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A new bill in Hawaii suggests fairly hefty restrictions on electronic cigarettes across the state, but it appears legislators are lightening the impact of the overall bill. Although the bill may still hammer the new products pretty harshly, proposals involving increased tax rates on e-cigs are reported to have been removed.

The bill, SB2495, would require electronic cigarettes only be sold in places legally allowed to sell tobacco products — and it sounds like sellers would still need a separate licence from the Department of Health to sell e-cigs. The bill would also restrict sale, marketing, and use of the electronic cigarettes as if they were tobacco products. This include prohibiting use in public areas and workplaces.

But according to reports on the bill, legislators just decided to remove a tax element from it which would tax e-cigs just like tobacco and funnel that money to smoking cessation programs within the state. More might have been taken out, but the only thing reports have been able to confirm is that the tax elements were removed and the restrictions on where use was allowed were not.

This could suggest that legislators are warming up to the idea of less restrictive approaches to electronic cigarettes and compromising with local vapers and businesses. The bill still sounds wildly more involved that electronic cigarettes necessitate (given the extremely limited harm they appear to cause). But this is another instance in which excessive bans and restriction are being pulled back.

Recently, excessive regulation proposals in Utah were dropped in favor of a year of studying the issue. We need to see more like that. But even the small steps like this in Hawaii are steps in the right direction.