April 22, 2019
Good afternoon!
Session is finally finished, and we have some work to do this summer. As you all have heard T21 has passed in Maryland and as of October 1st any nicotine product will not be available for purchase to anyone under the age of 21. This bill was sponsored by the chair in both houses and identified as a top priority for the MD legislature this session. We went down to Annapolis to fight the bill, but our words fell on deaf ears of the legislators who still do not understand what vapor is an what it isn’t. Clearly, they don’t understand when confronted by public statements by the American Cancer Society stating that Ecigarettes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes. They refused to believe that the ACS would say such things and it is up to us to educate them.
This summer and the time between next session is going to be vitally important for us to take advantage of. If we do not actively engage our legislature at every opportunity, we will suffer heavy losses next session. We all must pull together to participate and reach out to non-member shops and businesses and get them to do the same. Our livelihoods and businesses depend on us doing this work. With the help of our lobbyist it is our goal to provide our legislature with information and demonstrations at the vape shops in our individual districts. We need information about your stores. We are asking for # of stores in your area, address of those stores, addresses of your home location and your employee’s location and how many people you employ so we can provide this to our legislators. I know some have already expresses they don’t want to share employee addresses and that is fine if you do no want to. I have asked permission of my employees before giving that information away. We do not need the names of your employees Just addresses would be best or at least the town they live in so we can pair them with their district legislator. I cannot impress upon you how crucial this information will help moving forward. We are real people who vote and pay taxes and own small businesses and we need to show that in person. Confront them with their constituency.
Next session we are sure to see flavor bans and industry killing taxes. The legislature looks to other progressive states and what they have implemented, and they like to copy their legislation and seek to implement it in our state as well. I’m sure they will look to states like California and New York. We need to be prepared for this attack and do pre-emptive education and visits. We are also working with the VTA on stand alone legislation to address taxes and flavor bans. In the end its better to take a tax we can live with than a tax that will put us out of business.
This summer there is a lot going on in Ocean City Md. Legislators will be fundraising and having “parties” at a lot of bars and restaurants. This is a great opportunity for us to make contact with them and show we are here to stay and the more we do this the better relationships we can build. This takes place August 14th-17th in Ocean City. If you plan on going it’s also a great time to take family with you and enjoy the beach. Details can be found at: http://www.mdcounties.org/353/Summer-2019 This is another opportunity to take advantage of. I’ve been down to this event before and it is generally a good time. Good food, good drinks and a lot of information you wouldn’t get otherwise. When I went last time there was a big party at Secrets on the last day.
Five Pawns has made a generous donation to the MVA and wanted us to share this offer with our membership:
We have a lot of work to do. Please reach out to any board member if you want to participate in any of these events. We may be coming to you directly to ask permission to use your shop as a site for a meet up with a legislator. We don’t want to find ourselves in dire straights next session and we have to do what it takes this summer to survive. Maryland will stand united and we need your help!
I hope this newsletter finds you all well and hope to see you all this summer!
Thank You,
Matthew Milby
MVA
As always questions can be emailed to Maryland.vapor.alliance@gmail.com
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