Alabama implements new vaping regulations

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, August 3, 2019

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Tobacco shops in Alabama are no longer being able to advertise vaping as a healthy alternative to smoking.

A wide-ranging law regulating vaping that passed the legislature earlier this year went into effect Thursday.

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It also prohibits opening vape shops within 1,000 feet of a school, church or childcare facility and limits advertising on billboards to include only three vaping flavors. That includes tobacco, mint and menthol.

Critics say fruit-flavored vaping liquids attract younger users.

One of the law’s sponsors, Democrat Rep. Barbara Drummond, told WBRC-TV she was shocked to see a 12-year-old in her Sunday school class with a vape, which she initially thought was a flash drive.

Alabama was one of three states that previously did not regulate vaping.