Nicotine - Illicit, Bootleg, & Alternative Markets
Regulations, Laws, and Money motivate people to circumvent the rules and to seek alternative ways to get products to consumers. As lawmakers look at future regulations, they must consider the unintended consequences of those regulations. This page will attempt to track some of those consequences.
If you'd like to add content to this page, please see the editors instructions at the bottom of the page. If you have suggested content, but don't want to edit the page, there is a suggestions section at the bottom to drop links into.
Avoiding Taxes
2020: Article: Native American Reservations a Haven for New York Vape Shops
- New York State’s 20 percent excise tax on vapor products and nearly 9 percent sales tax also do not apply to the Shinnecock and other tribes. Essentially, Silva said, patrons can spend almost 30 percent less than they normally spend, and nobody has to worry about breaking the law.
Black Market
2020: Article: Native American Reservations a Haven for New York Vape Shops
- “I’m going to speculate, but I think the black market is still so significant that we’re not seeing any spillover,” he said of his solid business so far. “You would figure that we’d be stampeded. That’s not been the case.”
2019: Article: Banning flavored tobacco will create problems for law enforcement, ex-State Police leader says
- (need to add summary info)
2016: Video: Black market tobacco floods Australian market
- (need to add summary info)
2015: Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market
- (need to add summary info)
2020: Article: Vape law seen as boosting $10B illegal market
- (need to add summary info)
Counterfeit
2020: Article: State police: Man was peddling counterfeit vape devices
- Massachusetts, USA
- He was charged with sale of electronic nicotine systems with expired registrations and with forging stamps and symbols.
2019: Video: Fake Cigarettes from Blumentritt
- (need to add summary info)
Crossing Borders / Alternative Locations
2020: Article: Native American Reservations a Haven for New York Vape Shops
- Because they are members of the tribe and conduct business on their sovereign land, the New York State flavor ban does not apply.
Flavor Ban Loopholes
- NOTE: a quick google search will find thousands of blogs, articles, and videos on how to flavor off the shelf products or how to make your own products from scratch. Most of these "resources" fail to give any type of information on what flavorings should or shouldn't be used (such as don't use oily products). The information on google will tell you how to flavor cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, shisha, chewing tobacco, and liquids for vapor products. We will provide a few examples below.
2020: Article: Tobacco firm’s new Rizla cards to get round 2020 menthol cigarette ban slammed by charity
- (need to add summary info)
2020: Video: Turning heatsticks/cigarettes into menthol
- (need to add summary info)
2020: Article: Teens find a big loophole in the new flavored vaping ban and the news has caught on fast
- (need to add summary info)
2015: Video: Smoking tips how to make Cigarettes taste menthol
- (need to add summary info)
2011: Video: Flavoring Shredded Tobacco
- (need to add summary info)
Suggested Studies, Papers, Surveys, and Articles to Add to This Page
- If you prefer to not add information to this page yourself, drop the links here and one of our editors will do it for you.
Page Editor Instructions
- PAGE EDITORS - Please add Studies, Surveys, Papers in this format to keep page consistent for all viewers.
- Topic
- Year (list new to old) Name of Study (In format to the study)
- Note here if animal study (leave blank if not)
- Brief Summary
- Link to PDF Version
- Citation
- Acknowledgements (funded by, helped by)
- Keywords
- Other