New York Bans Flavored E-Cigarettes

Male 1: It’s 1800LAW1010, 1800law1010.com. Paul Harding, Martin, Harding & Mazzotti, on the horn.

Male 2: And a new law went into effect yesterday and if we didn’t tell you about it you probably wouldn’t…I don’t know if you’d notice. Paul, what law went into effect yesterday?

Paul: You’re not kidding because it did not involve COVID-19, it did not involve opening and closing of businesses, it was involving the sale of e-flavored cigarettes. New York State has banned them from all retailers to be able [inaudible 00:00:28].

Male 2: I’m not gonna get my strawberry nicotine punch anymore? Damn it.

Paul: It’s gone. Cotton candy and yeah, no more.

Male 2: But are there any flavors that can still be sold?

Paul: The country is not united on this, what they’re united on is about 39 Attorney Generals are gonna be suing companies like Juul, Juul being the biggest target, about did they target underage students who they made it appeal to them as, “Hey, look, this is not addictive, this is not dangerous, it’s safe,” and, “Hey, cotton candy.” Not New York, New York is gonna be shut down.

Male 1: But the regular tobacco flavor. The tobacco flavor I read is 60% of that Juul business, they sell a ton of the regular flavor.

Paul: They do.

Male 1: This is just keeping it out of the kids’ hands, the younger people. I mean why would you do that, it’s silly.

Paul: Yeah. They’ve already gone halfway down the road, you know, just appealing to the younger group. But yeah, you can still have an e-cigarette in New York, it’s just not those fancy flavors.

Male 2: And why did this take so long because I hear…feel like we’ve been talking about this for years.

Paul: You know, you’ve got a powerful lobby when you talk about tobacco and, you know, the companies that own these manufacturing tobacco companies and production companies, they didn’t love it, right? Now they’re…publicly the position they took was, we are you know, we’re listening. They pulled their ads right away. They sort of said, you know, “I guess wow, if we… We’re sorry.” You know, they’ve been saying that sort of suddenly. But they went down swinging, significant business, multibillion-dollar business so that sort of slowed things up

Male 1: Show of hands if you remember the when you could buy a full pack of 20 candy cigarettes and you’d blow out and the sugar powder would come out like a smoke, pretend you were smoking like your great grandpappy.

Male 2: I think I got some of those in my stocking from Santa.

Male 1: Those are great, right?

Paul: You’re right, I think I did too.

Male 2: Don’t think you can buy those anymore, right?

Male 1: Paul, do the courts opening up, does that affect you guys?

Paul: Sure does. You know, things have been moving. There’s been a lot of video conferences and things but no, having the courts opened up is gonna make things so much smoother. And then us opening up and I should say we’ve been open but get back to the office in some number is I think at the very least a huge morale boost. People are looking to see each other again.

Male 1: So if you have a court case and you haven’t skipped town yet, you better start thinking of what to do.

Paul: It’s time to be held accountable. It sure is.

Male 2: And I don’t want to keep throwing curveballs at you but I follow Martin, Harding & Mazzotti on Facebook and I saw you had a post about whether or not I have to pay my child support if I’m out of work.

Male 1: Right.

Male 2: Do you have a brief answer on that for our listeners?

Paul: Yeah, the short answer is pay your child support if you’re out of work. You know, there are ways to modify a child support order, it’s just not easy and it’s nearly impossible to do so when you don’t have the courts open. So you know, not paying your rent, that kind of a thing, people recognize that. It’s just one of those deals that child support, if you really can’t pay it because you’re out of work, just try to work it out with your ex-spouse or the mother or father of your child because that is where the trouble comes. They reach out to the police and say…

Male 1: I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with that.

Male 2: Yeah, but people do.

Male 1: I know, I know. Absolutely.

Male 2: And don’t forget to wear pants when you leave the house, Paul.

Paul: Good reminder, yeah.

Male 1: In the event that it’s been a while with the corona.

Male 2: Right, if you haven’t left in 10 weeks and you gotta go to court now.

Male 1: It’s not like he does that consistently anyway so. Paul Harding from Martin, Harding & Mazzotti, we appreciate it as always, sir. Thank you for joining us.

Male 2: Thanks, Paul.

Male 1: 1800law1010, 1800law1010.com.

Male 2: Awesome, Paul. Thank you very much.

Paul: All right, guys.

Male 2: Take care.

Paul: Thank you.