Don't Mess With Taxes

I smoked for way too many years, back when I was young and feeling rebellious and immortal.

So I have no standing to tell these kids today that smokeless smoking isn't good for them.

My unsolicited advice probably wouldn't be heeded anyway. It appears that many young people already are hooked on Juuling.

Jumping on the Juul train: For those who are unfamiliar with Juuling, and I was one of the until today, it's the latest iteration of electronic cigarettes.

The verb comes from Juul, the product introduced to the vaping market in 2015 by Pax and spun off in 2017 as an independent San Francisco-based company called Juul Labs.

Rather than mimicking the look of a traditional cigarette, a Juul looks like a long USB sticks used to save electronic documents and other data.

The reason it's so popular — aside from being the younger generation's vice to tick off parents and other adults — is that Juul gives smokers what is known as a "throat hit."

That means a Juul smokes like a cigarette and crackles like a fire, notes Washington Post reporter Lavanya Ramanathan in a recent article for the newspaper.

Taxing, regulation e-cigs: As Juul and other e-cigarette smoking increases, so does interest by state and local authorities.

Efforts to tax and otherwise regulate Juuling and other types of vaping give us two Saturday Shout Out pieces this week.

The Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., produced the map below showing where state and local taxes on this newfangled bad habit stand as of this Jan. 1.

Meanwhile, The Public Health Law Center at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, has created an interactive map showing e-cigarette regulations across the United States.

If enough taxes and controls are put on Juul and similar products, they may go the way of traditional tobacco products, shunned by much of the country.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Smoking cessation programs could provide a tax deduction
• Arizona smokers get tax bills for old online cigarette purchases
• Higher cigarette tax has lawmen bracing for increased tobacco black market activities