WSJ Exposes the FDA's Plan to Ban 99%-Plus of Vapor Products

The title is just copy/pasted from campaignr20. Link is here

For companies not affiliated with Big Tobacco, the FDA's deeming 'regulation' is actually about 'prohibition.'

Today's Wall Street Journal features an excellent article by correspondent Tripp Mickle on the threats that the Food & Drug Administration's current regulatory plan for vapor products and e-cigarettes pose to small businesses and consumer freedom.



Mickle focuses on one aspect of the FDA's proposed rule that is all often often glossed over in summaries presented to the media -- the requirement that all vapor products currently on the market retroactively undergo a multimillion dollar 'pre-market' approval process to be able to stay on the market. Without action by Congress, this single aspect of the proposal threatens to wipe out 99%-plus of vapor products currently available and hand the vapor industry over to Big Tobacco.



The AVA is thankful to the Wall Street Journal for becoming the first major U.S. newspaper to reveal the truth about the FDA's plans for "regulation" -- namely, that for the vast majority of the players in the market, the FDA's rule will result in prohibition, not regulation.





FDA Cloud Hangs Over Vape Shops
by Tripp Mickle

New FDA rules are expected to require approval for nearly all liquid nicotine juices and e-cig devices


ATLANTA - Tige Mercer quadrupled his income when he quit audiovisual freelancing to open Vape Atlanta, in this city's funky Little Five Points area. He expects his income to rise another 50% after he opens two more e-cigarette stores in nearby cities this summer.


But federal regulations due to be unveiled this summer threaten to ruin his plans.


Within the next two months, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to complete rulesthat would require federal approval for nearly all flavored liquid nicotine juices and e-cig devices sold in vape shops like Mr. Mercer's.


The approval process could cost anywhere from $2 million to $10 million to collect data and put forward an application for each item, according to the regulatory consulting company SciLucent LLC.


It's a price tag Mr. Mercer, who co-owns a liquid-nicotine producer, could never afford. If that happens, he would exit that part of the business, which accounts for about 40% of revenue, and buy more expensive nicotine from an outside supplier. He probably wouldn't be able to afford the planned expansion.


"It's hard to make moves under this hovering cloud," said Mr. Mercer as a white cloud of cotton-candy smelling vapor billowed around him. "Worst-case scenario for me, I fire all my employees, go back to one shop and work myself."


Mr. Mercer would be one of the luckier vape-shop owners, according to the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, a lobbying group representing vapor shops and manufacturers. After the FDA finalizes its rule, the association estimates that 99% of the industry will go out of business.



"We call it vapocalypse," saidDaniel Walsh,chief executive of PureBacco USA LLC, a Gaylord, Mich.-based maker of a liquid nicotine called Flavorz.


In April 2014, the FDA proposed rules that would require e-cigarettes, including liquid nicotine and devices, to be approved by the agency. That would be a challenge, e-cigarette manufacturers say, because the FDA has never approved a new tobacco product.


Companies would have six months after the FDA completes its rules to register products and ingredients with the agency, and two years to complete the process of seeking approval-which they may or may not get.


The regulations are expected to cut the supply of liquid nicotine and drive up costs for shop owners and prices for vapers. The big winners likely will be Big Tobacco. Companies likeAltria GroupInc.and Reynolds AmericanInc.,which have their own e-cigarette brands, are better able to afford the approval process, said Kevin Altman, a consultant to the Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America.


Meanwhile, small vape businesses fret.

 

If the FDA were concerned about anyone's health (which they clearly are not) they would regulate the flavoring and nicotine suppliers only. Once those industries are in compliance then the health aspect is taken care of. This is exactly how they fcuked the hemp market to protect the cotton industry in the 60s. Biggest gangsters on the planet. Land of the free LOL.