A recent bill to enforce the prevention of online sales of e-cigarettes, otherwise known as vapes, has been moved; and this bill, by all means, must not be allowed into law. The recent proposal to ban Online Vape Sales has been put forward and must be opposed in order to protect the availability of e-cigarettes.
Introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and in the House by Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), this bill, ‘Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act’, seeks to prevent the U.S.
Postal Service from delivering vaping product shipments and force private carriers to get a signature on delivery of these products. This bill also seeks to add vaping products to Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act). This law requires online sellers to collect state and local taxes from customers before shipping products.
It also requires dealers of tobacco products to register with the federal government, and provide detailed information monthly to the tax authority of each state it ships products to, including the names and addresses of each customer.
This bill, no doubt, is not in the best interest of customers of vaping products or the dealers themselves because it automatically means an added cost for the customer on each order and a rather strict policy for dealers to be able to adhere to. Many small online vape dealers, for instance, are more likely to quit the business than be able to adhere to the PACT Act, which provides penalties of up to three years in prison for unregistered or non-compliant sellers.
Vapers and vaping devices have done no harm to anyone. These battery-operated devices that often look like pens, tech gadgets, and sometimes conventional cigarettes pose less threat to health than cigarettes, especially in the light of Covid-19. Vaping is a good way to stay smoke-free, and they are a lot less harmful to the respiratory organs. In fact, regular cigarette smokers are more at risk of severe Covid-19 symptoms than vapers.
It is worthy to note that this bill is being pushed by the Democrats to be included in the spending bill so as to guarantee a fast passage into law, and the Republican representatives will do little or nothing to stop it if they do not hear from their constituents.
Rather they will see it as a reasonable law; after all, it aims to prevent youth from accessing vaping products and reducing the number of nicotine addiction in the country.
This is why vapers and vaping businesses must agitate against this rather unfair bill by contacting their representatives because once this bill is passed and signed by the President, vape products will be restricted to private carriers.
That will make vape products less easily available and also more expensive to purchase, and put lots of vape dealers out of business.
The ‘Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act’ has been inserted in the omnibus spending bill and will be voted into law very soon unless vapers and vape businesses react immediately and raise their voices as they did last year when they swarmed social media in protest against the flavour ban.
If such protests can be held again and efforts are made to contact representatives to stop this bill, then maybe this war will be won.
