Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the authority to regulate and even prohibit internet sales of commercial tobacco products and e-cigarettes, it has yet to exercise this authority. States and local governments can close this loophole. This webinar will present an overview of the current landscape of internet and delivery-based commercial tobacco product sales and highlight regulatory challenges presented by the prevalence of on-demand app-based retailers and delivery services popular among young people. The presenters will also describe state and local legal and policy measures for regulating online sales of commercial tobacco products and e-cigarettes, including legislative and litigation approaches that several states and cities have taken to address internet sales to underaged persons.

Communities are at the front line of navigating the rise in youth use of e-cigarettes, which some have termed a “Juul epidemic.” This webinar will describe the trends in youth use of Juul and other e-cigarette products, the public health harms of e-cigarette use, and the unique role schools play in addressing the epidemic.

Every stage of the commercial tobacco lifecycle affects human health, ecosystems, and the global climate. These impacts begin with the cultivation and processing of tobacco plants and extend through product disposal. Around the world, massive amounts of forest are removed to make way for tobacco farmland and to provide wood for tobacco curing. Commercial tobacco agriculture degrades soil, exposes workers to hazardous pesticides and nicotine poisoning, and contributes to food insecurity. Cigarette butts spread toxic substances and pollution into waterways.

Some of the most effective tobacco control policies are developed at the local level before being replicated and often enhanced by state and other local governments. Preemption, which occurs when a higher governmental entity removes the authority of a local branch of government, threatens the ability of local public health leaders to execute their vision for tobacco control in their jurisdictions. In 2019, several state legislatures proposed measures that would preempt local jurisdictions from regulating tobacco products in some manner, demonstrating that preemption is still a crucial issue in tobacco control.

The Tobacco Control Network (TCN), a peer network of ASTHO, and the Public Health Law Center (PHLC) are organizing a three-part webinar series exploring what tobacco control stakeholders need to know about preemption and strategies to avoid it. This third and final webinar in the series will discuss opportunities to promote tobacco control and cessation at the state level when tobacco preemption limits local authority. This webinar will include a presentation from subject matter experts at the Public Health Law Center, accompanied by state level case studies from North Carolina and Oklahoma. All tobacco control stakeholders are invited to participate in this learning series.

This webinar was recorded on July 10, 2019.

The Public Health Law Center (PHLC) and the American Lung Association in California (ALA) were awarded a 5-year contract by the California Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) at the California Department of Public Health to support commercial tobacco control professionals and advocates in the work to end the commercial tobacco epidemic in California. The contract for the Law and Policy Coordinating Center began on July 1, 2019.

Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is currently categorized as a Schedule 1 drug – that is, a drug with high potential for abuse with no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S. Despite the growing number of states that legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes or recreational use, it remains a federal offense to cultivate, manufacture, distribute, sell, purchase, possess, or use marijuana. 

As a result of the explosion of JUUL products leading to an unprecedented increase in youth e-cigarette use, state and local governments are considering a variety of policy options to regulate this rapidly expanding market. Taxation has proven to be one of the most effective methods to reduce youth cigarette use. To date, however, very few states have enacted e-cigarette taxes. In response to the epidemic of youth use, many states are considering taxing e-cigarettes, but it is still not clear how best to do so.

According to both the FDA Commissioner and the Surgeon General, youth nicotine addiction is now an epidemic, fueled by the soaring success of JUUL and similar e-cigarettes. Although this alarm is widely shared by public health officials at all levels of government, many important regulatory tools to tackle this problem have been left unused. This 30-minute webinar focuses on federal action, describing what FDA regulation of e-cigarettes looks like currently and highlighting steps the FDA could take to significantly change the trajectory of the e-cigarette epidemic.

The 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) is an accord reached between the state Attorneys General of 46 states, five U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and the four largest cigarette manufacturers in America concerning the advertising, marketing, promotion of cigarettes, and compensation for health-care costs connected to tobacco-related illness.

Heated cigarettes are getting more attention as commercial tobacco product manufacturers tout their marketing success abroad and begin introducing the products into the U.S. market. Although the tobacco industry refers to them as “heat-not-burn” products, this term is a misnomer that attempts to downplay the harm of using these products. This webinar includes an overview of this category of products, describes products currently available on the U.S. market, and explains how heated cigarettes fit into a comprehensive regulatory scheme.

This is the second in our series of Tobacco Control Legal Consortium/Public Health Law Center webinars on the emergence of JUUL, the e-cigarette product that has become extremely popular among kids and adults alike. In this webinar, legal and policy experts discuss the recent steps that the FDA has taken to regulate JUUL and other e-cigarette products, as well as options for state and local governments to supplement and enhance federal regulation.

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This webinar familiarizes participants with JUUL, a relatively new, discreet, and best-selling e-cigarette brand that is very popular among youth and young adults. Policy, legal, and advocacy experts describe JUUL and discuss concerns and emerging reports about youth and young adult use, ease of use without detection, potential health risks, and regulatory gaps and opportunities.