RE:Vaping Hey Opt,
I was already writing on your other recent post, but I saw this, so I moved my response over here. Any idea if the ban applies to Cannabis sales? It doesn't seem like it to me. You said you see other nations following suit? Here's a link to the official FDA press release;
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-finalizes-enforcement-policy-unauthorized-flavored-cartridge-based-e-cigarettes-appeal-children
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This vaping fiasco is one of the craziest things I've seen in years. It's truly hard to imagine how so many have gotten it so wrong, and yet exert their ignorant will upon the rest of us. I'm in the U.S., so I've found the actions of our representatives stupid and deplorable. Other nations have kept their heads on straight, and I've genuinely hoped that this issue won't continue picking up speed.
What sort of info do you have to support, "Trump is behind it 100%?" I've never seen a statement eluding to that. The Trump administration has been working on their federal ban for flavored vapes nearly since this all started. They are supposed to be announcing their plans for the ban this week and it's going to have a chilling effect on sales (already has), and I hope with acknowledgement from the federal branch that other nations aren't going to reconsider their position.
Ideally, this shouldn't be affecting the Cannabis industry, since all legal sales are already restricted to minors, but the plans haven't been fully announced. This unilateral banning is like adding insult to injury. If the concern is about kiddies and their vapes, they could have been proactive in regulating this (instead of the FDA continually pushing out deadlines to establish regulation strandards) -- they were effective in this effort against cigarettes without the need for a ham-fisted ban. Currently, the number of high schoolers vaping is about on par with cigarettes at the turn of the century.
If the goal is to crack down on the actual cause of this, "epidemic," then any sort of ban on regulated, legal products is going to have an opposite effect. The majority of adults use flavored vapes and a ban like this is going to push people out of the legal market, possibly into the black market which is where this, "epidemic," stems from in the first place.
Even just a ban on flavors, should it be applicable to dispensaries, will hurt U.S. vape sales. Not nearly as big of a deal for Canadian LPs, but I think it's worth acknowledging as a long-term operational headwind. It may be a bit hard for me to judge the scale of the headwind, however, because of how much I've heard the narrative shift here in the U.S..
I consider concentrates essential to a brand's portfolio and it will continue to be a major portion of market share moving forward. Cartridges, and vaping, make this the perfect solution for both on-boarding and connoisseurs. It allows for a much wider set of experiences to more perfectly suit the tastes of a wider swath of consumers. This includes more refinement and better ease-of-use.
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Here's a quote from the FDA press release on how they've failed us,
"On Aug. 8, 2016, all e-cigarettes and other ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery system) products became subject to the FDA’s tobacco authorities, including the premarket authorization requirements in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). All e-cigarettes and other ENDS products on the market at that time needed to have authorization from the FDA to be legally marketed. However, as an exercise of its enforcement discretion, the agency had deferred enforcement of the premarket authorization requirements. To date, no ENDS products have been authorized by the FDA — meaning that all ENDS products currently on the market are considered illegally marketed and are subject to enforcement, at any time, in the FDA’s discretion."
We couldn't do our jobs, so now we must enforce unwarranted and unwanted action against this industry that hurts consumers. That's the only way I see this. JMHO,
-Dubby