Louisiana Next To Ban E-Cigarettes Sales To Minors

Louisiana senator Rick Gallot (Democrat) has introduced a bill for consideration that would ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors throughout the state. Gallot is aiming to have the bill reviewed during the next state legislative session which starts March 10th.

You can check out the release on the proposed bill right here.

Really, the proposed bill does little more than add electronic cigarettes to the list of products which are not allowed to be sold to minors. It doesn’t look like the bill aims to classify electronic cigarettes as anything other than “alternative nicotine products.” That keeps things far simpler than you might expect from lawmakers.

It’s very likely resistance to this bill will come from electronic cigarette opponents. In the past, public health and anti-smoking groups have actively fought bills like this. Why? Because once the ban of sales to minors is in place, they worry that the public and regulators won’t view electronic cigarettes as something due a whole lot more attention. Many opponents want electronic cigarettes almost entirely off the menu. Accepting a victory now by letting age restrictive bans happen makes this a much more difficult goal to attain.

Many opponents even suggest that electronic cigarettes only exist so that the tobacco industry may circumvent long establishing anti-tobacco legislation. They conveniently forget that there are believed to now be more than 200 electronic cigarette companies out there — while Big Tobacco is only 3 — and that these companies made the industry what it is long before tobacco stepped in.

Blocking these measures is becoming much harder though as more and more states (27 so far) institute e-cig sales bans for minors — many without defining electronic cigarettes as tobacco products.

Source: http://www.ecigadvanced.com/blog/louisiana-next-in-line-to-consider-e-cig-sales-ban-for-minors/