Tag: north carolina

  • North Carolina Tweaks Rules for Cigar Bars

    North Carolina Tweaks Rules for Cigar Bars

    A last-minute addition to a bill related to alcohol sales in North Carolina should expand the number of cigar bars in the state.

    Governor Roy Cooper signed S.B. 527, a bill related to the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The bill includes text that critics say will make owning or operating a cigar bar in North Carolina much easier, according to media reports.

    While the state already allows for cigar bars—places that allow for cigar smoking and serve liquor—previously, those businesses were required to be the only entity located in standalone buildings. With the rules change, only if a cigar bar serves food must it be located in a standalone building.

    This will greatly increase the number of locations where a cigar bar could be located, likely meaning that many existing cigar stores may be eligible to become cigar bars.

    The headline change of the bill is that it allows for to-go cocktails.

  • Vape Registry Rule Slipped Into NC Bill

    Vape Registry Rule Slipped Into NC Bill

    North Carolina State House of Representatives Chamber (Credit: J Zehnder)

    A new bill in North Carolina, if passed, would require the state to certify vaping and other next-generation tobacco products for sale.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the proposal Wednesday. It was slipped into HB 900, which deals with Wake County leadership academies and their ability to maintain state designations. The House passed it without objection.

    To become law, the bill would need to pass the Senate and then the House before the end of the session. Senate leaders have said they plan to complete their work by the end of the month, local media reports.

    The chambers, both controlled by Republicans, have been unable to come to an agreement on budget modifications for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

    A North Carolina lawmaker wrongly told other lawmakers during debate that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the products, but the regulatory agency does not have the ability to check which products are being sold.

    The bill would fine retailers who sell products that aren’t on the registry for initial violations. The legislation could also suspend or revoke the establishment’s license.

    Vaping industry representatives warned lawmakers that the bill will cost people jobs and money.

    PMTA registry laws are already being enforced in Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Wisconsin passed a registry law in December and will become effective July 1, 2025. 

    Utah also passed a registry bill that included a flavor ban that will become active on Jan. 1, 2025, and Florida has a unique registry that also begins Jan. 1, 2025.

  • North Carolina Launches Juul Depository

    North Carolina Launches Juul Depository

    Photo: matousekfoto

    The attorney general for the U.S. state of North Carolina announced the launch of an online, searchable public depository that will contain nearly 4 million documents from the state’s lawsuit against e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs.

    The depository was created and is being housed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) University Libraries and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The first 50,000 documents are now available online in the UCSF Industry Documents Library, and additional documents will be added monthly, according to Attorney General Josh Stein.

    “We insisted on a publicly accessible database of Juul’s documents to ensure transparency,” said Stein in a statement. “We want people to understand what Juul did so this never happens again. I’m grateful for the partnership with UNC and UCSF and appreciate their teams’ hard work to bring this document library to life.”

    Stein sued Juul Labs in 2019 for unlawfully designing, marketing and selling its e-cigarettes to teenagers. In 2021, he reached a first-in-the-nation settlement with the pod vaping system manufacturer, winning $47.8 million and requiring the company to make significant business changes and publicize many of the documents it had produced during the lawsuit.

    The documents include information about Juul Labs’ business practices, research, advertisement, marketing, and sales data, and, according to Stein, “they shine a light” on how the company marketed its products to youth.

    The Juul Labs documents will be cross-searchable with more than 18 million other documents in the UCSF library’s tobacco, opioid, chemical, drug, food and fossil fuel industry archives.

    Stein is also investigating Puff Bar and other e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors and retailers due to ongoing concerns about flavors, age verification and marketing.

  • NC Juul Settlement to Fund Tobacco Control

    NC Juul Settlement to Fund Tobacco Control

    Photo: Chicken Strip

    For the first time since 2012, North Carolina’s state budget plan includes funds to help prevent young people from getting addicted to nicotine, reports NC Health News.

    Much of that money comes from a $40 million settlement that State Attorney Josh Stein reached this summer with Juul Labs following a lawsuit over the e-cigarette maker’s alleged targeting of young people.

    In 1998, North Carolina and 45 other states settled litigation with to recover healthcare cost incurred for treating sick smokers. The four largest U.S. tobacco companies agreed to pay $206 billion over 25 years, and part of that money was to be spent by the states on smoking-cessation programs.

    In reality, however, many states have directed their Master Settlement Agreement funds to other priorities. In 2013, when Republicans held control of both the North Carolina General Assembly chambers and the governor’s office, money stopped flowing to programs targeted at young smokers and nicotine users.

    The budget that Governor Roy Cooper signed into law on Nov. 18 transfers $2 million from the first $13 million allotment from the Juul settlement to the attorney general’s office to cover litigation costs.

    Another $4.4 million will go to tobacco cessation media campaigns, resources and programs to help children in middle school, high school and young adults quit vaping and using tobacco products after becoming addicted.

    The budget allocates $3.3 million for “evidence-based media and education campaigns” geared toward prevention of e-cigarette and tobacco use and $1.1 million for data monitoring to better understand how young people are exposed to such products and evaluate programs designed to help users quit.

    Nationally, more than two million children in middle school and high school used e-cigarettes in 2021, according to North Carolina health director Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson. Almost half of those high school students used e-cigarettes frequently, for as many as 20 out of 30 days. In North Carolina, Tilson added, a third of people in that age group used tobacco products, most of which are e-cigarettes.

  • Juul Settlement to Fund Anti-Vaping Research

    Juul Settlement to Fund Anti-Vaping Research

    Photo: steheap

    North Carolina will use the $40 million settlement with Juul Labs, announced in June by Attorney General Josh Stein, to help fund research to stop the use of electronic cigarettes among young people, reports The Fayetteville Observer.

    “For years, Juul targeted young people, including teens, with its highly addictive e-cigarette,” said Stein. “It lit the spark and fanned the flames of a vaping epidemic among our children—one that you can see in any high school in North Carolina. This win will go a long way in keeping Juul products out of kids’ hands, keeping its chemical vapor out of their lungs and keeping its nicotine from poisoning and addicting their brains.”

    Juul Labs will pay North Carolina $13 million in the first year, $8 million the second year, $7.5 million the third year, $7 million the fourth year and $2.25 million the fifth and sixth years. The payout is set to fund programs conducting research and prevention of electronic cigarettes, according to Travis Greer, regional tobacco control manager for the Cumberland County Health Department.

  • Juul Settles North Carolina Vaping Lawsuit

    Juul Settles North Carolina Vaping Lawsuit

    Photo: steheap

    North Carolina has settled its lawsuit with Juul Labs for $40 million, reports The New York Times. The lawsuit is the first decision in of a series of lawsuits brought by states that claimed the company’s marketing practices fueled widespread addiction among young people to its e-cigarettes. The money will fund programs to help people quit e-cigarettes, prevent e-cigarette addiction and research e-cigarettes.

    “This settlement is consistent with our ongoing effort to reset our company and its relationship with our stakeholders as we continue to combat underage usage and advance the opportunity for harm reduction for adult smokers,” said Juul spokesman Joshua Raffel in a statement.

    The settlement was announced on June 28 by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, who said that Juul agreed to avoid marketing that appeals to those under the age of 21. The company will curtail its use of “most social media advertising, influencer advertising, outdoor advertising near schools and sponsoring sporting events and concerts,” Stein said.

    North Carolina sued Juul Labs in May 2019, becoming the first state in the U.S. to file suit against the e-cigarette manufacturer. In the agreement, the company denies any wrongdoing or liability. Juul Labs will ensure its products are sold behind counters, the attorney general said. Juul Labs will also use third-party age verification systems for online sales. The order also commits Juul to sending teenage “mystery shoppers” to 1,000 stores each year to check whether they are selling to minors.

    The settlement also bars the company from using models under age 35 in advertisements and states that no advertisements should be posted near schools. “For years Juul targeted young people, including teens, with highly addictive e-cigarettes,” said Stein in a statement. “It lit the spark and fanned the flames of a vaping epidemic among our children—one that you can see in any high school in North Carolina.”

    Thirteen states, including California, Massachusetts and New York, as well as the District of Columbia have filed similar lawsuits. The central claim in each case is that Juul knew, or should have known, that it was hooking teenagers on pods that contained high levels of nicotine.

    “This win will go a long way in keeping Juul products out of kids’ hands, keeping its chemical vapor out of their lungs and keeping its nicotine from poisoning and addicting their brains. I’m incredibly proud of my team for their hard work on behalf of North Carolina families,” Stein said. “We’re not done—we still have to turn the tide on a teen vaping epidemic that was borne of Juul’s greed. As your attorney general, I’ll keep fighting to prevent another generation of young people from becoming addicted to nicotine.”

  • NC tobacco tax totals turn down

    North Carolina, USA, is catching up with a lot of other American states in collecting less tax revenue on cigarettes and other forms of tobacco.

    In the first nine months of fiscal 2013, which began in July, state revenue collections were $190 million, down 6 percent from the $202 million that came in during a comparable period in 2011.

    The state puts a 45-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes and a 12.8 percent tax on other tobacco products, according to a story in The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area.

    The revenue collection figures are considered a good measure of consumption trends. North Carolina saw its tobacco revenue jump by 2.2 percent in fiscal 2012, which ended last June, Meanwhile, across the country during those same 12 months, the 50-state tobacco collection figure was dropping by nearly 1 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

    The federal government, which also collected fewer tobacco taxes in its fiscal 2012, credited anti-smoking programs for the decline.

    If Congress ultimately agrees with the Obama administration’s plan to slap an extra 94 cents in taxes on a pack, expect revenue collections to continue downward.