CALIFORNIA VAPE FLAVOR BAN PASSES

During the November election, California voters had the opportunity to approve or oppose Proposition 31, which banned the sale of flavored tobacco products. The vote approved the flavor ban by a wide margin, meaning the retail sale of flavored vapes will be banned starting December 21st, 2022.

 

This vape flavor ban bill was actually passed in 2020 by the California state legislature. However, vape and tobacco companies collected over 600,000 signatures from state residents that opposed the ban. This led to the flavor ban being up for vote in the general election this year.

 

WHAT VAPE PRODUCTS ARE BANNED IN CALIFORNIA?

According to the new state law, all vape and tobacco products other than those that are a tobacco flavor, are now banned at California retail locations. The few exemptions to the law are cigars, pipe tobacco, and shisha tobacco, which is commonly used in hookah devices. Therefore, all vape juice and disposable vape devices that include any flavor other than tobacco will be banned starting on December 21st, 2022. This ban, opposed to many other vape flavor bans, also includes nicotine-free vape products. Therefore, adult vapers who do not use nicotine will still be restricted to tobacco-only flavor options.

 

Products that are still allowed are: tobacco flavored cartridges, tobacco disposable vapes, tobacco vape juice flavors and refillable vape kits that are not prefilled with vape juice. Even though brick and mortar smoke shops and vape stores are restricted from selling flavored vapes, online vape retailers can continue to sell to residents in the state of California.

 

UPDATE:

 

Adult vapers in California will be able to purchase flavored vapes online! The proposition 31 text described a YES vote as meaning “In-person stores and vending machines could not sell most flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers”.

 

The ban specifically restricts tobacco retailers from selling tobacco products “directly to the public from a retail location”. However there are many cities and municipalities that have vape flavor bans already in place. Online retailers are not allowed to ship to these locations.

 

California Locations with Existing Vape Flavor Bans

 

As previously mentioned, since there are already vape bans in place across many locations in California already existing, the California vape flavor ban actually will not affect vapers residing in major cities. The major cities below have already enacted a vape flavor ban:

 

San Francisco (All Vapes are Not Allowed)

San Jose

Sacramento

San Diego (Flavor Ban goes into effect January 1st, 2023)

Los Angeles (Flavor Ban goes into effect January 1st, 2023)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT FOR THE CALIFORNIA FLAVOR BAN?

The states of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island also have flavor bans in place. However, Massachusetts and California are the only states that have banned menthol cigarettes. The California ban of menthol cigarettes has led RJ Reynolds (maker of Newport) to file a lawsuit against the state of California. It is yet to be seen whether this lawsuit will change anything. We will provide updates in this article if there are any changes to effective dates.

 

Update: The Supreme Court has denied the move for an emergency injunction that would have put California’s flavored vape ban on hold. The court posted its decision without comment, offering no explanation.

 

If you are an adult vaper in the state of California that currently prefers vape flavors other than tobacco, we recommend that you stock up before the ban goes into effect. If you can not find your favorite vape at your local retailer, find a trustworthy online vape site that you can order from going forward.

 

WHAT SHOULD CALIFORNIA VAPERS DO?

If you are an adult vaper in the state of California, it will be impossible to find flavored vapes after December 20th. If you prefer flavored vapes (other than tobacco flavor), we highly recommend that you stock up with as many flavored vapes as possible before that date. If you are regular disposable vape user, it might make more sense to get bottles of vape juice and a rechargeable vape pod kit for a couple of reasons:

 

Vape juice has a better shelf life than disposable vapes

Using a vape juice with a refillable vape pod device is more cost effective than using disposable vapes. You can stretch your vaping budget and stock up for a longer amount of time by purchasing vape juice instead of disposable vapes.

Alternatively, if you are a regular vape user that buys from brick and mortar retail locations such as smoke shops and vape shops, you should now look into finding a respected online vape retailers to purchase vapes from going forward.

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