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YOU CAN
FIGHT CITY
HALL
Keith Fairman of Diamond Vapor believes
President Trump may be punished for the
flavour ban in 2020
Words: Gordon Stribling
P
olitics can be a slow process but then the recent spate
of US state flavour bans came along and things began
moving really quickly.
Keith Fairman is CEO at Diamond Vapor. In the past couple of
months, he has witnessed government officials attack his industry,
so much so that he’s reconsidered his political allegiances and
stepped up his activism efforts.
“I was a huge Trump supporter and most of the industry was
because it’s mostly Democratic states that are really against us,
so we knew we at least needed Trump in there,” he said.
“But now it’s looking like if he doesn’t change this [flavour ban], he’s
going to kick himself right out of the next election.”
Keith traces the flavour bans and the government’s response to
the recent THC oil scare back to the Master Settlement Agreement
(MSA) and a Wall Street deal that offered state governments huge
upfront tobacco money that they are now having to pay back.
“Last year alone, Michigan got $2.39bn from Big Tobacco. This year
rolls around and they don’t have the money to start paying it back.
“They’re going to show that their state went bankrupt and the feds
are going to want to bring them in and ask why.
“The states that are most affected by this are Michigan, the first to
do the flavour ban, then New York. California has been trying for a
while now, too.”
Keith believes that the MSA has put the state government ‘in the
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