E-cigarette Tobacco Retail Licensing Laws: Variance Across US States as of January 1, 2020

Abstract

Objectives. To describe how US states and the District of Columbia regulate e-cigarette sales by examining e-cigarette–specific tobacco retail licensing (TRL) laws. Methods. We coded 25 state-level e-cigarette TRL laws (effective as of January 1, 2020) for provisions we labeled as either “core” (e.g., presence of license terms, fees, and penalties) or “descriptive” (e.g., license fee amount and term length). Results. Overall, 23 laws clearly defined a license term, 23 laws required a license fee, and 19 laws identified penalties for violations that included both license suspension and revocation. Fees widely ranged ($5–$1000 annually), and 8 laws did not explicitly direct fees toward TRL administration or enforcement. No law required that retailers comply with all local, state, and federal tobacco or e-cigarette laws. Conclusions. Most laws contained core TRL provisions. Several laws, however, had minimal license fees and did not direct fees toward administration or enforcement. As youth e-cigarette use increases, more states should consider establishing e-cigarette TRL laws or incorporating provisions into existing TRL laws. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print July 16, 2020: e1–e6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305771)

Classifying the comprehensiveness of flavoured tobacco sales restrictions: development and application of a tool to examine US state and local tobacco policies

“…There are several classification systems for other tobacco control policies, including Tobacco 21, smoke-free indoor laws and tobacco retail licensing 45–47. These classification systems have been used in tobacco control research to characterise the comprehensiveness of existing laws, identify inequities in exposure to strong policies, identify regulatory exemptions and measure the impact of policy comprehensiveness on youth tobacco use 45 48 49. There is a similar need to develop a classification scheme and characterise FTP sales restrictions to help shape and inform future policy development, implementation and evaluation.…”