As the Maine Legislature considers a ban on the legal sale of all flavored tobacco in the state, the good people of Maine deserve to know what is real and what is spin.
The real target of the legislation (L.D. 1550) should be egregious vape and e-cigarette flavors like cotton candy, sour melon and Caribbean punch, which are slickly packaged and marketed and are the ones with the highest youth appeal. Very few youth use traditional tobacco flavors, such as wintergreen moist smokeless and menthol cigarettes, yet these legal adult products are included in the bill.
Conflating the issues of vape and traditional flavored tobacco is a ruse by anti-tobacco special interest groups. Connecticut lawmakers recently saw through this charade and rejected a full flavored-tobacco ban, choosing instead to focus on more outrageous vape products. Maine should do the same.
Reducing youth initiation and encouraging adult cessation are laudable objectives, and Maine has led the way by effectively funding tobacco control programs. But prohibiting the sale of legal adult products outside the true scope of the issue is a bridge too far and will result in economic harm to small businesses and many unintended, dangerous consequences.
Jonathan Shaer
director, New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association
Needham, Mass.
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