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Canary Islands to Revise Tobacco Tax Law

The Canary Islands plans to revise its tobacco products tax law in 2024, according to 2Firsts.

Beginning next year, e-cigarette products and e-cigarette juices will be subject to a tax of €0.10 ($0.10) per milliliter with the revenue being incorporated into the 2024 budget proposal.

Implementing this tax will make the Canary Islands the first Spanish autonomous community to impose a specific tax on tobacco products.

The tax will affect e-cigarette devices and liquids regardless of nicotine content.

A Ministry of Health report titled E-Cigarette Tax Review: European Regulations and Potential Scenarios in Spain predicts that the impending tax could increase national public revenue from €7 million to €48 million.

The revised bill will also increase the tax rate for cigars and small cigars to 4 percent from 2 percent and increase the tax rate for other tobacco products to 10 percent from 5 percent.

December 1, 2023

Elf Bar Removing Some Flavors from U.K.

Vaping brands Elf Bar and Lost Mary will remove dessert, candy and soft drink flavored disposable vapor products from the U.K. market, according to Vaping360.

The brands make up more than half of the U.K.’s disposable vape sales, according to data firm NielsenIQ. They are owned by the Chinese firm Shenzhen iMiracle Technology, and it is unclear if the Chinese company will remove these flavors from other markets.

Elf Bar has already ended U.K. sales of Bubble Gum and Cotton Candy flavors and renamed Gummy Bear “Gami,” according to the BBC.

The decision is meant to help curb claims that the popular vapes are marketed to youth following a panic over youth vaping that has seen an uptick in the past couple years.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposed changes to the vaping laws in October. There is currently a public consultation to determine what actions to take.

“The introduction of such a regime would mitigate children’s access to vapes and make it easier for the authorities to regulate the sale of vaping devices better. Furthermore, we believe it would help combat the growing illicit vape market and drive increased rates of vape recycling,” an Elf Bar spokesman said.

Clive Bates of The Counterfactual questioned whether the move would silence the company’s critics. “Their detractors will take it as an in-principle admission of culpability and then build outward from that principle,” he said.

December 1, 2023

The Potential of Pot

Despite regional setbacks, global cannabis sales are still getting higher.

By Stefanie Rossel

Global cannabis sales continue to grow, albeit at a slightly slower pace than before, facing headwinds in comparatively mature markets, such as Colorado or California. Euromonitor International expects the value of the global legal cannabis market to grow from $41 billion in 2022 to $98 billion by 2027. Despite increasing access and acceptance, the stigma around cannabis remains and regulatory uncertainty prevails.

The main growth drivers are innovation, investments from tobacco companies and consumer perception. Cannabis caters to the needs of consumers unnerved by economic, environmental and political uncertainties along with the spread of armed conflicts. Indeed, data from Israel’s ministry of health shows a spike in demand for a medical marijuana program one month into the war with Hamas. Meanwhile, the government of Ukraine—another country at war—is preparing to legalize medical cannabis.

Euromonitor expects noncombustible cannabis products to gain share as consumers become more concerned about their health. Further legislation of adult-use cannabis would have significant implications for other fast-moving consumer goods, according to the market intelligence providers, with innovations in cannabis involving topicals, beverages or edibles.

Alert to opportunity, the major tobacco players have already ventured into the sector. Philip Morris International has invested in Vectura Fertin Pharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in gums, pouches, tablets and other solid oral systems for the delivery of active ingredients. According to news reports dated July 2023, PMI is also planning to take over Syqe Medical, an Israeli company, which manufactures a metered-dose inhaler for pain reduction using medical marijuana.

BAT, for its part, has stakes in 13 cannabis startups. In April, the company entered a joint venture with Charlotte’s Web Holdings, a cannabidiol (CBD) producer based in Denver, Colorado, USA. Since 2021, it also holds a minority stake in Organigram, Canada’s second-largest licensed cannabis producer. In early November 2023, BAT boosted its interest in the company through a cad124.6 million ($90.15 million) investment. Last year, it invested $37.6 million in a leading German cannabis company called Sanity Group.

Imperial Brands acquired a stake in Auxly in 2019, while Altria is represented in the cannabis market through Cronos of Canada.

Successful Experiment

Presently, two markets are of particular interest for investors in the cannabis space: Canada, which in October celebrated the fifth anniversary of legal recreational cannabis; and Germany, which was supposed to legalize cannabis in November.

Canada’s government had committed itself to reviewing its Cannabis Act after three years, but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed that exercise. In October, the government published a summary of feedback provided by industry, healthcare and community groups. Its conclusions were sobering. Despite the growth of the market, companies across the supply chain are struggling to profit from legal cannabis. Legal producers are burdened by significant regulatory fees, distributor markups and taxes in a hyper-competitive market. The illicit market, meanwhile, still represents 40 percent of the business.

In their rush to compete with illegal products, sellers of legal cannabis have dropped their prices dramatically, selling products for as low as cad3 per gram instead of the cad10 per gram originally envisaged by the government. Due to advertising and packaging restrictions, communication with consumers, even to inform them about different varieties of cannabis and their effects, is nearly impossible. As a result of such challenges, several first players have exited the market or reduced manpower.

Legalization has also impacted public health: The Canadian Institute for Public Health noted that cannabis-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations increased 14 percent between 2019 and 2021. Despite its shortcomings, Deepak Anand, principal of Vancouver-based ASDA Consultancy Services, deems legalization a success. “Legalization has resulted in about a 50 percent reduction in illicit market sales,” he says, quoting a recent survey in which 48 percent of cannabis-using respondents stated that they purchased all their products at a licensed retailer.

“Retailer availability and proximity is an important metric in increasing overall market penetration and facilitating access,” says Anand. “No one expected the illicit market to disappear on day one or year five of legalization. The fact that we are at almost 50 percent reduction says a lot about the progress made.”

Altogether, 64 percent of Canadians supported legalization, according to the probe. The survey also showed that people aged 45 and older increased their cannabis intake the most of all age groups following legalization, whereas those under 17 reduced their consumption.

Legalization has resulted in about a 50 percent reduction in illicit market sales.

Deepak Anand, principal, ASDA Consultancy Services

Lessons to be Learned

Anand emphasizes that legalization is a process rather than an event and that the experiences of Canada show other countries what works and what doesn’t. Lessons, he says, include the importance of avoiding over-taxation and overregulation of a nascent industry, particularly when one of the goals of legalization is to transition consumption from illicit to licit channels.

What’s more, tax earnings derived from legalization must not be used solely to fill government coffers. “Revenues must be reinvested by providing the industry with data, research and tools to support the nascent industry and transition supply from criminal and illicit channels.”

Governments must also guard against setting the age of access too high or the THC limits too low, according to Anand. Furthermore, they should make sure that social justice reform is baked into any legalization programs.

Anand expects the final report on Canada’s Cannabis Act, which will be tabled before Parliament in March 2024, to take into account industry suggestions on taxation and THC levels, concerns from academics about the lack of research and a call for an overhaul of the medical system.

The Canadian cannabis market, he predicts, will see only the fittest companies surviving. “Strong business fundamentals and financial discipline will be rewarded,” says Anand. ”Companies and teams that focus on the plant and the consumer will thrive as we are seeing in the market currently. Cannabis isn’t going anywhere; it is an industry that is here and will not only stay but also thrive in the future.”

Disappointing Move

Meanwhile in Germany, legalization appears to have lost some of its momentum. Hopes were high when, in 2021, a new coalition government announced it would permit licensed shops to sell recreational cannabis to adults, i.e., those from the age of 18. The move would have made Germany the biggest EU cannabis market by far. With the legalization, the government aimed to starve the illegal market, decriminalize occasional users, lower criminal justice expenditures and protect public health. The expected cannabis tax, experts predicted, could contribute up to €1.8 billion ($1.92 billion) annually to the state treasury.

Two years on, all that remains of the lofty plans is a watered-down version. After realizing that full legalization of recreational cannabis would interfere with the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961) and EU legislation, the cabinet on Aug. 16, 2023, approved a bill that would allow adults to possess up to 25 grams of the drug, grow a maximum of three plants and acquire weed as members of nonprofit cannabis clubs. The government said it would also launch a pilot project to test the effects of a commercial supply chain for recreational cannabis over five years—a proposal for which it will need to present separate legislation.

The legislation was scheduled to pass Parliament on Nov. 16, 2023, making cannabis legal from Jan. 1, 2024. However, after meeting fierce opposition from numerous parties, among them conservative policymakers who warned that legalization would encourage cannabis use and create more work for authorities, industry associations and consumer advocacy groups, the final reading was delayed to mid-December.

In a Nov. 6 parliamentary hearing, the German Cannabis Association (DHV) pointed out that the possession cap of 25 grams per year made home cultivation impossible, as it referred to fresh flowers, which tend to lose weight after drying. “Under these conditions, no one will take the trouble to cultivate cannabis,” says DHV Managing Director Georg Wurth. “The limit would be a promotion scheme for the black market.”

DHV also advocates to allow private growers to cultivate more than three plants and criticizes the distance rule, which stipulates that consumption will neither be allowed in cannabis clubs nor within a 200-meter distance of schools, kindergartens, playgrounds or cannabis clubs. “Such a distance—or any obligatory distance—would mean that in populated areas there would be no space left for legal consumption,” he says. “The idea to completely prohibit consumption on the premises of clubs whose only aim is to cultivate cannabis is unrealistic and makes no sense. The envisaged distance rule for cannabis clubs is similarly absurd, as it does nothing for youth prevention.”

Furthermore, the punishments for violations described in the proposed legislation are too harsh, according to Wurth. The bill stipulates imprisonment of up to three years for the possession of 26 grams of cannabis or the cultivation of four plants. Consumption-related offences involve high fines. Smoking pot in a 190-meter radius from a school, for example, could cost the user up to €100,000. The DHV also calls for a legal opportunity to consume self-cultivated cannabis with friends. “After all, the goal is to deprive the black market of as much consumed cannabis as possible,” Wurth says. The association also calls for equal treatment of cannabis and alcohol in road traffic and an alignment of sanctions.

At press time, an amended version of the bill that takes into account stakeholders’ input had not been released. The first part of the planned cannabis reform in Germany is now expected to become effective on April 1, 2024, at the earliest.

Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.

December 1, 2023

A Widening Gap

Tobacco harm reduction for people with mental health needs

By Cheryl K. Olson

“I firmly believe a lot of us, people like me, are self-medicating, pure and simple,” says Skip Murray. A Minnesota-based tobacco harm reduction specialist, Murray began smoking at age 10. She was diagnosed initially with autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and later with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well. She vapes to manage her symptoms.

Brian King, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products, has called for greater focus on health equity. One group he cited as disproportionately affected by smoking is people living with mental health conditions. If you’re among this crowd, you are more likely to smoke (and smoke heavily) and less likely to quit compared to the general population.

Plenty of research details this serious disparity. Among U.S. adults scored as having serious psychological distress (SPD) in the National Health Interview Survey, nearly 40 percent smoked. That’s compared to 13 percent of people without SPD. Of all cigarettes consumed by U.S. adults, nearly one-third are smoked by someone with a mental illness.

A new analysis of Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health survey data found that among adults ever diagnosed with psychosis, 41 percent had used any kind of tobacco in the past month, and 31 percent had smoked. Having multiple mental health conditions is linked to higher smoking rates.

The disparity is growing. U.S. national surveys find that smoking rates for those with mental health diagnoses are either stagnant or are declining more slowly compared to the general population. In particular, smoking rates for black and Hispanic adults experiencing serious psychological distress have not budged in years.

What stands in the way? How can we better support tobacco harm reduction for people with mental health needs and persuade mental health professionals to take smoking seriously?

A Culture of Smoking

Historically, mental health care systems tolerated or even encouraged a smoking culture. Smoking breaks helped build relationships between patients and providers. Cigarettes were used as rewards for “good” behavior or for complying with treatment.

Studies find that mental health professionals frequently believe that their patients who smoke aren’t interested in quitting. Or that giving up cigarettes is too much to take on when also dealing with mental illness. Many therapists view smoking as not part of their turf but belonging to the physical health side of things.

Amid the stresses and crises of mental health practice, granting lower priority to smoking cessation may seem practical. But ignoring cigarettes costs their patients years, even decades, of life. A recent editorial in the British Journal of General Practice called smoking the single biggest contributor to the seven-year to 25-year reduced life expectancy for people with mental health conditions.

“To ignore their smoking, and only focus on their mental health, in the long run harms their overall health,” says Murray. “Why aren’t we looking at why they smoke? Do they not have healthcare, a home, enough food?”

“I’m more than my mental illness,” she continues. “We need to treat the whole person.”

Another barrier to encouraging smoking cessation has been lack of research on, and provider knowledge about, effective interventions. People with schizophrenia are at highest risk for earlier death, and their rates of smoking are especially high. Randomized trials suggest that smoking cessation medications are not risky for them to use. The issue is not safety but effectiveness.

For example, a large Canadian community-based smoking cessation study found that many people with schizophrenia who smoke want to stop. They were as able as others to reduce their smoking but much less successful at quitting altogether.

For people living with mental health conditions, as with the general population of people who smoke, there is an urgent need for more effective cessation approaches. A 2002 commentary titled “Smokers with Schizophrenia Will Benefit From More Flexible Treatment Approaches” put it this way: “New and creative NRTs [nicotine-replacement therapies] and pharmacological and psychosocial interventions are needed to compete with the high reinforcement value of smoking.”

Today, we have nicotine alternatives undreamed of in 2002, including e-cigarettes.

A Role for Vaping?

In a 2017 review on Smoking, Mental Illness and Public Health, Stanford researchers wrote that “Additional data are needed to more fully understand the long-term potential of [e-cigarettes] for harm/harm reduction, particularly in vulnerable groups of smokers, including those with mental illness.”

Six years later, many in public health are unfortunately still on the fence about whether vaping causes or reduces harm. We now have high-certainty evidence from a respected Cochrane review of research that vaping works better than NRT to help people quit smoking.

But what evidence do we have for persons with mental illness in particular? The studies summarized in the Cochrane review either didn’t mention mental health or specifically excluded people with conditions such as depression, anxiety and psychosis from participating.

More often than not, even the newest studies on helping people with mental illness quit smoking ignore the existence of vaping and other non-NRT nicotine options. However, evidence from recent population surveys that give results for people with mental health conditions suggests that vaping merits a closer look.

A 2023 report analyzed data on people reporting depression and anxiety from the 2018 and 2020 Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys. The authors state, “It appears that smokers with depression are motivated to quit smoking but were less likely to manage to stay quit and more likely to be vaping if successfully quit.”

A 2020 English population survey report by Brose and colleagues found that smokers with mental health problems were just as likely as others to successfully quit smoking if they tried. People who had ever had a mental health diagnosis were nearly four times more likely to choose vaping over nonprescription NRT (37 percent versus 9.8 percent) when making quit attempts—more than the sample overall. The authors suggest that “e-cigarettes used in quit attempts currently are more likely to positively affect inequalities than other smoking cessation interventions,” especially if their reach among people with mental health problems can be increased.

Wanted: Better Studies

Caponnetto and Polosa have summarized the results of some small but promising studies, involving first-generation or second-generation e-cigarettes, to help people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders stop smoking. Vaping showed potential as an acceptable substitute even among people with severe mental illness who don’t intend to quit smoking. Are larger studies in the research pipeline?

A 2021 research letter in JAMA Psychiatry describes registered clinical trials looking at e-cigarettes to reduce or stop smoking. Just eight of the 66 ongoing or completed trials recruited individuals who smoke who have a psychiatric condition. The authors note that very few studies (and no completed ones) tested “newer e-cigarette devices that are designed to deliver nicotine more similarly to cigarettes.” They call for more, higher quality studies. We’ll keep an eye out.

Ways to encourage harm reduction after inpatient mental health treatment also need more study. A 2023 U.K. study by Shoesmith and colleagues in Nicotine & Tobacco Research describes the development of a complex behavior change intervention to follow discharge from a smoke-free mental health stay. You have to dig into the supplemental material to find that mental healthcare worker training in use of e-cigarettes is part of the recommended intervention.

We need more research to better understand what may block or encourage people with mental health conditions from trying and switching to vaping. A 2017 study analyzed discussions on Reddit by people with mental illness about motivations and limitations associated with vaping. Self-medication was a common theme.

One person who reported PTSD and anxiety wrote, “For me, vaping is pretty much the same as smoking, in terms of how it helps me calm down and handle stress.”

Many wrote on Reddit about the importance of education about and support for vaping from friends, family and online communities. Informed mental health professionals could likely play a critical role in saving lives. A U.K. study found that among people who have used tobacco, those with serious mental distress are more likely to have inaccurate harm perceptions of nicotine and nicotine products, including vaping.

“A Clear and Definite Message”

A U.K. government-funded community interest company, the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, just released a much-needed guide to vaping for health and social care professionals. The guide states that “some people from disadvantaged groups may vape for temporary abstinence (e.g., at work or while in a mental health inpatient setting) before deciding to switch completely.” Also, “it is important that people from disadvantaged groups receive a clear and definite message that vaping is much less harmful than smoking.”

Some mental health professional associations have endorsed vaping, however grudgingly or conditionally. For example, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists issued a sensible e-cigarette position statement in 2018 (due for updating soon). Acknowledging the high smoking prevalence and low quit rates among people who live with mental illness, they say that “e-cigarettes and vaping devices may provide a less harmful way to deliver nicotine to those who are unable or unwilling to stop smoking tobacco.”

The college would like more data on vaping’s long-term health effects and on switching success. However, “This does not justify withholding what is, on the current evidence, a lower-risk product from existing smokers while such data is collected.”

The position of the U.K. Royal College of Psychiatrists is similarly pragmatic. Vaping devices, they note, have become the most popular real-world quit-smoking aid. Although using neither is preferable, “using an EC [electronic cigarette] is always better than smoking a cigarette.”

By contrast, a 2022 position statement on vaping products from the American Psychiatric Association does not mention harm reduction. They focus only on potential risks to youth.

Knowledge can flow the other way, from patient to mental health professional. Murray received counseling for a year from a therapist who was initially highly skeptical of vaping. “She was one of those who believed that nicotine causes cancer and depression,” Murray recalls.

After seeing the difference in Murray’s focus when she had forgotten her vape at work and gone without nicotine for hours, the therapist became curious. “That’s when we figured out that nicotine helps my ADHD,” Murray says. Upon request, she shared published studies on nicotine and mental health with her therapist.

Adds Murray, “It was cool to meet somebody who was willing to look at information and think about if what they believed was actually true.”

Cheryl K. Olson is a California-based public health researcher who specializes in behavioral health issues and consults on tobacco product behaviors via McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors. She spent 15 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

December 1, 2023

Filtrona Launches Cannabis Division

Filtrona has launched Cannatrona, a dedicated division serving the cannabis and hemp market.

The Cannatrona business supplies filter tips, mouthpieces and pre-roll solutions for cannabis and hemp products, alongside scientific services.

“The cannabis and hemp industry is seeing rapid expansion, but the regulatory landscape is also shifting at speed,” said Filtrona CEO Robert Pye in a statement. “What businesses in this field need is a partner with a proven track record of quality, innovation, brand development and compliance, and that’s exactly what Cannatrona offers. With the company’s launch, we’re looking to propel the sector to even greater heights in a transformative and meaningful way.”

“In any growing market, new businesses can be found all along the supply chain,” said Jeni Sperry, head of new business development at Cannatrona. “However, Cannatrona has something that the rest don’t, and that’s the century-long experience of Filtrona, one of the world’s leading special filter brands. For cannabis and hemp product innovators, we’re not just introducing filter tip and mouthpiece products to the market, we’re bringing expertise, innovation and a very bright future.”

December 1, 2023

France Unveils Plans to Curb Smoking

France will increase tobacco taxes, ban disposable vapes and further restrict outdoor smoking as part of an ambitious plan to reduce the health impact of tobacco consumption and create a “tobacco-free” generation by 2032, a term that is usually defined as a situation in which less than 5 percent of the population smokes.

Smoking rates in France have remained roughly unchanged since 2019 after decades of regularly declining, according to French public health authorities. Nearly a quarter of French adults, or about 12 million people, still smoke daily. Smoking is the leading cause of avoidable mortality in France, causing about 75,000 deaths per year.

Some 15 percent of teenagers have vaped, and 47 percent of them started their nicotine consumption through e-cigarettes, according to an ACT Alliance Contre Le Tabac survey published in November.

The government plan bans smoking on beaches, near public buildings like schools and in public parks and forests next year. Previously, local authorities had already barred people from smoking at more than 7,000 outdoor locations, including at beaches, forests and parks across the country, but there was no nationwide ban.

The government also wants to extend the plain packaging requirement for cigarette packs to vaping products and set a minimum tobacco price of €13 ($14) per pack.

Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau said the government will enact most measures by degree early next year. The ban on disposable vapes, however, will require legislation that is expected to go to Parliament in December.

While welcoming France’s ambition to end smoking, tobacco harm reduction activists expressed concern about the planned ban on single-use vapes, which they described as a step backward in the fight against smoking.

“Such prohibitions only serve to drive consumers either back to smoking or to black markets,” said Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers Alliance, in a statement.

“We’ve seen time and again that prohibition doesn’t work. France should look to countries like Sweden, where a balanced approach to harm reduction has led to significant public health gains. The French government must recognize the importance of offering a variety of less harmful alternatives to smokers.”

November 30, 2023

Malaysia Passes Watered-Down Bill

Malaysia’s lower house of Parliament has passed the Control of Smoking Products and Public Health Bill without the controversial generational endgame (GEG) clause, reports the New Straits Times.

The legislation regulates advertisements, packaging and smoke-free places but excludes a provision that would have made it illegal for Malaysians born after 2007 to buy or consume nicotine products.

Health Minister Zaliha Mustafa said the GEG was dropped due to constitutional concerns. The Attorneys General Chambers had warned that the proposal contravenes Article 8 of Malaysia’s constitution, as it creates unequal treatment before the law between persons born before Jan. 1, 2007, and individuals born after the date.

Critics blamed Malaysia’s U-turn on tobacco lobbying.

Zaliha insisted that any shortcomings in the bill could be improved over time.

November 30, 2023

Butts Pollution Costs $26 Billion: Study

The costs of environmental pollution caused by plastics in cigarette butts and packaging amount to an estimated $26 billion every year in waste management and marine ecosystem damage worldwide, according to a data analysis published online in Tobacco Control.

To gauge the global economic toll of tobacco waste, Deborah K. Sy of the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control in Bangkok drew on public data sources for cigarette sales, cleanup costs and plastic waste on land and sea.

The average weight of each plastic filter is 3.4 grams. As cigarette butts are often littered along with plastic packaging, which weighs an average 19 grams for a standard pack size of 20 cigarettes, this was also included in the calculations.

The researcher estimated the annual projections of the environmental and economic costs of tobacco plastic based on the tonnage. Ten-year projections were included because cigarette butts are reported to take 10 years to degrade.

The total figure reflects cost estimates of cleanup and disposal (adjusted for inflation) of the total plastic generated by filtered cigarette sales potentially ending up as waste in the sea, landfills or in the environment.

Sy estimated that the annual economic cost of cigarette plastic waste is around $26 billion, made up of $20.7 billion in marine ecosystem damage and $5 billion in waste management costs, adding up to $186 billion over 10 years.

The costs of tobacco product plastic pollution are likely highest in China, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, the estimates suggest.

The research was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

November 30, 2023

Russia to Criminalize E-liquid Trafficking

Traffickers of illegal vape liquids could face up to seven years in prison in Russia if a proposal by the Committee of the Federation Council on Economic Policy becomes law, reports AIF.

Lawmakers are concerned about the ingredients in illegal vapes, which evade regulatory scrutiny.

Anatoly Vyborny, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, supported the provision, saying that the measure would help protect the health of young Russians.

Currently, in Russia, there is no criminal liability for the illegal import of vaporizers and e-liquids.

November 30, 2023

MRTP Renewal Filed for General Snus

On Nov. 30, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration filed for scientific review modified-risk tobacco product (MRTP) renewal applications submitted by Swedish Match USA for General Snus smokeless tobacco products, including:

General Loose;
General Dry Mint Portion Original Mini;
General Portion Original Large;
General Classic Blend Portion White Large, 12 count;
General Mint Portion White Large;
General Nordic Mint Portion White Large, 12 count;
General Portion White Large; and
General Wintergreen Portion White Large.

In 2019, the FDA issued modified-risk granted orders for eight smokeless tobacco products made by Swedish Match USA. These orders expire in 2024. To continue marketing the MRTPs after the authorized five-year term, the company submitted an MRTP renewal application to the FDA.

Starting Dec. 1, the public may submit comments on these applications on regulations.gov.

November 30, 2023