The majority of vaping products in Michigan could be seized as contraband if Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s effort to tax vaping products similar to cigarettes takes effect as currently proposed.
The plan is meant to “curb usage and protect public health” by extending Michigan’s 32% wholesale tax on tobacco products to e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery devices, according to a State Budget Office memo.
But a little-discussed provision in the governor’s proposal would also “prohibit the sale of vaping products not authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration,” which industry and health officials say would effectively ban all but 34 tobacco- and menthol-flavored products approved by the FDA.
Most other flavors would be subject to “seizure and forfeiture as contraband products” under the proposal, which would also impose civil and criminal sanctions for their sale, including fines for any “hazardous waste disposal costs incurred by the state,” according to the memo.
Because so few vape products are FDA-authorized, a ban “would destroy hard-working small businesses across the whole state of Michigan,” said Jim McCarthy, spokesperson for the American Vapor Manufacturers Association, which represents manufacturers and retailers across the country.
Whitmer’s office declined to comment on the potential ban on flavored vape products, which the governor tried to enact in 2019 as part of a health emergency order to deter youth usage that was later blocked by the courts.
Read more at Bridge Magazine