Recently, the official website of the Consumer Choice Center in the United States released the latest 2024 edition of the e-cigarette index for each state, evaluating all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data shows that only Alaska, North Dakota, and Tennessee received an A+ rating for their evidence-based e-cigarette policy approaches in the study.
This rating indicates that these states are able to use e-cigarettes as harm reduction tools while still allowing consumers to make their own choices. Other states that have performed well include Arizona, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
On the contrary, 12 states like Utah (0 points), California (5 points), and Vermont (10 points) have implemented restrictive policies on e-cigarettes. These states include Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington D.C., and Colorado (all scored 15 points).
Since the first edition of the index in 2020, the number of states with low scores has doubled.
Consumer Choice Center research director Emil Panzaru stated,
E-cigarettes have the potential to save lives. If all smokers in the United States switched to e-cigarettes within the next ten years, it could prevent 6.6 million premature deaths.
However, policymakers have failed to recognize that e-cigarettes are an effective alternative to traditional combustible tobacco products and have mistakenly treated e-cigarettes as tobacco products. They have implemented strict flavor bans, increased taxes, mandatory product registration, and online sales bans on e-cigarettes. These policies have made it difficult for consumers to break more harmful smoking habits and have fueled the black market for e-cigarettes. Ultimately, this has led to state laws conflicting with the latest global public health practices.
The index measures five factors: whether states classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, state-level restrictions on e-cigarette flavors, state registration requirements, additional e-cigarette taxes, and the presence of online sales bans.
Pan Zalu stated,
The most reliable studies, such as those confirmed by authoritative institutions such as Public Health England, indicate that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than combustible tobacco for users. Evidence from the New England Journal of Medicine shows that e-cigarettes are twice as effective as any nicotine patch, gum, or spray in helping people quit smoking. Furthermore, a review of 15 different studies found little to no evidence of a gateway effect of e-cigarettes leading young people to smoking or other hard drugs.
State authorities should carefully study the example of Sweden, which is the first European country to become smoke-free through evidence-driven tools for harm reduction, rather than adopting inappropriate policies ignoring evidence.
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