Vaping

Today, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and a coalition of center-right organizations from across the country called on President Donald Trump to preserve access to electronic cigarettes and vapor products that millions of American adults are using to quit smoking or reduce their dependence on tobacco products in the United States. In recent weeks, there have been calls to ban flavored vapor products, including a push by New York billionaire activist Mike Bloomberg, who has invested more than $160 million to push a ban. In the midst of historic-low smoking rates among both teenagers and adults, a number of organizations are urging the President to implement reasonable regulations instead of outright prohibition.

The growing global consensus is that e-cigarettes are at least 95% less harmful than traditional combustible cigarettes. Furthermore, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that e-cigarettes are twice as effective at getting smokers to quit as government-approved smoking cessation products like the nicotine patch. 

Essential to the success of e-cigarettes as a tool for reducing adult use of cigarettes is the availability of flavors. Instead of confusing the issue of illness and deaths associated with illicit marijuana use and the popularity of e-cigarettes as a quit-smoking tool, conservative organizations nationally are urging President Trump to protect more than 10,000 small businesses that sell e-cigarettes to adults and implement sensible regulations instead. 

A PDF of the letter and its signers can be found here. 

 

Dear Mr. President,

 

We urge you to preserve access to life-saving alternatives to cigarettes for the millions of adults who rely on electronic cigarettes and vapor products to quit smoking in the United States. Of particular importance is the preservation of flavored products, which are not only the preferred product for adult smokers but essential to the success of vaping as an alternative to cigarette use long-term.

Your administration has rightly derided “regulatory dark matter,” or agency-generated guidance because it imposes “back door” regulations without going through a formal rule-making process. The flavored vapor product guidance under consideration by the FDA is among the most striking and nontransparent violations of your commitment to limit dark regulations since you took office. Unchallenged, the FDA will destroy thousands of small businesses without Congressional oversight and without sufficient input from the public.

Over 10,000 small mom-and-pop vape shops comprise an overwhelming percentage of this industry and represent the fastest-growing retail segment of the past ten years, a recent Labor Department analysis shows. A Wells Fargo analysis estimates that the commercial e-cigarette and vapor product industry is expected to be a $10 billion industry by next year, a growth trajectory that has significantly reduced combustible cigarette sales across the country. 

A vast majority of these businesses employ fewer than ten employees, making the shops that sell e-cigarettes to adults trying to quit smoking increasingly reliant on sensible federal regulations that don’t impose millions of dollars in costs through a FDA regulatory process designed purposefully by Congressional Democrats and the world’s largest tobacco companies to end in failure.

Billionaires like former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg have long attempted to curtail individual rights and consumer freedom in the United States. He has already committed nearly $1 billion to anti-tobacco efforts globally, in seeking to influence organizations like the World Health Organization and fund research that demonizes adult smokers and adult vapers. On September 10, he announced a $160 million push to ban flavored e-cigarettes in America. Given your administration’s historic accomplishments and deregulatory agenda, it would be a mistake to allow HHS and the FDA to take marching orders from activists like Mike Bloomberg.

Adults like flavors. That’s precisely why everything from vodka to ice cream comes in a variety of flavors. When it comes to vaping, this holds true. Prior to the rise of JUU Lin 2018, more than 80% of adult vapers used fruit, dessert, and sweet flavors to stay away from cigarettes. Tobacco and menthol e-cigarette flavors ranked as the fifth and sixth most popular flavor before one company dominated the traditional convenience store market. 

Eliminating all but one or two of these options for adults would destroy thousands of small businesses, force many adult vapers to return to smoking, and force some to seek out products on the black market. 

Both the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now acknowledge that the recent deaths and respiratory and lung illnesses associated with vaping have largely been caused by the illicit marijuana and THC market. Instead of targeting legal nicotine products that have existed for a decade, the administration’s focus should be on cracking down on California drug dealers that are poisoning consumers with dangerous, unregulated, and counterfeit products sourced from places like China and Mexico.

Your administration can keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of teenagers without jeopardizing the great accomplishments that have been made in public health through the availability of vapor products for adults. We urge you to immediately halt the FDA’s planned actions that will limit choices for millions of American adults who rely on flavored vaping products to quit smoking. More than 100,000 jobs and the lives of 34 million adult smokers are on the line.

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist

President, Americans for Tax Reform

 

Phil Kerpen

President, American Commitment

 

Daniel Schneider

Executive Director, American Conservative Union

 

Steve Posiask

President, American Consumer Institute

 

Ryan Ellis

President, Center for a Free Economy

 

Thomas Schatz

President, Citizens Against Government Waste

 

Jeff Stier

Senior Fellow, Consumer Choice Center

 

Michelle Minton

Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute

 

Katie McAuliffe

Executive Director, Digital Liberty

 

Jason Pye

Vice President of Legislative Affairs, FreedomWorks

 

Julie Gunlock

Director of Center for Progress and Innovation, Independent Women’s Forum

 

Annette Meeks

CEO, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota

 

Naomi Lopez

Director of Healthcare Policy, Goldwater Institute

 

Mario H. Lopez

President, Hispanic Leadership Fund

 

Sal Nuzzo

Vice President of Policy, James Madison Institute

 

Seton Motley

President, Less Government

 

Michael LaFaive

Senior Director of Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, Mackinac Center for Public Policy

 

Brent Mead

CEO, Montana Policy Institute

 

Daniel J. Erspamer

President, Pelican Institute for Public Policy

 

Carrie Wade

Director of Harm Reduction Policy, R Street Institute

 

Becky Norton Dunlop

Senior Official, Reagan Administration and Member of the Trump Transition Team

 

Guy Bentley

Director of Consumer Freedom, Reason Foundation

 

Paul J. Gessing

President, Rio Grande Foundation

 

David Williams

President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance

 

Ashkhen Kazaryan

Director of Civil Liberties, TechFreedom

 

James L. Martin and Saulius “Saul” Anuzis

Founder/Chairman and President, 60 Plus Association