New York Legislature Rejects Governor’s Call for Flavored Tobacco Sales Ban

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products as part of the Governor’s 2023-2024 budget. It does not appear that the measure currently has support within at least part of the New York Legislature.

Today, S.B. 4009 was amended in the Senate Finance Committee, and the language calling for a ban on the sales of flavored tobacco and products has been stripped from the bill. The bill does include Hochul’s tax increase for cigarettes, increasing the tax rate from $4.35 and $5.35 per pack.

For cigar smokers, Hochul’s budget did not appear to call for any changes to modify the tax rates for cigars and other tobacco products, meaning that New York’s tax rate of 75 percent of the wholesale price will remain in effect.

Of note, a separate bill, S.B. 4007, still appears to contain the flavored tobacco sales ban, though local reports indicate that the flavored tobacco ban will not be included.

While flavor bans have been proposed in a variety of states in early 2023, California and Massachusetts are the only states with bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products, though both bans have exemptions for some flavored cigar sales.

In Massachusetts, the exemption allows for specialty cigar lounges to continue to sell flavored cigars, while California’s allows for flavored cigars that have a wholesale price of $12 to continue to be sold.

Companies have taken different approaches in response to the bans, but their impacts are being felt. For example, Drew Estate announced that it would no longer sell three lines—Ambrosia, Isla del Sol and Tabak Especial—to California retailers. That said, the company is still selling its popular ACID line. Drew Estate told retailers it believes that the rest of its portfolio would not be banned in California “as they do not have a distinguishable taste or aroma that could be deemed a ‘characterizing flavor.’”

Meanwhile, some cigarette companies have responded to the California law by replacing menthol cigarettes with new cigarettes that are said to contain a synthetic cooling agent that could produce a similar effect as menthol.

Earlier this year, the head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products said the agency hoped to announce a nationwide ban on flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes in the fall of 2023.