Flavored-Tobacco Bans Turn to Menthol

NATO warns that new ordinances bring consequences

 

June 2017

 

Yolo County. Santa Clara County. Contra Costa County. Oakland. San Leandro. San Francisco. All of these California counties or cities have adopted or are considering adopting a local ordinance that would ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and all-flavored tobacco products.

 

While proposing to ban the sale of all menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products might be intended to reduce younger people accessing and using tobacco products, the enactment of a flavor ban will create an illegal market in such flavored tobacco products. Why? A total flavor ban would require retailers to remove up to 100 different flavored tobacco products from store shelves, including menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, hookah tobacco and electronic cigarettes and vaping products.

 

With retailers being unable to sell flavored tobacco products, criminal elements will begin and provide a ready supply of flavored tobacco products. This is an unintended consequence of the ordnance and would be the replacement of legal, regulated, retail sales of tobacco products with illegal, unregulated sales of these products.

 

A good example of this kind of activity is New York City, where a tobacco product flavor ban in addition to high tobacco excise taxes has resulted in a widespread illegal market in tobacco products. Elected officials should not enact local laws that create conditions for criminal activity. This would put the safety of local citizens at risk. The creation of an illicit trade in flavored tobacco products will make it easier for youth to obtain tobacco because unlicensed and unregulated sellers of tobacco products are not concerned about whom they sell to or aren’t concerned with checking photo identification to verify age. Rather than allowing criminals to sell flavored tobacco products on street corners or backstreet alleys, local governments need to continue to allow responsible convenience store, drug store, tobacco store and grocery store retailers to continue to sell flavored tobacco products.

 

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, tobacco products account for 36% of all in-store sales at an average c-store. The business model for a c-store relies on gasoline sales at the pump and tobacco sales inside the store. Without both gasoline and tobacco sales, a convenience store will be unable to operate profitably. By banning the sale of all flavored cigarettes and tobacco products, the sales and profit margins of retail stores will plummet, employees will be laid off, stores will close and there will be no sound business reason for any retailer to open a new store in a city or county that enacts this ban. This devastating economic effect on hard working, family owned retail stores and their employees should not be disregarded and is reason to forego the adoption of these kinds of ordinances.

 

SOURCE: Thomas A. Briant. “Flavored-Tobacoo Bans Turn to Menthol” by CSP Daily News http://www.cspdailynews.com/category-news/tobacco/articles/flavored-tobacco-bans-turn-menthol?utm_source=Marketing%20Cloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Tobacco_E_News_06-14-2017