Baker declares a public health emergency and bans sale of all vape products in Massachusetts (sales, home)

[redplum33]

Banned for 4 months. A wise move, in my opinion. I think it should be done nationwide.


Baker temporarily bans sale of vape products in Mass.

The governor's action immediately prohibits online and retail sale of nicotine, flavored, non-flavored and marijuana vaping products. The ban will continue through Jan. 25.

"The use of e-cigarettes and marijuana vaping products is exploding and we are seeing reports of serious lung illnesses, particularly in our young people," Baker said in a statement. "The purpose of this public health emergency is to temporarily pause all sales of vaping products so that we can work with our medical experts to identify what is making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents."

[mvpsharky]

yeah, but lets keep cigarettes legal .. no issues with them.

[bjimmy24]

Fantastic news imo.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by mvpsharky

yeah, but lets keep cigarettes legal .. no issues with them.

There are many issues with them, and they've been thoroughly documented with decades of data to fall back on. Those decades of data have in turn established a highly regulated environment that has included public education, pricing laws, tax structures and strict labeling standards. If someone is unaware of the dangers of smoking at this point, I don't know what to say.

Vapes/liquids (although it sounds like mostly black market THC carts causing illnesses) are not held to nearly the same level of scrutiny. They were actively marketed as a "safe" means of quitting cigarettes or not being harmed by byproducts of burning cannabis. They have been marketed to minors using many of the same methods the tobacco industry used that have been regulated out of existence. A recent public health scare has caused more and more outcry which precipitated this ban. Not a particularly crazy thing to happen, especially in MA.

If this ban causes people to go out to the black market, drive to NH, or whatever workaround exists then it just proves that it is even more unregulated than it should be. Should they have been banned, or banned for that long? Maybe not. It will really hurt businesses and cause job losses. Baker will take a lot of heat but I'm sure he wasn't the only one involved and it wasn't just the Republicans behind this.

[mdovell]

To note NY state banned vape flavors.

The makers of The patch have said they should be on the same scrutiny. They are replacing smoking with vaping. They aren't really quitting nicotine.

We know they targeted kids with flavors. Someone doesn't just go from Marlboro Reds or Palmals to mango blends or pumpkin spice

Many of these products are poorly made, no regulations on content and no real quality.

Smoking is low class and this hipster offshoot doesn't help.

[GeePee]

Charlie Baker is the dumbest, Most short sited idiot we've had in office.
Illnesses were traced to black market THC cartridges. So A broad sweep on legal vaping products?
Good thing I can still shoot heroin in a safe injection site, Or 5 shots of whiskey and flip my car on the way home from dinner at one of 500 locations within a mile from my house.
Oh and cigarettes, those are fine? Those companies have lined your pockets enough that all the proven deaths for 50 years makes them safer.

This is such a joke and is infuriating.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by GeePee

Charlie Baker is the dumbest, Most short sited idiot we've had in office.
Illnesses were traced to black market THC cartridges. So A broad sweep on legal vaping products?
Good thing I can still shoot heroin in a safe injection site, Or 5 shots of whiskey and flip my car on the way home from dinner at one of 500 locations within a mile from my house.
Oh and cigarettes, those are fine? Those companies have lined your pockets enough that all the proven deaths for 50 years makes them safer.

This is such a joke and is infuriating.

Cigs are inspected vaping isn't.

RI might have a ban soon. If that happens I'd expect CT would have to. If CT doesn't then it would be surrounded.

I can easily see this going nationwide and by the holidays we'd be more concerned about winter weather to care.

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Cigs are inspected vaping isn't.

RI might have a ban soon. If that happens I'd expect CT would have to. If CT doesn't then it would be surrounded.

I can easily see this going nationwide and by the holidays we'd be more concerned about winter weather to care.

Cigs are inspected and proven harmful.
The ban comes in the heels of a couple hundred getting sick from black market THC cartridges. This forces people to only have the option of black market cartridges. It's a dumb move.
Instead of playing it smart and forcing companies and CDC to speed up testing you do a broad sweep?
I know many people who have quit cigarettes with the e cigs.

[Stoke]

Originally Posted by mdovell

We know they targeted kids with flavors. Someone doesn't just go from Marlboro Reds or Palmals to mango blends or pumpkin spice

Every single smoker I know who switched to vaping did exactly this.

You switch to cigarette flavor and then as you educated yourself you discover awesome flavors.

I am currently smoking Cotton Candy flavor. I'm 33. Very tasty.

Vaping was very niche for the past decade but suddenly kids got into it. One good thing about that is I rarely see kids smoking Arsenic and thousands of other chemicals aka Cigarettes. Awesome!

The only problem is these flavors became more popular with adults, thus making them easier to obtain, ending up with kids seeing them in stores. Which is stupid, why smoke ecigarettes to get a nicotine fix when you don't have one? Wanna vape cotton candy? Why not just buy it instead? lol.

And now we've hit a new low, as the poster above me wisely pointed out, they're not buying from reputable sources. Ruining it for everyone.

Vaping has been going on for over a decade and now all of a sudden it's a problem.

Easier access, kids thinking it's cool, kids buying from shady people = "Won't someone think of the children?!"

[GeePee]

This is about tax dollars period. Tobacco is losing money. MA gets a lot of tax money from tobacco. And Pharma used to get a lot in there bogus patches and gums that are crazy expensive and don't work.
Do not ever be fooled and think this is for public safety. What a damn sham.
This 4 month ban is basically telling these companies that they need to line some pockets if they want to play ball.