Iowa AG Seeking E-Cigarette Restrictions

Attorney General Tom Miller is seeking to add e-cigarettes to the state’s indoor smoking ban, prohibit their sale to minors and assess their sales tax rate.

November 07, 2013

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA — Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller urged state lawmakers earlier this week to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors and address how the product is taxed, the Associated Press reports.

Miller said he wants the ban on e-cigarettes added to the state’s indoor smoking ban, the Iowa Smokefree Air Act, and to assess whether the product merits a higher state sales tax rate.

"Over the past several years e-cigarettes have developed technologically, and they have grown quickly in popularity," Miller said. "Our state laws, regulations and policies don't address these products, and I think it's time for the legislature to begin the conversation."

Miller stressed that he wasn’t seeking to ban e-cigarettes, only to prohibit their sale to minors. He said the state’s indoor smoking ban, passed in 2008, does not address the products.

Miller also said he wants to look at e-cigarettes’ 6% state sales tax and consider whether it should be raised. Iowa taxes cigarettes at $1.36 per package and other tobacco products at 50% of wholesale.

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