LANSING – The Defend MI Rights Coalition today released the following statement from spokeswoman Andrea Bitely on the lawsuits filed in Houghton County’s 12th Circuit Court yesterday seeking to overturn Gov. Whitmer’s ban on vaping liquid flavors. The lawsuit was filed by 906 Vape owner Marc Slis who provided moving testimony at the House Oversight Committee on September 12, 2019.

“Governor Whitmer’s ban on some flavors of vape products was rushed through with no public input, which is absolutely the wrong way to implement public policy. We now have a Michigan small business owner fighting for the life of his and hundreds of other businesses because no one in the Governor’s office made an effort to talk with those directly affected. Instead she is using this as an opportunity to get headlines in out of state newspapers. There are already laws in place to prevent children from getting their hands on products that contain nicotine, which need to be enforced. The ban Governor Whitmer put in place will create a thriving black market while also pushing adult users back towards combustible cigarettes that so many have left behind.”

BACKGROUND

According to media reports, Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, has said that most of the patients that have been diagnosed with lung disease after vaping consumed cannabis oil, not nicotine-based vaping products, and no deaths have been reported yet in Michigan.

Children are already banned from using vape products, and rightly so. However, Gov. Whitmer’s vaping ban tramples on the rights of Michigan adults to decide what legal products they consume and how they consume them.

Why should lawmakers oppose the vape ban?

It kills jobs. Hundreds of businesses will be forced to close and thousands hard-working Michiganders will lose their jobs if the ban goes into effect. This will harm communities throughout Michigan.

It’s unprecedented. The state has never before banned an entirely legal industry, killing 800 businesses and 4,500 jobs without any legislative debate or public input whatsoever. If the governor can eliminate vaping with the stroke of a pen, what’s to stop her from eliminating other industries she doesn’t like?

Bans don’t work. As we have seen with alcohol and marijuana, prohibition doesn’t work. By outlawing the vape products currently sold in stores, we are opening up a black market of products.

It wastes law enforcement resources. Enforcing prohibition of flavored vape products will pull law enforcement resources away from real issues impacting our communities like violent crime and the opioid epidemic.

It’s bad for consumers. In addition to being ineffective, the ban of non-tobacco flavors could also push current users back to combustible cigarettes.

We need the government to enforce and strengthen our current laws to keep harmful products away from children — not ban them for adults.

ABOUT DEFEND MI RIGHTS

The Defend MI Rights Coalition is an organization of civil liberties and small business advocates that have joined together to oppose the governor’s attempted vaping ban. This organization sees the ban as clear government overreach and a violation of the rights of Michigan adults to decide what products they buy and consume. Learn more at www.DefendMiRights.org.

###