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Flavour
Flavour bans and PMTA deadline put US
vapers at risk of relapse
Words: Gordon Stribling
America’s ongoing war on flavours is a frustrating
battleground for the vape advocate. Vaping
adversaries want to ban the sweet flavours that help
adults quit smoking while, at the same time, claiming to be
anti-tobacco.
health, welfare or safety.” The flavour ban had been something
of a personal crusade of Whitmer in the months before the rule
was signed off. The judges noted that Witmer was ‘entitled to
due deference’ but not ‘complete capitulation’ from the court
process when ruling on what constitutes an ‘emergency.’
Michigan’s vape community is all too familiar with this story.
On September 18, 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued
an emergency rule banning the sale of flavoured nicotine
vape products. Whitmer cited state chief medical executive
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, who said that high youth vaping rates
amounted to a public health emergency.
Two vape shop owners sued on the grounds that the ban
would create irreparable harm and on October 15 a preliminary
injunction was granted.
Judge Mark T. Boonstra questioned whether Whitmer’s actions
amounted to totalitarianism, saying: “This case highlights for
me a growing concern about governmental overreach, both
in this case specifically and also more generally, and because
sometimes we as Americans need a wake-up call.”
The ruling was some much-needed good news for Michigan’s
embattled vape industry, which has been hit especially hard
by the twin forces of flavour bans and coronavirus lockdown.
But while Michigan’s vapers have been granted a reprieve, the
same cannot be said for New York.
In May this year, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of
Appeals upheld the injunction. Judge Jane E. Markey wrote:
“Bluntly stated, the defendants did not produce evidence that
an emergency situation existed such that a period of delay
would make any relevant difference in preserving the public’s
Two new laws restricting tobacco product sales came into
effect on May 18. The first prohibits the sale of nicotine and
tobacco products in pharmacies and the second outlaws the
sale of all flavoured e-liquids.
Flavourless and tobacco-flavoured e-liquids were not affected,
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