New York Governor Kathy Hochul is ready to introduce laws to finish the sale of all flavored tobacco merchandise. This can apply to menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and cigarillos, and flavored smokeless tobacco.
The proposed ban expands the State’s present ban on promoting flavored vaping merchandise. In keeping with New York’s Well being Division, if handed and signed into regulation, New York can be the third state to take action.
Hochul beforehand did not safe backing from state legislators on banning menthol cigarettes and different flavored tobacco merchandise.
A brand new survey commissioned by the state Well being Division goals to determine help for an all-out prohibition. The survey is believed to serve the aim of “check advertising” to determine preliminary public opinion for a statewide ban.
The survey asks questions on public opinion on banning such merchandise.
“What’s your opinion a couple of coverage that might finish the sale of all tobacco merchandise in New York inside 10 years?” was among the many questions requested final week within the “New York Native Opinion Leaders Survey,” as reported by the New York Publish.
One other asks: “What’s your opinion a couple of coverage that might ban the sale of all tobacco merchandise to these born after a sure date? For instance, these born after 2010 or later would by no means be bought tobacco.”
Non-profit analysis group RTI Worldwide is conducting the survey. In keeping with an April 13 memo to potential members from Jennifer Lee, director of the Well being Division’s Bureau of Tobacco Management, it’s being distributed to neighborhood leaders throughout the state, the Gateway Pundit reported.
Whereas some argue that the ban will successfully defend younger folks from getting hooked on nicotine, the president of the New York Affiliation of Comfort Shops, Kent Sopris, is worried the proposed ban can be a demise sentence for a lot of companies.
In keeping with New York’s Division of Well being, a 2021 Nationwide Youth Tobacco Survey confirmed that 80 % of center and highschool tobacco customers reported utilizing flavored merchandise.
Sopris pointed to the distinction between Hochul proposing a ban on tobacco merchandise whereas actively endorsing the sale of leisure hashish—which turned authorized within the state in 2021.
“In case you are on the market advocating for the expanded sale of retail hashish that sells candied flavored choices, how will you inform regulated authorized comfort shops they’ll’t promote menthol cigarettes to adults?” he argued.
Furthermore, in line with the governor’s workplace estimates, the ban on flavored tobacco merchandise would show pricey to the state. This fiscal 12 months alone, it could trigger a tax deficit of over $130 million, whereas in fiscal 2025, that determine would rise to greater than $250 million.
In keeping with Sopris, virtually half of New York’s whole tobacco gross sales are for flavored merchandise, together with menthols.
There isn’t a clear indication whether or not the Well being Division helps or opposes the coverage, in line with Well being Division spokesman Cort Ruddy. Nonetheless, he added that surveys of an analogous kind have been performed for over a decade and have been obligatory for the curiosity of public well being.
The Well being Division, nevertheless, was reportedly unable to supply any particular references to earlier polls aimed toward banning all tobacco merchandise.
From NTD Information
