$40-Packs Could Force Smokers Into Black Market as FDA Imposes New Rules for E-Cigars

Packets cigarettes costing $40 will force more smokers go into the growing black market for illegally imported tobacco, cigarette makers and retailers claimed.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that British American Tobacco retailers had responded to Turnbull government's $4.7 billion budget hit to tobacco excise. According to the cigarette retailers, crime syndicates that smuggle cigarettes into Australia will be "champing at the bit" at the prospect of increasing their share of the $14 billion industry.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration issued new rules to extend federal regulatory to e-cigarettes. In the video obtained by NY Times, The Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell, announced a ban on the sales to students 18 years-old and below after discussing the percentage increase of students who smoke e-cigars.

"We've agreed for many years that nicotine does not belong in the hands of children," Burwell, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a news conference on Thursday, May 5.

Under the new rule, Burwell added that retailers are not allowed to sell e-cigars or any tobacco products to anyone under 18.

According to NY Times, e-cigars were introduced to the market about a decade ago as a device that delivers harmless tar and chemicals that cause cancer. This device vaporizes a flavored liquid which come in different flavors. Users inhale the vapor of the flavored liquid. which is called "vaping."

The new rules will take effect in 90 days. FDA said that e-cigar producers must register with the FDA and provide a detailed account of their products' ingredients and their manufacturing processes. Producers are required to apply with them for permission to sell their products including the vape shops that mix their own e-cigarette liquid.

Meanwhile, the American Vaping Association, a trade group for the industry, were not pleased with the new rules of FDA.

"This is not regulation - it is prohibition," said in a statement.

According to the group, the submission process of the product application to get approved would take more than 1,700 hours and cost more than $1 million.