Category: Global Regulation

Four years after Governor Dunleavy vetoed a similar measure, the Alaska Legislature passed Senate Bill 24, imposing the state’s first tax on electronic cigarettes and related products. The bill passed the House 24-16 and cleared the Senate on a 15-5 concurrence vote on May 20, the final day of the legislative session. The legislation was the third such bill championed by retiring Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, who framed it as a measure to counter the tobacco industry’s efforts to attract young users as traditional cigarette consumption declines.

If signed into law, the bill would impose a 25% tax on retail e-cigarette products and prohibit purchases by anyone under 21, matching the legal age for traditional tobacco. The state’s tobacco tax had not been updated since 2006, before e-cigarettes were widely marketed, and while many Alaska municipalities had since updated their tax systems to include vaping products, the state had not. The State Department of Revenue estimates the new tax would generate between $1.36 million and $3 million annually.

A notable structural difference from the 2022 version that Dunleavy vetoed, which proposed a 45% wholesale tax, is the shift to a retail-level tax. The change reflects the varying types of e-cigarette products: while some are sold as complete units, others are assembled by retailers from liquids and components, making it very difficult to track down all suppliers for a wholesale-level tax. During the legislative process, an amendment was also added to include synthetic nicotine products within the scope of the tax program.

The most controversial amendment to the bill allows indoor smoking at designated cigar bars, added during House floor debate. While anti-tobacco organizations had advocated for the bill, they said the cigar amendment undermines smokefree environment protections, with the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and the American Lung Association issuing a joint statement that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

The bill now awaits action by Governor Dunleavy, whose office declined to comment on whether he intends to sign, veto, or allow it to become law without his signature. The Alaska legislation arrives as the Trump administration moves in the opposite direction at the federal level: the FDA on May 5 authorized the use of four types of flavored vapes, including mango and blueberry, and the federal government continues to impose no excise tax on e-cigarette products.

The Arizona Senate passed House Bill 4001 on May 26 with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 24-2, establishing the state’s first formal regulatory framework for alternative nicotine products including e-cigarettes and vapes. The bill assigns enforcement authority to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, which will also be responsible for inspecting distributor and manufacturing facilities. The measure still requires a return to the House for final approval before heading to Governor Katie Hobbs to sign or veto.

The bill’s strong Senate majority was largely attributed to a near 40-page amendment added since the House’s earlier passage in March, which further clarified the liquor department’s role and the regulatory obligations of distributors and manufacturers. HB 4001 establishes a tiered penalty system for selling alternative nicotine products to anyone under 21, beginning with a minimum $500 fine and a mandatory educational course, escalating to a $10,000 fine and a one-year license suspension upon a fourth subsequent violation.

Not all legislators were satisfied with the bill’s scope. Sen. Mitzi Epstein, one of the two dissenting votes, argued that vapes should be regulated identically to tobacco products, including under a unified retail license covering all nicotine products, and expressed concern that the bill leaves open what substances may or may not be included in alternative nicotine products. Rep. Cesar Aguilar had previously argued the $10,000 cap on fines was insufficient and that companies might simply absorb it as a cost of doing business.

A related fiscal issue surfaced in the debate: First Things First, an early childhood education program funded by a voter-approved 2006 tobacco tax, has seen its annual revenue fall from roughly $165 million to approximately $90 million as consumers have shifted from taxed tobacco products to untaxed vapes. Some Democrats pushed for a vape tax to restore that funding, but Republican leadership characterized any tax provision as a legislative “poison pill” that would have killed the bill entirely, and it was not included.

Thailand’s Public Health Ministry is studying a Nicotine-Free Generation policy that would permanently prevent children and young people born after a specified year, or within a defined age group when the law takes effect, from ever legally purchasing cigarettes, e-cigarettes, or nicotine products. Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat framed the proposal as part of a broader effort to reduce the long-term healthcare burden associated with smoking, noting that treating patients with smoking-related illnesses strains both the financial resources and medical personnel of the healthcare system.

The policy would not constitute an immediate ban on cigarette sales or smoking. Instead, the government could set a starting point based on age or year of birth — for example, children aged 10 or 12 when the law takes effect could become the first group permanently barred from buying cigarettes, e-cigarettes, or nicotine products when they reach the current legal purchasing age of 20. The minister stated the measure aims to steadily reduce the number of new smokers in the future and will not affect existing smokers, tobacco factories, or current tobacco farmers.

The ministry acknowledged the proposal’s wide-ranging commercial implications. Possible support measures for tobacco farmers and those in related agricultural supply chains could include compensation, help switching to alternative crops, educational support for their children, and improved community infrastructure.

The proposal follows generational tobacco-control measures adopted or passed in other countries. The Maldives implemented a generational tobacco ban in November 2025, prohibiting anyone born on or after January 1, 2007, from legally buying, selling, or using tobacco products. The United Kingdom’s Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 also prohibits the sale of tobacco products to people born on or after January 1, 2009. The policy remains in early-stage study, with the ministry preparing to gather opinions from all affected sectors before moving forward.

Israel ranked 10th out of 37 countries in the 2025 Tobacco Control Scale, a European report published by the Smoke Free Partnership, which evaluates tobacco control policies across Europe on metrics including cigarette pricing and taxation, smoking bans in public places, advertising restrictions, health warnings on packaging, smoking cessation programs, age restrictions, and measures to combat illegal trade.

Despite the improved overall ranking, the report identified a significant weakness in Israel’s pricing policy. The report awarded Israel just 11 points for pricing policy, five fewer than in the previous index. Recent tax increases — including a 2024 order raising taxes on cigarettes, rolling tobacco, heated tobacco products, and e-cigarettes — failed to fully preserve the intended deterrent effect because prices did not rise fast enough compared to broader increases in living costs and consumer purchasing power. Pricing accounts for up to 30 of the index’s 100 points, making it the most heavily weighted category.

Israel’s broader performance presented a mixed picture. The country received 8 out of 10 points for smoking cessation support, 15 out of 22 for smoking bans in public places, and 11 out of 13 for advertising and marketing restrictions. However, Israel received no points for raising the legal purchasing age above 18 and none for combating illegal tobacco trade.

On a more positive note, rules signed on June 29, 2025, and set to take effect on August 2, 2026, will require graphic health warnings covering 75% of the main surfaces of all tobacco and nicotine packaging. The report also reflected a broader European trend: for the first time, more countries lost points in the index than gained them, with much of the decline attributed to the erosion of tobacco prices amid inflation and regulatory gaps involving newer smoking products, particularly heated tobacco products. Ireland topped the overall rankings with 80 out of 100 points.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare is moving to amend the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act so that mere possession of e-cigarettes would be subject to confiscation and fines of up to NTD10,000. Minister Shih Chung-liang announced the plan following recent drug-impaired driving cases linked to “zombie vapes” laced with etomidate. A prior amendment that took effect on March 22, 2023, banned e-cigarettes and similar products, tightened controls on new tobacco products such as heated tobacco, and introduced a health risk assessment for their review.

Under current rules, using e-cigarettes can draw fines of up to NTD5 million, but there is no specific penalty for simply possessing them, a gap Shih described as a loophole to be closed. The proposed amendment would set possession fines of NTD2,000 to NTD10,000, bringing them in line with penalties for use, and would cover related components and devices. The measure has been submitted to the Executive Yuan and is expected to enter the legislative process soon.

The amendment also targets online activity. It would strengthen regulation of online sales and advertising and introduce a concept of “responsible administration,” requiring platforms to proactively ensure illegal products and advertisements are not distributed and to submit their management systems for government review. HPA Director-General Shen Ching-fen said platforms could not escape responsibility by claiming content is open or automatically generated and that authorities would be able to restrict access to or remove illegal content. Supporters including Action Alliance on Basic Education president Wang Han-yang said the change would help schools, which have struggled to address students possessing e-cigarettes when possession alone is not illegal, by allowing seized devices to be handed over for official confiscation.