SAN ANTONIO – Packaged in bright colors and offering a variety of flavors, vaping devices don’t bear much resemblance to a pack of cigarettes, even if they are supposed to be for the same people: adults.
A new state law, House Bill 4758, took effect on Jan. 1 that prohibits the sale or marketing of e-cigarette products if the container:
- Depicts a cartoon character that mimics one aimed at minors
- Mimics the trademark or look of products marketed to minors
- Includes a symbol primarily used to market products to minors
- Includes an image of a celebrity
- Includes an image that resembles a food product, including candy or juice
Violations are Class B Misdemeanors, which are punishable by fines up to $2,000 and 180 days in jail.
“It takes a lot for a state to want to ban or bar the sales or restrict the way that companies can market or sell things, of course. But when it’s so overt and explicit in who they’re targeting, I’m glad that Texas took action in this case,” said UTSA Professor of Marketing Wendy Boaglio Gratereaux.
The state legislature passed another law that took effect at the beginning of the school year, which required students caught with a vape pen to be place in a disciplinary alternative education program.
Even so, two of San Antonio’s largest schools, Northside ISD and Northeast ISD, say they have had hundreds of vaping violations this school year across their school districts. And those are just the ones they’ve caught.
Both districts say they’re hopeful the new law could help curb vaping among students, though they don’t think it’s a one-shot approach.
“I think a little bit of trickling in of different pieces that all come to amalgamation of one larger holistic, you know, lowering the numbers - that’s what we hope,” said Tyler Shoesmith, NEISD Executive Director of Pupil Personnel Services.
Kimberly Ridgley, NISD’s assistant superintendent for Whole Child Development, said the district is also trying to help educate students on the long-term health consequences.
“And so hopefully, because we are working on that intervention side, we’ll get some traction. I’m optimistic,” Ridgley said.
Gratereaux believes the dividends are likely to show up over the longer-term.
“I mean, look at when we enacted legislation on cigarettes and smoking. It took decades for that to filter down,” the marketing professor said.
The law also applies specifically to nicotine products, but, according to the two districts, most of their vaping infractions dealt with THC - the psychoactive compound from cannabis.
“If we thought about this in a sense maybe 20 years ago, where you have students who are using marijuana in the bathrooms to the same level that they use these vapes in our bathrooms, you would have a community outcry,” Shoesmith said.
“At this point, we don’t really see that large community outcry because it seems to be undercover because it’s such a deceptive way of going about using nicotine or using THC.”
NOTE: The broadcast version of this story incorrectly spelled Kimberly Ridgley’s last name. The error has been fixed in this story.