Oregon Health Authority Recommends E-Cig Restrictions to Protect Youth

Source from:  Vapingpost 10/12/2020

On the 20th of August, Gov. Kate Brown received recommendations to set in place a set of new vape rules and restrictions, including; a ban on flavoured products and harmful additives, increased e-cig prices, setting in place a tobacco retail licensure, and banning online e-cig sales. The reason behind these suggested amendments was addressing the infamous “vape-related” illness – EVALI and the youth vaping epidemic.

In response to the lung injury outbreak, in October 2019, Brown had announced a temporary ban on all flavoured vaping products. “My first priority is to safeguard the health of all Oregonians,” said Brown at the time. The ban was meant to be valid for six months and urged state agencies to develop a plan for warning labels, ingredient disclosures, product safety testing and a campaign to discourage vaping.

The OLCC had moved to enact Brown’s order by banning all THC vape oil products containing flavour chemicals called terpenes, derived from anything but marijuana. Following this, Oakland-based company Herban Industries had sued the OLCC arguing that the ban would cause irreparable harm and the Court of Appeals ruled in favour of the business.

A past flavour ban proposal had been killed

By February the flavour ban was killed completely. “The flavour ban is gone,” said Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, at the beginning of Senate Bill 1577’s work session. Monnes Anderson said she didn’t have the votes in the Senate and attributed that to a variety of concerns lawmakers had, such as the potential hit to state revenue.

In response to these events, the OLCC is now proposing a more limited ban on flavours and thinning agents, focused just on THC vaping products. The OLCC wants to stop manufacturers from being able to mix THC oil with any additive that has not been proven safe to inhale, and will allow ingredients derived from cannabis, like flavour terpenes and cannabinoids, to be added for natural flavoring, meaning that THC vapour can taste like cannabis, but nothing else.  Enditem