Here’s an update on the ballot measures that would have affected vaping in four states, which are California, Colorado, Missouri, North Dakota
California had Prop 56, which would increase taxes on tobacco products by nearly 70%. Unfortunately, this one passed by a landslide with about 63% of people voting yes. This really sucks for California because not only is it going to make vaping way more expensive, but it’s likely to lead former smokers back to cheaper cigarettes and also put a lot of vape shops out of business.
North Dakota had Initiated Statutory Measure 4, which would increase taxes by 56% for wholesale, resulting in an estimated 400% increase for the final cost of vaping products for consumers. In contrast to California, 61% of voters overwhelmingly voted no on this one.
Colorado had Amendment 72, which would triple the excise tax on tobacco and increase the wholesale tax by 62%. It did not include electronic cigarettes but was vague enough to apply to vaping in the future. Fortunately for Colorado, the majority vote was no at 53%.
Missouri had Proposition A, which would increase state taxes on tobacco by 5%. Again, the voters chose not to increase taxes. 55% of voters said no.
image attribution: By April Sikorski from Brooklyn, USA (vote here) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons