Illinois Gov. J-B Pritzker and other state lawmakers are pushing legislation to ban flavored nicotine in hopes of curbing teen use. But, Attorney General Kwame Raoul says that won’t be enough.
Raoul said the Tobacco Control Act provides several avenues where the state is not preempted from acting.
“That’s taxation, licensing, age requirements, advertising and promotions, and illegal production and distribution of products,” Raoul said.
The Attorney General’s Office is also looking into the E-Cigarette black market. 69 cases of serious respiratory illness related to vaping have been confirmed in Illinois, with another 13 cases still under investigation. One person has died.
Representative Grant Wehrli asked why House lawmakers wouldn’t make it illegal to vape marijuana as well as flavored nicotine, since the majority of people who have gotten sick in Illinois are T-H-C vapers.
“There’s a disconnect there that I think we need to get to. And, if we’re going to ban something, it sounds like we need to ban vaping in T-H-C before we get to January 1st, when it becomes decriminalized in the State of Illinois,” Wehrli said.
State lawmakers will continue the discussion of banning flavored vaping products when the General Assembly begins its fall session in October.
