A Look at California's Vaping Laws

Below, we bring you an overview of the main elements of California's Vaping Laws. Vaping is a new and potentially healthier alternative to smoking. It has less of an environmental impact and nearly eliminates the problem of second hand smoking. While vaping has helped many smokers quit throughout the years it’s been available, unfortunately the ignorant and the bureaucracy that preys on their fears have allowed the stigma from smoking to corrupt the view of future prospects. This is being demonstrated in California with its changes to the status and legality of vaping. The ignorance being demonstrated can be quite problematic as the laws being put into place about vaping show a total disregard for the industry as a potentially healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes.

The most crucial and unjustified change in California's laws is the change of status that means that all vaping products are considered as tobacco products. This is a brutal change for both businesses and consumers alike. This is unjustified because many vape products do not even contain tobacco. Though nicotine is shared between both vaping and smoking products they have been placed under the same jurisdiction as tobacco even though vaping products do not often contain tobacco. This also makes it such that retailers who are selling them now must have tobacco licences so that they will be permitted to sell vaping products. This will affect retailers who dedicated themselves to vaping products not cigarettes and now have to go get a tobacco license so that they may sell their products. Seeing as how e-cigarettes do not all contain tobacco either this regulation does not make a whole lot of sense. One of the big issues caused by this change that shows the greed of these laws is that now with vaping products being classified as tobacco products they are subject to the exact same taxes that products like cigarettes are. This will greatly increase the prices on how you vape. This is an incredibly greedy move by the government with their change of status for vape products into being tobacco products. 

Another change is the age at which you are legally able to vape as they raised the legal age for smoking tobacco to 21. This has the potential to shut out many new vapers , and shows how they are simply brushing vape aside as the second coming of cigarette smoking instead of as the wonderful hobby it is. Many of these restrictions and taxes are unjustified as vaping has generally been seen as a less disturbing and less harmful alternative to smoking. Many of these laws even shut out vaping as an option for many people by restricting it to such a degree.

In addition to restricting the ability of retailers to sell their products and the ability of vapers to buy products from retailers. Vapers are also being stopped from vaping in the same areas that smoking tobacco has been banned in such as schools, public areas and workplaces. This is unfair treatment of vaping as it has been proven to have only a minimal effect on the vaper and having far fewer effects in terms of second hand smoke in comparison to cigarette smoking. 

While some of these laws are justifiable for common decency such as banning vaping in a lot of public areas many of them are simply trying to kill vaping before it can even become popular. This has made some believe that there is a potential conspiracy as cigarettes are more profitable for tobacco companies and tobacco companies are buying out e-cigarette companies. Some think that these laws are making vaping harder for those who are trying to quit smoking and shutting down vaping before it gets too popular forcing some to go back to smoking. Wild speculation aside there is no doubt that these laws are making vaping harder to continue and get into. It is very surprising that this is in California as well. Being one of the west coast states one would think it more likely to be pro-vape like it generally is pro-weed. Smoking weed is more harmful than vaping which can blur the lines ever further and only make me wonder what's in store for our fellow vapers in California. Remember to stay safe and call your local representative if you want to hear about the status of vaping in your area. We hope you have found our overview of California's Vaping Laws helpful and welcome you to share your thoughts in the comments section below.