SPECTRUM: Murkowski can protect Alaskan lives, jobs and freedoms through continued leadership

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski has long been an aggressive opponent of over-regulation. In the past, her advocacy has led to jobs and families in Alaska being protected from the heavy hands of misguided federal bureaucrats.

Now, with new regulations from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) threatening to wipe out my small business and dozens of other retail businesses throughout Alaska that specialize in selling vapor products and electronic cigarettes, we are asking for help from Senator Murkowski.

As the situation stands today, the FDA has installed a countdown clock above every vapor product business in the United States. When that clock reaches its end on August 8, 2018, over 99% of vapor products legally available today will be banned from sale. If that occurs, the empty storefronts, lost jobs, and black markets will be traced back to one single provision of the FDA’s new rules, and Congress’ subsequent failure to correct it.

When Congress passed the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) in June of 2009, it directed the FDA to immediately regulate cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco products. For these products, Congress directed the FDA to consider February 15, 2007 to be the ‘predicate date.’ For tobacco companies, having a product on the market on the ‘predicate’ date meant that FDA could regulate their product, but not arbitrarily stop it from being sold. With Marlboros and Camels already on the market as of February of 2007, this regulatory system served the tobacco industry well.

The TCA’s 2007 predicate date represents an insurmountable problem for vapor retailers across the country. Since vapor products did not exist in February 2007, the FDA is now saying that each of the thousands of vapor products on the market today are ‘new’ products. Thus, each ‘new’ product must go through a retroactive approvals process that would cost manufacturers at least $330,000 and take 500 hours to complete.

Even if vapor manufacturers had the money to go through this process, the FDA’s authority to deny or approve an application is virtually unconstrained. Companies would be risking millions of dollars with no guarantee that their applications would be given fair consideration. Few will make this gamble.

With over 40% of Alaskan Native adults still smoking cigarettes, now is not the time to extinguish a new industry that is helping adults quit smoking. Recent surveys, including one from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, suggest that over 2.5 million Americans have quit smoking with these products. Moreover, research funded by the National Cancer Institute predicts that for those born in the year 1997, the availability of vapor products will decrease smoking-attributable deaths and lives lost by 20%.

In her role as a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murkowski has the power to force the FDA to refocus their regulation. With Congress gearing up to pass the omnibus bill in December, we need Senator Murkowski to push for passage of the Cole-Bishop amendment. This amendment, which is presently in the House’s agricultural spending bill, would stop the FDA’s ban by modernizing the predicate date to August 8, 2016. The amendment does nothing to interfere with the FDA’s ability to set regulations on all vapor products, but it does give the agency additional authority to act in areas of concern, like keeping advertising away from youth and the setting of product standards.

My customers, colleagues and I urge Senators Murkowski and Sullivan to stand for keeping jobs, small businesses, consumer choice, and less harmful alternatives deserved by the citizens of Alaska and the country. Push forward Cole-Bishop and push forward the health of Alaska.

Matt Waggoner is the co-owner of Fatboy Vapors that has three storefronts in Alaska, with additional stores across Washington and Oregon.