February 2nd 2019
Good afternoon!
Just wanted to put out an update for the legislative climate in MD. T21 is coming and as I said before will be a very tough bill to battle because of the sponsors of the bill. When a chairman or 2 sponsors a bill the bill has a pretty high success rate. We talked to our lobbyists about this and are applying strategies to make the most out of a bad situation. More updates will come on this bill as it moves through the houses. Also to note that Big Tobacco and Juul are supporting this bill as well.
The Flavor ban in Baltimore city continues and we are actively fighting this bill. The VTA has proposed a set of standards that applies to marketing in lieu of an all out flavor ban. Legislators in many states are concerned that the marketing of Eliquid is targeted at minors so they feel that banning flavors is a good thing. We as an industry need to take a look of how our product is marketed and we must implement responsible marketing as a response to flavor bans. This strategy has been implemented successfully in other states. We will update you more on this as it unfolds. The drafts to this strategy have not been written yet but it will be called Marketing Protection Bill or something similar. We will update when we know more.
As of yet we have no statewide flavor bans or taxes that have been introduced at this time and we are trying to be proactive in preventing these. One of the preventative measures is in the responsible marketing of vapor products.
Montgomery County wants to change their indoor clean air act to include all ENDS products. As of right now we don’t plan on fighting this as we have no members of the MVA in Montgomery Co. This may change as next week happens. Our reasoning behind this is funding. The MVA has only so many resources to fight battles on so many fronts so we have to pick and choose which battles to fight. We fight the battles that will have the most positive impact on the vapor industry inside MD. The hearing for this bill in Montgomery Co is set for Feb. 4th. If you have questions on this or would like to show up to fight this let us know and we will ask our lobbyist and put you in touch with them. Every time we show up to oppose a bill we always seek council beforehand.
Thank you for your support!
Matthew M. MVA
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