Category: Stories

VETO SESSION: Bill regarding sale of e-cigarettes to minors likely to be debated

Leave a comment

Columbia Missourian | Sept 10, 2014

JEFFERSON CITY — This spring, both chambers of the Missouri legislature passed a bill making the sale of alternative nicotine products and vapors to minors illegal.

But several months later, the bill was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon and was being characterized as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” by Jeff Harris, senior policy adviser to Nixon.

Senate Bill 841, which was sponsored by Sen. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa, would ban the sale of e-cigarettes and other vapor products to those under 18 and would also exempt the products from being taxed and regulated as tobacco products.

In a roundtable discussion last week in Columbia, Nixon said that the bill began with good intentions, but as the legislature participated in ongoing negotiations, the nature of the bill was changed.

“It may have started out with the purpose of preventing the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, but somewhere along the way, language was added to this bill that would exempt e-cigarettes from the same regulations and taxes as traditional cigarettes,” Nixon said.

Moreover, Harris said, the FDA has proposed rules that would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors on a federal scale.

The governor vetoed the bill, which passed with a 27-4 vote in the Senate and 127-19 vote in the House, in July. Both chambers originally approved the bill with the two-thirds majority needed to override Nixon’s veto.

E-cigarettes are meant to imitate traditional cigarettes. When the smoker puffs the e-cigarette, a battery heats up a nicotine-induced liquid solution that then vaporizes.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration notes that since e-cigarettes have not been fully studied, consumers do not know the products’ potential risks and benefits, nor exactly how much nicotine is being inhaled.

Folks like Alex Brousse, assistant manager at Aqueous Vapor in Columbia, find some value in the legislation.

“Agree to disagree, you know?” Brousse said. “They haven’t necessarily proven that e-cigs are harmful. … It’s kind of a no-brainer in a sense that you can choose the route that you know will cause cancer, or you can choose the route that probably won’t.”

Brousse wasn’t entirely opposed to regulations and taxes on e-cigarettes, despite his commitment to them. Regarding extra taxation, he shrugged it off, explaining that “we might have to drop our prices down a little bit to stay reasonable, but besides that I don’t think it’ll be too much of an issue. We’ve all kind of seen it coming for a while now.”

Brousse acknowledged that greater transparency in packing labels on e-liquids would be beneficial, but he dismissed the value of other regulations regarding the distribution and manufacturing of e-cigarettes and other vapor devices.

“E-cigs and the technology develop just like phones. Every month, every week, there’s something new coming out. If they pass regulations that are strict enough, it could probably stop or slow down the development of electronic cigarettes,” Brousse said.

Ultimately, the fate of the e-cigarette in Missouri lies in the hands of the state legislature. The veto session begins at noon Wednesday in the Missouri Senate.

‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ movement seen as rallying cry for change

Leave a comment

Columbia Missourian | Aug 18, 2014

Gov. Jay Nixon’s mandated curfew in Ferguson began at midnight Sunday, but Jonathan Butler’s curiosity got the better of him. After midnight Sunday, he stood under pouring rain, about 30 feet behind a group of protestors jeering at the line of police tasked with enforcing the curfew.

At 12:50 a.m., Butler saw bright lights approaching from the end of the street, which he assumed were SWAT trucks. Law enforcement officers gave a last warning for the protestors to disperse, but they stood their ground. A few protestors even moved closer to the police line, Butler said.

A few minutes later, police began throwing tear gas cans at the crowd, and other officers fired rubber bullets.

“When they started popping the first tear gas, there was a taste I couldn’t get out of my mouth,” Butler said. “My nose started running. I just started itching. It was so overpowering that I started to get a headache.”

Butler, an MU graduate student, arrived in Ferguson at about 10 a.m. Saturday to participate in peaceful protest following the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. At 1:05 a.m. Sunday, he helped protestors and fellow onlookers find safety.

“I was trying to make sure people were OK,” Butler said. “And that’s what kind of amazed me because even though it was a bad situation, you still saw the people come together as a community. Even in that frenzy, there was a real communal aspect of everyone in Ferguson looking out for each other, and that was a unanimous thing the whole day.”

These feelings of support haven’t been contained to Ferguson. Demonstrations using the mantra “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” have spread throughout the country. The chant was inspired by Brown’s reaction to Wilson’s gunshots, according to eyewitness reports. After Butler returned to Columbia on Sunday, he hosted a #DontShoot photo challenge for MU at 1 p.m.

Several dozen students, staff and faculty as well as members of the community posed in front of the MU Columns. In one photo, they raised both of their hands in solidarity with Brown, and in another, they lifted their right fists. As the photos were taken, their unified chants of  “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” echoed across Frances Quadrangle.

The #DontShoot photo challenge movement began at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Students raised their hands with the caption “Don’t shoot,” and the photo soon went viral on social media.

“The photo was very simple but very powerful,” Butler said. “It sent a big message that we’re in this together. We’re standing with you.”

MU senior DeShaunya Ware, another photo-challenge participant, shared Butler’s sentiment.

“I’m just here today because black lives are important,”  Ware said. “And we’ve had a lot of losses, and I like to refer to them as the black sacrifice. Nobody deserves to have their life taken away from them. I’m here to show my support because I am Mike Brown.”

Despite incidents of violence after dark, daytime protesting in Ferguson has been peaceful, Ebonie Young said. Young, who graduated from MU in 2012, was in Ferguson on Sunday. She began her day at the site of the Ferguson QuikTrip that was burned down during riots on Aug. 10, where protestors gathered with chants of “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “No justice, no peace.”

“It was such a welcoming atmosphere,” Young said. “There were people who were giving away chips, drinks and flowers. Every car that was passing was honking their horns. I felt like I stepped back in the 1960s for a second.”

To Butler, the chant harkens back to his experiences as a black man.

“I have been arrested and stopped by the police several times for what I would consider to be profiling,” he said. “In those instances, you fear for your life. Putting your hands up … it’s like saying, I’m unarmed, I don’t have anything against you, I’m a law-abiding citizen. Let’s look at the injustice in that system. Let’s change that.”

Young already sees change due to the movement. As an example, she used a petition being circulated on Change.org to outfit police officers with body cameras in order to hold them accountable. She nicknamed the petition the “Michael Brown Law.”

“Little old St. Louis made national coverage, and it’s opened up people’s eyes to a bigger movement,” Young said. “Change does not happen overnight. This is the beginning of something beautiful.”