U.S. to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco

news.yahoo.com...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The government said on Monday it plans to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products.

The Food and Drug Administration's announcement came after the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision which said that electronic cigarettes are not drugs or devices unless they are marketed for therapeutic purposes.

In December, three judges from the appellate court ruled that the FDA could regulate the products as tobacco products and not as drugs. They also said that the FDA could not block the import of such products, giving Sottera Inc the ability to start importing its NJOY goods

I dont really fully understand what this article is saying. The court stuff is what I dont really understand about it. What I get out of it, is that somehow the government can now regulate electronic cigarettes. Im guessing that means taxing them.

One more thing I dont get, is that these electronic cigarettes dont have tobacco in them. But the article is saying these non-tobacco products can be regulated as tobacco.

My instant thought is that the tobacco industry has their dirty fingers involved in this.
Lobbyism at it's best.

so it is no longer just the substance 'tobacco' that is being regulated?

but the 'act' of simulating smoking?
does this mean they can tax the hell out of these electric versions now?

I switched to e-cig from cigarettes a while ago, and I've never looked back. If anyone has questions about switching, feel free to contact me.

It seems that nicotine itself is not much more harmful than caffeine -- it's everything else in cigarettes that causes cancer -- and that's pretty much all you're getting with an e-cig because it vaporizes the liquid nicotine.

It produces harmless water vapor which generally smells amazing and comes in any flavor you can think of. It's like the total opposite of a cigarette -- it actually tastes great and makes you smell better. Oh, and you can use it without any nicotine at all, for just the pleasure of the vapor itself.

There's a chance that because the market is fairly unregulated, there's stuff making its way into the liquids or cartos that isn't good for you. But the way I see it, how much worse could it be than a cigarette? And meanwhile, the whole experience is just unbelievably better in every way.

So this is good news, because they won't try to kill the market, and can make mad tax bank on it if they do it right. Get ready to start seeing these things for sale everywhere now that the market complications are sorting out.

reply to post by sepermeru

and that's pretty much all you're getting with an e-cig because it vaporizes the liquid nicotine.

ah right i see,did'nt realise they actually had nicotine in them, i though they were just to simulate smoking, to stay of the real stuff untill you get past the need for having them anymore.

if they have nicotine in them, then i suppose they need some sort of regulation.

reply to post by lifeform11


E-cigs can also be purchased without nicotine.

reply to post by Skittle


Really? My instant thought it a politician saw a new way to steal our money.. if electronic cigarettes are regulated as tobacco, they will be placed under the taxes that come with tobacco .. which as most of us know, is the highest taxed consumed item in the country.

I guess it was just a matter of time...

After ravaging smokers wallets by increasing taxes on all tobacco products, now they're going to get their fingers into e-cigarettes as well.
Some people have had great success in quitting by using these devices, and I just hope that the tax rate on them is not exorbitant and that they're affordable.

reply to post by sepermeru



I made the switch early last month and so glad I did.

I had an e-cig, enjoyed it too! Then my toddler climbed on the counter, reached on the shelf, and got the "smoke juice" and tried to drink it. Parenting fail at its finest, ugh, got rid of that thing the next day

I guess they cant make nicotine illegal, they will lose all the ta money from tobacco, lol, but I hope they dont go crazy on taxing it.

The government hates smokers so much you'd think they'd be giving patches and e cigarettes away for free. Nah they just want smokers money.

reply to post by showintail


Oh no Show, so sorry. The brand I use there isn't a chance of that happening, not that I have toddlers running around anymore.

Yeah I been on ecigs for 3 months now and I love em.... I see more and more people switching over and that's gotta be a problem for big tobacco... I would like to know how they can classify it as a tobacco product when there isn't any in it whatsoever?

Around here they are outlawing the fake weed and bath salts, I understand that they get you high and that's not good for people but they are trying to take a legal substance and make it a controlled narcotic.... I suppose the cops and courts are getting mad because they're not making their quotas because they can't charge people who stopped doing the real thing and the court system is losing money!

I couldnt seem to make the switch completely, darn thing hurt my throat if I used it 2 days straight.
Legal weed stuff has been banned now here. The real stuff is way safer/better, but for some reason its against "the rules" to smoke weed if you have kids. Ugh! *sits patiently to await youngest childs 18 birthday*

Sorry, off topic

reply to post by showintail


Not to pressure you, but I could probably help you solve that throat-hurting problem if you ever feel like giving it another try. Most likely reducing the nicotine or swapping out your atomizer more often would improve that.

It takes a little tweaking and adjustment at first, but once you get your system down it's worth it, in my view.

I'm honestly surprised by this. I was sure the cigarette companies would crush it as hard as they could. We may not have our flying cars, but the future is here in some ways.

reply to post by showintail


Yeah you might have been smoking a crappy product also.... I go with safe cig and had no issues at all, I mean after the 3 months I lost my smokers cough, I don't get winded as easily and I"m not coughing up that gross stuff in the morning it's 110% worth it.... You should really try giving it another shot!

Originally posted by AZsunshine
reply to post by sepermeru

 

I made the switch early last month and so glad I did.

Welcome!

We should start a discussion thread in the OT area for talking general ecig stuff, yes/no?

I very recently made the switch after a few years of "thinking" about getting into them. I swear I am getting more addicted to buying new PV stuff than I am to nicotine lol.

Started with a 7-11 Xhale O2 that's a M40x model, then got a Joye 510, then an ego, then a mega ego. Looking into some HV mods but am so far satisfied to the point where I think I'll stop buying stuff for awhile.

I don't see how they are going to regulate this. The devices themselves, considering zero nicotine carts and cartos exist (and zero nicotine juice), should in theory be exempt from any regulation or tax because they aren't necessarily nicotine delivery devices. If you buy a zero nic cart with your e-cig does that then make it a non-nicotine/drug product? It should.

I fear taxation of nicotine containing juice, carts, and cartos. But even then, how would they do it? I'm puffing on some 26mg cotton candy juice right now, am I going to have to pay more for this than, say, a juice that contains 12mg of nicotine/ml? Are all small time juice mixers going to have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to the FDA to be allowed to sell their product? This would most definitely put most vendors out of business, and cause the prices of juice to rise dramatically.

Right now it's cheaper for me to vape than it was for me to smoke. I used to smoke at least a pack a day, which meant over 5 bucks a day. Now I vape probably 5ml/day at most, which is far far cheaper than real ciggs. Although with the amount of other stuff I buy the total cost is probably higher.... but my point is that if vaping becomes more expensive than smoking then I might have to go back to smoking regular ciggs, and I'm sure others might as well.

I guess I should stock up on tons of juice while it's still cheap, who knows how high the price will climb.

I see this as a way they can try to get in and make some profit on the e-cig industry now that sales are increasing.

I bought an e-cig last year and thought it was an excellent way to still smoke but to not smoke harmful chemicals. Nicotine is addictive but not carcinogenic. Plus i can smoke it inside and in bars, which is great in the winter rather than having to hang about outside in the rain and cold.

There's been a debate for a while around how to regulate these. Many of them were cheap imports from China and hadn't been tested for safety.

But although i think they need some kind of regulation, regulating them as tobacco is just weird because it's not tobacco and could be used to tax the products highly.

They are already pretty expensive, although you do save money in the long run, and i'd love to see more people using them rather than proper smoking, so if the price increases people could be put off.

reply to post by sepermeru


Yes please do cause i'd like to know more about the models people are using. I started with a super mini and it's just not got the throat hit i need so it's more a substitute at the moment and i'm still smoking real cigs at times.