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Utah Flavour Bill Dies In Senate Committee

HB 118 which would have banned flavoured vaping products from all stores with the exception of tobacco specialty stores, has died in a committee hearing earlier this month.

Diane Caruana

April 23, 2020

House Bill 118 would have allowed the sales of flavoured vaping products only at speciality stores, which are only accessible to anyone who is 21 and above. However, Democratic Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost, was forced to amend the measure to allow regular stores to sell menthol flavours.

Utah has recently also proposed nine changes to current vaping regulations, including: increasing the age to purchase vaping products to 21; a ban on the sales of flavoured products or sales restrictions to tobacco specialty stores; and extending the current tobacco product excise tax to include electronic devices.

Despite this amendment, the bill was still halted. “I am disappointed,” said Dailey-Provost. “We had that big press conference at the beginning of his session with the Senate president and the Speaker of the House and the Governor and a lot of advocates who see that this is a really big problem … I really thought we had the political will to get it done this year.”

On the other hand, Dave Davis from the Utah Retail Merchants Association, said that Dailey-Provost was asked to make another amendment which would have exempted tobacco products with a federal designation that allows them to be marketed, and she declined. “I don’t think this is a surprise to the representative,” Davis said during Monday’s hearing, “but we don’t support this bill in its current form.”

Meanwhile, the state has recently also proposed nine changes to current vaping regulations, including: increasing the age to purchase vaping products to 21; a ban on the sales of flavoured products or sales restrictions to tobacco specialty stores; and extending the current tobacco product excise tax to include electronic devices.

A bill proposing a total ban

Last February, State Rep. Ray introduced HB 375 which proposes a total vape ban across the State. Ray said that he would actually prefer to not ban vaping completely, however he believes this may be the only solution. “I don’t want to ban vaping completely,” he said. However, he added that in his opinion current regulations are not working as they are just promoting the illegal purchase and distribution of the devices.”

“The Senate President (Stuart Adams) said he wants just one vaping bill. Well, I’ve got that bill,” added Ray. He also said that given that other bills are being considered for the state, he will be following closely to see whether any of these address the current problems or loopholes with regards to e-cigarettes. Based on this he will then decide whether or not to run HB 375.

Read Further: KUER