What Makes a City Vape-Friendly?

man sitting on a bench in the beach while smoking vape

What Makes a City Vape-Friendly?

With summer in full swing, vapers planning to vacation in the U.S. are looking for vape-friendly cities where they can use their e-cigarettes freely without having to worry about disapproving looks and overbearing rules and regulations. In today’s blog post, we’ll discuss how to determine whether a city is considered vape-friendly or not and we’ll reveal the top five vape-friendly cities in the U.S. to help you choose your next destination.

Several factors determine whether a city is considered vape-friendly. A study released by R Street Institute, a free-market think tank, examined four specific factors across 52 cities: environmental prohibitions, excise taxes, licensing, and the harm reduction climate prevalent in the city. The study started by assigning a base score of 95 to each city and then awarded or deducted points based on the following four factors.

Environmental Prohibitions

The study deemed that if a city imposes environmental restrictions for vapor products that are inconsistent with tobacco harm reduction, in other words, if it makes it difficult for vapers to use a product that is considered 95% less harmful than combustible cigarettes, it is not vape-friendly, and its points are deducted.

Excise taxes

R Street Institute also compared excise taxes in different cities and considered whether they made a clear distinction between traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes for taxation purposes. Cities with a significant tax on vapor products or with a policy of taxing vapor products at the same level as combustible cigarettes lost points.

Licensing

The research also analyzed licensing requirements for vapor products such as e-cigarettes. If cities imposed regulations in addition to those required by the FDA or that unnecessarily increase costs for customers or vendors, they were penalized with point deductions.

Harm Reduction Climate

The report also looked at any additional factors that could create a disincentive, regulatory or economic, to switch from combustible cigarettes to vapor products. For instance, cities with favorable regulatory climate for vapor products were awarded points while cities with misleading public-information campaigns got points deducted.

With a score of 97, Virginia topped the list of vape-friendly cities, followed by Albuquerque, with 94 points. The three other cities that followed were all in Arizona: Mesa, Phoenix, and Tuscon, also scoring 94 points.

Does the vaping climate of a city affect your decision to visit it? Let us know by commenting below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *