New limits on vaping products that a Northern Kentucky shop owner says will put his stores out of business passed the Kentucky House Monday with opposition from some Northern Kentucky lawmakers.?

The legislation, House Bill 11, would limit vape sales in Kentucky to products authorized or pending action by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Retailers would have to have official certification on file – called “safe harbor certification” – to sell products that are under review but not yet fully FDA authorized. Failure to comply could result in fines costing thousands of dollars.?

The bill would also create fines of $100 to $5,000 per violation for retailers that sell vaping products to those under age 21, already illegal under current law.?

After debate on HB 11 Monday, the bill passed the House 62-26. Several Northern Kentuckky? lawmakers — Reps. Steven Doan (R-Erlanger), Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge), Marianne Proctor (R-Union) and Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington) — voted no. House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) also voted against the legislation.

Mike Reichert, the owner of Bluegrass Vape in Cold Spring and Dry Ridge, testified against HB 11 in the House Health Services committee March 7. Reichert said he doesn’t sell to anyone under age. Many products he does sell, he said, would be banned if HB 11 becomes law.

Reichert said that will put him out of business and make legal customers — including a regular customer in his 70s who gave up tobacco and buys vape liquid, or e-liquid, from Reichert at $20 a week — lose access to affordable products.?

Instead of $20, Reichert said the same amount of product from a major brand like Juul “that this bill leaves on the market, and protects it, will cost him between $150 and $300 per week.”?

Saying he got into the vape business “to help adult smokers quit tobacco,” Reichert told the committee HB 11 may push those individuals back into a tobacco habit by making vaping unaffordable.

A factor in the FDA regulatory process of vape products is what is called a premarket tobacco product application or PMTA, regional retailer and distributor Troy LeBlanc told the committee. According to LeBlanc, “there’s a bar set at the federal level” discouraging businesses from getting a PMTA. The result impacts what products come to market.

One lawmaker who railed against HB 11 on the House floor was Maddox. She said the bill would harm Kentucky businesses by keeping vape products out of the hands of adults who now legally use them.?

“Because, as we all know, it is every bit as illegal for minors to buy this product as alcohol,” she said. “This is being proposed as something that is designed to reduce harm in minor children when in reality it will do no such thing. These products are already illegal. What it will do is harm Kentucky’s businesses.”?

“You can talk about the FDA approved list but what each one of us has to know is that when we press the ‘yes’ button we are voting to ban a product simply on the basis that we think we have the right to decide what types of products that Kentuckians should buy. And I want to ask, where does it end?”?

Rep. Rebecca Raymer (R-Morgantown) is the sponsor of HB 11. She told the House before Monday’s vote that the legislation is an attempt to keep vaping products that “are not supposed to be offered for sale per the FDA” out of the hands of Kentucky youth.?

As far as a regulation goes, Raymer said that’s not the General Assembly’s call.?

“The fact of the matter is we are not the regulatory authority over these products. The FDA is,” said Raymer. “I’m sure there are pharmaceutical companies that would like to go ahead and have their product sold in Kentucky even though they haven’t gone through the FDA process. Are we going to start allowing those?”?

Raymer made similar remarks before HB 11 passed committee last week despite objections from Reichert and other business owners.

“I understand that they don’t like the FDA process. But the bottom line is that Congress granted the FDA the authority to regulate these products and these are definitions that are in place. They are clear,” she said March 7.

NKY lawmakers voting for the bill Monday included Reps. Kim Banta (R-Fort Mitchell), Mike Clines (R-Alexandria) and Stephanie Dietz (R-Edgewood), each a cosponsor of the bill. House Health Services chair Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser (R-Taylor Mill) also voted yes.?

HB 11 now goes to the Senate for its consideration. It would be enforced starting Jan. 1, 2025 if it becomes law.?

The bill is one of several anti-vaping bills being considered for passage during the 2024 General Assembly, set to end no later than April 15.

This story is republished from LINK nky.