@realDonaldTrump Thousands of small businesses will be forced to close! Deliver on your promise. We need @US_FDA to stop dragging their feet and giving #bigtobacco a monopoly
Claims that e-cigarettes cause popcorn lung are not unlike rubbish claims that vaccines cause autism or that excessive masturbation leads to blindness.
"Top 10 Most Fallacious Claims About E-Cigarettes Causing Popcorn Lung -- 2024" by @mbsiegel https://t.co/wLAkLiX2Gv
@SavannahLMaddox Thank you @SavannahLMaddox ! We’ve been in business since 2013 and will absolutely be forced to close. We don’t need people like RR making laws with absolutely no knowledge of the industry or the benefits of harm reduction
Dating back to March 7th, 2024, I began warning my colleagues in the General Assembly about HB 11 and the damage it would do to Kentucky’s small businesses. I made fiery floor speeches, I ran the numbers, I shared the data, and did everything I could to put a stop to what I knew would be a tremendous mistake.
Nevertheless, lawmakers voted to effectively ban vaporizers and e-cigarette products, beginning January 1st. Hundreds of small businesses will shut down and well over a thousand jobs will be eliminated as a result.
Kentucky stands to lose approximately $63 million in state business and consumption taxes along with an estimated $174 million in economic input.
Kentuckians will take their money across state lines to Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and other surrounding states– all because special interests sought to create a government-backed monopoly.
Altria, the country's largest manufacturer of cigarettes, spent more than $500,000 lobbying for HB 11. Proponents of this bill should put that in their pipe and smoke it when they try to tell you this was about harm reduction!
To me, that’s the most disingenuous part of this fiasco. First, the people pushing the bill tried to tell legislators that it wasn’t a ban on vaporizers and e-cigarettes. It was. Then, they tried to tie the bill to stopping minors from vaping, knowing full well that it is already illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to purchase these products.
That would be the equivalent of banning all alcohol sales to curb underage drinking. Does anyone think the Bourbon Industry or the legislators who support it would allow that to happen, in the name of “harm reduction?”
Maybe you’re like me and you don’t vape or have any use for these products. Why should we care?
Here’s why. It’s not the government’s job to put their finger on the scale and pick winners and losers by selectively banning products with the intent of enforcing a monopoly!
On January 1st, hundreds of Kentucky’s businesses will be on the chopping block. Six days later on January 7th, the legislature will have a chance to rectify this grievous error when we convene for the 2025 General Assembly Session.
I don’t fault my colleagues for falling prey to bad information, rather I am hopeful that they will support the legislation that I will be filing on Day 1 to make this right.
Supreme Court tomorrow. Never thought I would be here in a million years but couldn’t be happier for the opportunity to be here. #onetimeforthesmallguy
🏛️ If HB 11 passes in the Senate and becomes law, many of Kentucky’s small businesses will be hurt or even forced to close.
Many Kentuckians will be furious once they find out what their legislature has done- but it will be too late.
Contact your state senators and ask them NOT to move HB 11, before it’s too late.
And remember to ask- where does the nanny state overreach end?
📞502-564-8100
15 past-Presidents of the world's top professional society in the field of tobacco control unanimously agree on this.
https://t.co/XCJ54YjaHM
The @WHO is telling its 194 member states the exact opposite of that.
https://t.co/6YJsPUGCrx
Obviously, one or the other is wrong. Hm.
@RepJohnYarmuth page 1973 of the BBB plan, https://t.co/pQbyTeKcry , why are you trying to destroy the tobacco harm reduction industry and 1000’s of jobs in America ?
E-CIGARETTES:
Safer than smoking
https://t.co/HUJ0xXJKlu
Help smokers quit
https://t.co/MyY0tbROcW
WHEN SMOKERS QUIT WITH ECIGS:
Lung health improves
https://t.co/GlmQcs7373
Heart health improves
https://t.co/FtqzGfVo4p
Cancer risk plummets
https://t.co/ddIMAe8pbt
*references
This is what cronyism gets you.
This is not capitalism and it's certainly not free market.
These sweeping regulations need to be swept out of our House and Americans given the freedom to choose what they inhale. Free markets save lives.
#WeVapeWeVote#LetHerSpeak