This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Legislators voted Thursday to impose new regulations on electronic cigarettes in an effort to discourage selling to minors.
The Senate passed HB415 28-0, and the House concurred with amendments on a 71-0 vote. It now goes to Gov. Gary Herbert for his signature.
The bill would require businesses to obtain a license to sell the nicotine vaporizing devices.
By requiring licenses, the state can take action against a business directly — rather than just the clerk — if a store sells to a minor, including stopping it from selling e-cigarettes for a time as a punishment.
Clearfield Republican Rep. Paul Ray, the bill's sponsor, said the change puts e-cigarettes under a similar regulatory regime as tobacco and puts more teeth in the enforcement.
The bill also would impose some labeling and packaging requirements, including showing how much nicotine content is in e-cigarette juice and requiring that it be sold in child-resistant containers.
Ray noted that a survey of youth in Weber County showed 20 percent use e-cigarettes.
"It's a major problem. Tobacco companies realize they've got a product that [is] killing their clientele," Ray said in earlier debate. "In the next 20 years, if they don't addict a new generation to a tobacco product, they are going to go out of business. So this is the reason this is being marketed toward children."
Originally, Ray planned to impose a tax on e-cigarettes. Gov. Gary Herbert had hoped to raise $39 million a year from the tax to help fund his Healthy Utah plan to expand Medicaid.