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Tim wake up! It's actual news! What is it? It's the Cole Amendment. They added the Cole
Amendment to the agriculture bill. Let's look at it right now. It's the Forecast.
The Cole Amendment was indeed added to the Agricultural Appropriations Funding Bill. So let's take
an in-depth look kind of at what that means for vaping and kind of explain it like we're
all five. I did study Political Science. I don't know that that qualifies me more than
anyone else to go through this amendment but I'm gonna give it my best and I think I've
gotten it down pretty well so let's take a look. It's from Mr. Cole and Mr. Bishop so
let's take dive right in. So the first thing we're looking at right away and the real victory
for vaping is the mention of the grandfather date for predicate products. Now some of you
are aware that initially that date was set at February 15th 2007 and we all know vapor
products were just not around. If they were around they were garbage and there's nothing
really of predicate now that can relate to that. So what that really resulted in is an
expensive lengthy process to get all your products approved as a manufacturer and obviously
as a consumer you would be negatively affected because your stuff would just stop showing
up at the vape shop. Nothing would have been approved. So here they say basically in the
first section we're going to give you money to regulate but you can't use that money if
you're referencing that February 15th 2007 date. They mention 21 months after the date
of enactment of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and 21 months after
the effective date of such deeming regulation. So the way I'm interpreting that is that this
date for predicate products would actually lie 21 months after deeming regs possibly
meaning that all the products that are out now wouldn't have to go through that lengthy
very expensive process to get approved and they would focus on regulating other things
moving forward just to streamline the process and not burden the industry as much but also
benefit the consumer. So that's really the huge victory that everyone was really concerned
about that grandfather date. Now it is worth mentioning none of this is final. The bill
still needs to pass and Washington can put a bill through a really arduous process so
let's keep that in mind as well. So after they refer to the grandfather date the next
section really refers to battery regulation and what they're looking at there is that
batteries start getting regulated at least a year, so 12 months, once deeming regs are
announced. I think that's really good because that actually addresses a lot of issues that
have come up over the past couple of years with e-cigarettes. When you hear about formaldehyde
and stuff like that you can really address that by regulating batteries and making battery
standards to a higher quality. That's been a pretty big concern that's been pushed through
the media. So this is a pretty important section and it basically just says look within a year
you need to look at those battery standards as well. Everything after the grandfather
date section, it's important to note, has been, is a new addition to last year's amendment
which looked similar. So you really need to look at this as a compromise in order to get
this amendment added to the bill. It's actually government working which is nice to see. So
the next section after batteries kind of refers to advertising in paper magazine, periodical,
or other publications including any publication of periodic or limited distribution other
than adult publication. This is starting to refer to how you can advertise and obviously
FDA is gonna have broader advertising regulations that what's being mentioned in this amendment
but this is something I think that they added in in order to get the amendment added and
make it more favorable for some people voting on the amendment. Basically what you're looking
at there is you can't have a certain reader base under the age of 18 and still advertise
vapor products in that publication which is completely understandable if it's a magazine
that targets youth primarily it makes no sense anyway for a responsible business to market
to them. They have some exact numbers in there as well so 15 percent of your readership can
be 18. I believe it's below that, you can still advertise vapor products so long a majority
is an adult readership. I believe they draw the limit at two million readers under 18.
That's kind of just where they draw the line because obviously you could have two million
people under the age of 18 reading your publication but still have them below the 15 percent if
you're a really big publication. So I think that's targeted at larger publications and
really kind of just to get it out of the mainstream venue. So again another compromise that they
must have made in order to get this amendment added to the bill. You're also looking at
a couple more specific rules for retailers. So retailers now, no self-serve stuff depending
on where you're trying to do that self-serve, and by self-serve they mean vending machines,
kind of automatic displays where you could kind of put in money and out pops the e-liquid
which personally I've actually never seen. I think that's something that used to be bigger
with cigarettes but now it's not as big so I almost feel like it's a non-issue. I'm not
really aware of many self-serve e-cig vending machines that are kind of out in public but
they do make an exception if you do have like a smoke shop or a bar or something like that
where minors can't enter. You can have that self-serve machine, that vending type machine,
and display as long as 18 year olds or people under the age of 18 can't enter that establishment.
You're looking at bars, places that exclusively sell tobacco products so potentially at your
vape store. I don't know why you'd have a vending machine in your vape store but there
are some exceptions for that as well. So there are also a few further rules or regulations
rather, whatever you'd like to call them, for retailers and it would require them to
register with the secretary of health and human services. That would also require some
labeling requirements. So the two phrases they have in this amendment are keep out of
reach of children and underage sale prohibited. Completely reasonable. I mean if you have
a problem with that, I mean, you can put it on your package. They'll have more specifics
for that obviously once this bill would pass and then FDA would probably take over that.
Those two phrases, nobody should really have a problem with those. Also the accurate statement
of nicotine content in the vapor product. Yea, I'd really hope so right? I mean, you
don't want anyone buying nicotine free e-liquids and getting the 30 milligram version that
some vape shop is selling. Again, completely reasonable. Not too much to ask. That's also
there for labeling requirements. Also, it's important to note registering with the health
and human services secretary, that's not required if your state already has you registered as
a tobacco retailer or something like that so I think that that's just to kind of streamline
the process so if you're not registered with anyone you would have to get registered but
if you're already registered in your state for selling tobacco products or however your
state would handle that, you should be taken care of. So the rest of the amendment kind
of just goes through and clarifies what I was talking about, and by that, they're clarifying
the specifics of where you can advertise in publications and they go into more detail
like the fifteen percent or less of the total readership for minors and the two million
persons I was mentioning. Also labeling they define the terms, but it's pretty clear what
they mean by that. What I actually personally found to be the most important thing in this
amendment is in the last section they say the term tobacco product has the meaning given
to such term in section 201 of the Federal food drug and cosmetic act so they are saying
tobacco product is tobacco product as it is defined however they go further and say the
term vapor product and they go on to define a vapor product separately and I think that's
very important because it's very easy if you've been paying attention to state regulation
a lot of states have been throwing vapor products in with tobacco products and defining them
as such. So in this case you want federal law to supersede state law because you want
vapor products to be defined under their own category and that's going to be beneficial
for the industry moving forward and that's gonna be beneficial for the consumer moving
forward because it draws a clear distinction that this is not tobacco. So yeah, good stuff
actually. Not too unreasonable. They obviously had to make a compromise here. Last year they
just tried to pass or add this amendment rather to get rid of the grandfather date and they
met a lot of opposition and concerns and it's only natural that there are two sides to this
argument. People feel very strongly on both sides but it's good to see that compromise
can be reached and that it actually has things that we want, some things that they want and
that it could very well move forward and get passed. So this is a huge win for the vapor
industry, it's a huge win for you as a consumer, and I would encourage you to continue to stay
in contact with your congressional representatives because guys like Tom Cole and Mr. Bishop,
they talked about their constituents who told them that vaping helped them quit smoking
and that this is what influenced them. The most passionate arguments while the amendment
was being debated came from those congressional members who heard from their constituents,
heard their stories, heard what vaping did for them, they saw the light if you will,
and they ended up supporting this amendment. Continue to let your voice be heard. Continue
to be optimistic because this is good news and when the deeming regs come we'll know
where to go. This was Tim with the Forecast. Subscribe and we'll catch you next time.