Month: March 2024

Last week the Massachusetts Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force released its annual report. That probably isn’t exciting reading for most of you, but it’s a really useful document for understanding the impact of prohibitionist tobacco policies. In 2019, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a comprehensive ban on flavored nicotine and tobacco products. Flavor bans are studied by health academics for how they affect consumer behavior, but this annual report is one of the few sources that reveals how these policies affect law enforcement.

Advocates for flavor bans portray them as simple product regulations, dismissing concerns that they will lead to arrests and prosecutions. This year’s report from Massachusetts shows once again that these advocates are wrong. A few excerpts from the section on criminal investigations:

In May of 2023, Mansfield PD and State Police investigators seized untaxed flavored ENDS products (to include THC ENDS products) following an investigation and search of a residence. This case is being prosecuted by the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. [Note: “ENDS” refers to electronic nicotine delivery systems, a.k.a. e-cigarettes.]

In June of 2023, the State Police arrested a Lynn man in possession of untaxed flavored ENDS products, marijuana, and US Currency. This case is being prosecuted by the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.

In June of 2023, the State Police arrested a Boston man in possession of untaxed flavored ENDS products as well as marijuana. He was charged with tax evasion. The case is being prosecuted by the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. 

In October of 2023, the State Police arrested a Malden man in possession of untaxed flavored ENDS products as well as Class C and Class D controlled substances. He was charged with tax evasion and motor vehicle offenses. This case is being prosecuted by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office. 

In November of 2023, the State Police arrested a Randolph man while in possession of flavored ENDS products. He was charged with Tax Evasion and Motor Vehicle Offenses. This case is being prosecuted out of the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office. 

In February of 2024, the State Police along with CIB, the Woburn and Worcester Police Departments, and Homeland Security Investigations executed 29 search warrants on businesses, residences, vehicles, individuals, and bank accounts. Investigators seized approximately 280,000 flavored ENDS products as well as flavored cigars and unstamped cigarettes. Investigators also seized approximately seventy (70) pounds of marijuana packaged for distribution, hundreds of cases of THC and Psylocibin-laced products (Class C Controlled Substances), multiple jars of pure THC oil and THC crystalline, and one unsecured firearm. Investigators also seized over $1 million as proceeds of the illegal sales of these products. State Police arrested a New Hampshire man on two counts of Possession with Intent to Distribute a Class C Substance and Possession with Intent to Distribute a Class D Substance. This investigation, which is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office, remains open and ongoing. 

Violating the flavor ban is a misdemeanor, but in Massachusetts as in most other states, selling untaxed tobacco products can rise to the level of felony offense. Flavor bans drive sales of e-cigarettes to the illicit market, putting sellers at risk of being charged with tax evasion. In Massachusetts that can lead to penalties of up to five years in prison.

These cases can take years to resolve in the criminal justice system. A Massachusetts case I highlighted for Reason two years ago, for example, has yet to go to trial. A contraband tobacco case there from 2017 didn’t reach sentencing until last week. But arrests and prosecutions are ongoing, so it’s only a matter of time before someone is sentenced to prison in the United States for selling flavored e-cigarettes to consenting adults, and more cases will surely follow.

Other recent research concludes that flavor bans increase sales of conventional cigarettes, shifting consumption from relatively low-risk vaping to extremely high-risk smoking. So in addition to creating illicit markets and leading to arrests, prosecutions, and imprisonment, the policies likely don’t even benefit public health. Flavor bans are a dumb, illiberal idea that progressives need to move on from.

Previous coverage: I wrote about last year’s report for Reason. And of course, see my recent book The New Prohibition for an in-depth case against illiberal tobacco policy.

I’ve published a couple recent articles on new wave nicotine products. First up in Reason, I looked at how heated tobacco (such as IQOS) is transforming the market in Japan:

Japan provides an unlikely model for tobacco policy. The country tends to be more tolerant of smoking than its Western peers; it has high rates of smoking among men, and its government participates directly in the cigarette trade through its partial ownership of Japan Tobacco, the country’s largest manufacturer of cigarettes. It therefore comes as a surprise that Japan is experiencing a dramatic and sustained decline in cigarette sales, a trend that experts credit substantially to heated tobacco products.

And in Slate, I covered the controversy over Zyn nicotine pouches, which have sparked the ire of Chuck Schumer and a vocal “Zynsurrection” among the online right:

Superficially, this might seem like just another dumb culture war among the terminally online, for whom anything from Keurig coffee makers to Taylor Swift can become a symbol of political polarization. But the stakes of tobacco policy matter for the rest of us too, particularly for the health of people who smoke and for the 2024 elections. It deserves to be taken seriously. And as much as liberals and progressives may be loath to admit it, right-wing posters defending the freedom of adults’ right to use Zyn have the better of the argument.

Read ’em both!