years ago,” said Dr. Karen Smith, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) director, and state health officer. “Our focus is on reaching more than 34,000 retailers with tobacco licenses and vape shops to provide them the information and resources needed to comply with the new tobacco 21 law.”

To help retailers comply with these new laws, CDPH developed a series of educational materials, including age-of-sale warning signs, window clings reminding customers of the new law and tips to help clerks check identification.

About 34,000 Californians die each year from tobacco use. In addition, tobacco-related diseases cost Californians $18.1 billion each year in both direct and indirect healthcare costs due to premature death and low productivity due to illness.

As part of the new law defining e-cigarettes as tobacco products, e-cigarettes, e-liquids including vaping devices and accessories can no longer be sold in self-service displays. E-cigarettes are also not allowed in locations where smoking has long been prohibited, including public transit, worksites, restaurants, schools, and playgrounds. Approximately 217,000 California youth between the ages of 12 and 17 currently smoke traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

“California is taking a big step forward in preventing a new generation of young people from becoming addicted to nicotine,” said Dr. Smith. “The surge in e-cigarette use among teens and young adults is no accident. The tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing of e-cigarette gadgets and candy flavors is jeopardizing the health of our young people.”

Many e-cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive neurotoxin. Research shows that the brain continues to develop until age 25, and nicotine exposure before that age may cause permanent brain damage and fuel a lifelong battle with addiction. According to the California Department of Education’s California Healthy Kids Survey, middle and high school teens are currently using e-cigarettes at much higher rates than traditional cigarettes. Studies also show that teens who use e-cigarettes are three times more likely to start smoking traditional cigarettes within a year.

For those struggling with nicotine addiction, resources are available at www.nobutts.org. Californians who want help quitting can call the California Smokers’ Helpline at 1-800-NO BUTTS.
About the California Tobacco Control Program

The California Tobacco Control Program was established by the Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act of 1988. California’s comprehensive approach has changed social norms around tobacco use and secondhand smoke. California’s tobacco control efforts have reduced both adult and youth smoking rates by 50 percent, saved more than one million lives and have resulted in $134 billion worth of savings in health care costs. Learn more at TobaccoFreeCA.com.
About the Food and Drug Branch

The California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch is charged with enforcing the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act, and conducts ongoing illegal sales enforcement operations. California retailers caught selling tobacco products to minors during these enforcement operations are subject to fines up to $6,000.

Resource : http://comptonherald.com/new-california-tobacco-laws-effect/

From Alabama to Colombia: Smoking in the Moonlight

 It lay on its back in the middle of a walkway between two apartment buildings near mine. The neighborhood in the north of Bogotá, Santa Barbara, normally feels normal and secure. Roses grow here, and prowling cats slink over metal security fences.

A bright full moon rose over the eastern Andes, but I still had to look twice at what I saw in front of me. A tiny discarded box rested smack in the middle of the sidewalk. On its cover, I made out a Marlboro Blue Ice brand, with these words: Fumar Causa Aborto. (Smoking causes abortions.)

I felt a thunderclap of shock—and horror—at the graphic. A little aborted fetus lay in a pool of blood.

At first, the graphic image on the package failed to register. I thought, absurdly, of ET, the extraterrestrial, knocked flat on his ass in a rollicking ketchup fight.

They pull no punches with cigarette package warning labels in Colombia.

At the friendly neighborhood supermarket, Carulla, I found a display for cigarettes at the checkout counter, right over the pork skins and chewing gum. The grisly images on the packages, and their grim labels, shocked me yet again.

Lucky Strike advertised smoke-rotted lungs (Fumar Daña Tus Pulmones: Smoking Damages Your Lungs). A huge inflamed red Sauron eye on the Belmonts stared balefully at buyers (Fumar Causa Problemas Oculas: Smoking Causes Eye Problems).

Other brand labels displayed children wearing oxygen masks, with second-hand smoke warnings. I saw women with missing tracheae and tubes snaking into their necks. I flinched at the worst gums and teeth I’ve seen since visiting the sheep-herder country of rural Ireland 20 years ago.

Colombia has joined some 80 other countries that mandate graphic labeling on cigarette packages. In Britain and Australia, cigarette packages carry no branding at all. Smokers simply reach for the aborted fetus or the box with a cutaway set of lungs that look inside like the aftermath of a suicide bombing.

In the United States, tobacco companies have successfully fended off graphic image efforts, claiming violations of free speech. Cigarette packages only hold text warnings about the danger of smoking: a habit that kills one of every two long-term customers. The same written labels have been on packages for 30 years now, and it’s been a half century since the public first read “Smoking and Health,” the landmark surgeon general’s report that scientifically linked cigarettes with health hazards.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking causes 13 different kinds of cancer (among many other physical problems) and kills nearly 500,000 U.S. citizens a year … one in every five deaths. A court decision in 2006 (United States v. Philip Morris) found tobacco companies in the states guilty of fraudulently covering up the health risks associated with smoking and of marketing their products to children.

My own father, who smoked past age 40 then switched to cigars, died at age 74 of cardiovascular disease. He had his first heart attack at age 54.

Honestly, I wish he’d seen a graphic label somewhere as a teen. Maybe the old coot would still be around.

 I never took up smoking. I did breathe a lot of second-hand smoke, much of it sitting under a pine in the front yard of the family house on Parish Street in Dothan, Alabama.

Daddy and Mr. McAllister, the neighbor across the street, met outside in the cool of summer evenings and smoked and told stories. Owls hooted in the woods. The tips of cigarettes looked like soldering irons.

Smoking would have been easy for me, since lots of folks around used tobacco products of some sort. My debonair uncle John smoked. He would later die of lung cancer. My granddaddy dipped snuff. You could always locate Bill McCrory’s Dodge in a parking lot by simply finding the truck with brown spit stains on the door.

I give credit to one man—Doug Tew—for saving me from Mr. Nicotine.

Dougie, as we knew him in 1966, helped run things at Dothan Recreation Center, where I played summer sports and splashed in the pool (when it didn’t stand starkly empty during a polio scare). Dougie chewed Red Man tobacco, and I’m not sure I ever saw him without a bulge. Rumored to be part Native American—a real red man—Dougie went about his chores sporting a dramatic tan that made him exotic to me and other little leaguers.

At age 12, I made Dothan’s Dixie Youth Baseball all-star team. Our players knew we’d soon be matched against teams from other towns in the state, and civic pride kicked in. For extra practice, a few of us showed up unscheduled after church one Sunday to shag flies and field grounders.

Dougie happened to be around, and he agreed to coach us that day. The man with the tan encouraged us to “get some vitamins” by taking off our shirts. (I freckled audibly for 10 minutes, then turned the color of a boiled weenie.) We hustled after baseballs for hours, and sweated nearly to dehydration. July days in Alabama climb well into the 90s, often with 90-percent humidity (the Gulf of Mexico lies an hour south).

We were 12. We were boys. We were good at baseball, the national pastime of that past time, and we grew up dreaming of the big leagues. We watched TV broadcasts by Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. We marveled at the mythological skills of our heroes. Mine happened to be a fellow Alabamian named Hank Aaron, whose Milwaukee Braves had just moved to Atlanta. It didn’t matter to me that Hank was black. He was from Alabama, he wore number 44, and he hit 44 home runs year after year.

I never knew about Hammerin’ Hank, but many baseball players we watched on Saturdays chewed tobacco. We chewed bubble gum to copy them, expectorating often and massively, just the way the players did. We wanted to be like Mickey and Yogi and Hank.

At the end of Doug Tew’s Sunday workout, a group of limp, exhausted all-stars sprawled in the grass. Dougie approached, bat still in hand. He’d hardly broken a sweat. Dougie reached for his Red Man pouch.

“Hey Dougie! Let us try some!” a boy yelled. And a cry went up: “Yeah! Yeah! Let us try some!”

So Dougie let us try some. We eagerly pulled plugs from his Red Man pouch and placed them, as instructed, between cheek and gum. I grew dizzy immediately. A couple of other boys turned a shade of green, the color of nausea. Chewing tobacco is not for sissies.

And then Doug Tew, in his infinite wisdom and in 95-degree mid-afternoon heat, announced: “Okay boys, let’s run some bases!” I made it around third before I threw up. Puked. Hurled. Spewed. Upchucked. Technicolor-yawned.

Mr. Pavlov was right. Forever after that day, tobacco in any form brought back that most unpleasant memory—Charlie on hands-and-knees in red dirt, sunburned, blind with sweat and tears, barfing up every morsel I’d eaten since the first grade.

Thank you, Doug Tew.

I wanted my picture on a baseball card. That never happened. But I will never have my picture on a cigarette package either. In Colombia or anywhere else. Thank goodness.

Resource : https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/07/colombia-travel-life.html

Cigarette tax increases Monday

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) –Inside Smokes 2 Go tobacco shop on Jonestown road, you can purchase a pack of Newport cigarettes for $6.40.

“It was like 20 cents a pack when I started,” Carol Mohler, said. She has smoked nearly two packs a day for the past thirty years. “I kept wanting to quit every time it would jump but because of the addiction and the habit I haven’t been able to.”

But now she said she has to. Starting Monday, all of the cigarette price tags in Smokes 2 Go will have to go. The State’s new budget kicks in, raising the price of each pack of cigarettes by one dollar.

“It’s a big jump. It’s too much too fast,” Stacy Knaub said.

The new budget sets the per-pack tax at $2.60. Lawmakers hope it will balance the State’s budget, bringing in $430 million dollars.

“It’s already too expensive. So I’m trying to do the e-cigarettes,” Knaub said.

But the vaping industry is also about to get smoked. The new budget sets a 40 percent tax on the wholesale price of e-cigarettes and vaping products.

“Every bottle of e-liquid or every device that gets sold to them, they’ll be charged that 40 percent tax on top of the six percent sales tax that they’re currently paying,” Charles Huff, owner of Eve Vape, a vaping business, said.

Huff said the 40 percent tax isn’t going to be the big issue; it’s the 40 percent floor tax he’s worried about.

“My biggest fear is that I will be forced to close my business and completely get out of the vaping industry,” Huff said.

Business owners and smokers alike tell us it’s not fair. Some won’t be able to afford it at all.

“Some people are saying they would like to quit or they will move on to cheaper brands,” Jaget Patel, owner of Smokes 2 Go, said.

“My goal is to quit smoking. I won’t pay those prices. I’ll make this last forever and give it away or sell it,” Knaub said.

The 40 percent tax on e-cigarettes and vaping products won’t go into effect until October 1st. Cigars will remain tax-free.

Resource : http://abc27.com/2016/08/01/cigarette-tax-increases-monday/

Pennsylvania’s cigarette tax goes up Monday

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Pennsylvania’s tax on cigarettes goes up by a dollar a park on Monday.
The state’s new budget sets the per-pack tax at $2.60, the 10th highest cigarette tax in the nation.
The tax is supposed to generate about $430 million dollars to help balance the state’s budget.
The new budget also imposes a 55-cents-per-ounce tax on roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco to generate about $50 million, and it sets a 40 percent tax on the wholesale price of electronic cigarettes, including vapor producing devices and liquid cartridges, to generate another $13 million.
Cigars in Pennsylvania remain tax-free.


Resource :http://abc27.com/2016/07/29/pennsylvanias-cigarette-tax-goes-up-monday/

In Pa., cigars evade tobacco tax

HARRISBURG - For another year, at least, cigar smokers can puff away tax-free.

In the state budget deal signed Wednesday by Gov. Wolf, they escaped the fate of cigarette smokers, who will have to cough up an extra $1 tax a pack. Users of snuff and chew or loose tobacco will pay 55 cents more an ounce. The price of switching to vapor products and electronic cigarettes will include a new 40 percent wholesale tax.

Just about everybody with a nicotine habit will be helping narrow the gap between money coming into state coffers and money going out - everybody but stogie lovers.

Cigars will remain tax-free because they are the mainstay of a thriving industry in Pennsylvania. Legislators say they want to keep it that way.

"You have an industry that has been built here because of Pennsylvania's treatment of cigars," said State Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, "and that is the wholesale distribution of cigars. If you decide to move against that, you are essentially destroying a partnership that will encourage that business to vacate, to leave. And they would go to Florida."

Florida and Pennsylvania are the only states that do not tax cigars of either the premium or the gas-station variety. New Hampshire exempts only premium types from taxes.

Browne estimated that the cigar industry in Pennsylvania provides more than 1,000 jobs.

In King of Prussia, John Middleton Co., a subsidiary of Altria, manufactures popular machine-made cigars such as Black & Milds, as well as pipe tobacco. In Lancaster County, John Hay Cigars has made hand-rolled premium cigars from leaves grown in Pennsylvania since 1882.

There are also Holt's Cigar Co. in Philadelphia, creator of the Ashton brand; Cigars International in the Bethlehem area; and the Famous Smoke Shop in Easton, an online cigar store.

Altria's website boasts that its Black & Mild brand is "the second-largest selling large machine-made cigar in the U.S."

Legislators say those numbers translate into jobs for Pennsylvania residents. Altria employs about 480 Pennsylvanians, "more than 400" of them at the Middleton plant in Montgomery County, according to a company spokesman. Cigars International has more than 250 employees, according to its website.

"We certainly didn't want to jeopardize the folks that work in that industry," said Rep. Bill Adolph (R., Delaware), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "The cigar industry is kind of homegrown, and we would like to keep it here."

The revenue that would be generated from taxing cigars - by Browne's estimate, $28 million annually - is "relatively modest" compared with job losses should companies vacate.

That explanation doesn't pass muster with Eric Epstein.

"The industry is not going anywhere," said Epstein, coordinator of rockthecapital.com, a political watchdog site.

Other states with large tobacco industries tax cigars, he said. That Pennsylvania does not is the result of "a very aggressive and well-financed lobbying campaign," Epstein said.

Tobacco interests drop big money in Harrisburg. Since 2014, Altria has spent more than $1.8 million on lobbying. In that same period, 34 lobbyists from four firms have promoted their clients' interests in the Capitol.

In 2015, Altria, which also manufactures top cigarette and chewing tobacco brands, spent just shy of $1 million on political contributions and related expenses, according to the Department of State, which oversees elections and campaign finance reports.

Keep Jobs in the USA, a cigar-affiliated political action committee, has received contributions from Cigars International, Famous, and Holt's executives, among others, and reported spending more than $100,000 since 2014 on political contributions and other expenses.

Ron Kaufman owns a vape shop in Willow Grove. He called the new 40 percent tax on vapor and e-cigarette products a "business crusher" that will most likely lead to the demise of his and others' small businesses. He pointed out that cigars contain tobacco while vaporizers do not, and that the latter sometimes help customers end their tobacco use.

"A lot of what they're doing is patently illogical," Kaufman said. But "cigars have been around for a long time; vaping is new."

Some in the Capitol have privately grumbled that cigars were spared in part because many legislators like to smoke them, conjuring up images of cigar-chomping politicians doing themselves a favor.

As explanations go, Steve Miskin, spokesman for the House Republicans, doesn't think much of that one.

"Honestly, if that were the case, chew would have still been exempt, because a number of members chew," he said.

The presence of the tobacco industry and its lobbyists in the Capitol, he said, definitely influenced the exemption of cigars in the revenue package.

"When you do have a manufacturing base, large employers," he said, "members listen."

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Resource : http://articles.philly.com/2016-07-20/news/74587208_1_cigars-international-cigar-industry-john-middleton-co

Fair taxation just so much cigar smoke

Addiction has become a fundamental and growing revenue-generator for Pennsylvania’s government.

Lawmakers scooted away from the Capitol last week for their long summer vacation without fully funding the budget that they claimed to have passed. But they did act, or at least propose, to reap a harvest from addiction.

The budget includes $100 million from casino-based internet gambling, even though the Legislature has not authorized it. Lawmakers added $1 to the cigarette tax, boosting it to $2.60 a pack, established a 55-cents-per-ounce tax on smokeless tobacco products, and placed a 40 percent tax on the wholesale price of electronic cigarettes and related products.

But what’s a Pennsylvania budget without some special-interest favoritism? Lawmakers rejected a tax on cigars while raising or establishing taxes on all other tobacco products, an egregious case of pandering to special interests — a few cigar-rolling companies or distributors in the districts of influential legislators. Pennsylvania and Florida are the only states that do not tax cigar sales.

Legislators, led by state Sen. Pat Browne, the Appropriations Committee chairman from the Lehigh Valley, trotted out the a familiar notion for the massive tax break. They claimed that the state would lose its cigar industry if the government imposes a tax.

Since Florida is the only other state that does not impose a tax, all of the Pennsylvania industry apparently would move there — even though cigar companies exist in many other states that assess cigar taxes. And they would do so even though cigar companies have operated in Pennsylvania since at least 1882.

As noted by Eric Epstein of the watchdog group rockthecapital.com, tobacco lobbyists have spent millions of dollars in Harrisburg warding off the cigar tax— clearly understanding that politicians have their own addictions.

When legislators return from the beach after Labor Day, they should impose a fair tax on cigar sales to demonstrate that all of their decisions are not made in smoke-filled rooms.

Resource :http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/fair-taxation-just-so-much-cigar-smoke-1.2070427