Michigan Just Became the First State to Ban Flavored Vapes. Will It Actually Work?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

On Wednesday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that her state would become the first in the country to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. The ban, which will go into effect immediately, gives vendors 30 days to comply and remove all flavored nicotine vapes, with the exception of tobacco-flavored products.

The ban is intended to curb the use of e-cigarettes among young people, as research has found that flavors like “Fruit Loops, Fanta and Nilla wafers” attract younger consumers, serving as a gateway to developing a longer-term nicotine habit, Whitmer said in a letter announcing the ban to Michigan state senators. The ban will also prohibit billboard advertising for e-cigarettes and marketing that uses such terms as “safe” or “healthy.”

Whitmer also noted that the ban was prompted by the recent nationwide rash of more than 300 mysterious, vaping-related lung ailments currently under investigation by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as well as one confirmed vaping-related death in Illinois and a second potential death in Oregon. In Michigan, six potential vaping-related illness cases are currently under review, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The ban is not the first of its kind: most notably, San Francisco issued a more draconian ban earlier this year, prohibiting the sale of all e-cigarette products pending more research on its long-term health effects. Further, it’s not exactly a law in the traditional sense. In an interview with the Washington Post, Whitmer’s aides said she took executive action to order the ban after the state health department publicly declared vaping a state emergency. Further, the ban will only be effect for six months; in the interim, the health department will develop more permanent regulations regarding the sale of flavored e-cigarettes.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/michigan-bans-flavored-ecigarettes-879922/

[Igel]

1. Not as long as sellers send the cartridges by USPS. Or UPS. Or Fedex.

Plus once you're addicted to nicotine, esp. at the higher doses that the kids these days expect, it's hard to kick the happen.

"Look at me, I'm tough--and you can tell by the way I adopted and nurtured my addiction to Bubblegum-Cotton Candy flavored nicotine."

[elocs]

2. Well my state of WI once banned the sale of colored margarine

and that didn't work well and the world is a lot smaller now.

No, it will not work, at least not to the intended extent.

[JonLP24]

3. I never smoked a tobacco flavored e cigarette

I like flavored e cigs though I don't use them anymore.

I think big tobacco probably benefits from this though.

[Doreen]

4. More studies?

Years and years of studies with cigarettes have been done and proving to be nothing but life threatening to both smoker and those around them and they have not come close to banning them. I really doubt it is just the "special " flavors that are dangerous. I am pretty sure they will find that out when the only thing left to get is the tobacco flavor. ANYTHING that goes into your lungs other than Oxygen is going to hurt people. The vapes seem to show the damage at a faster rate than cigarettes but they are both just as bad in the end.