Skip to main content
The Oregon Court of Appeals has placed a temporary hold on Gov. Kate Brown's flavored vaping ban for nicotine products.
The stay appears to affect only non-marijuana flavored vape products, like Juul e-cigarettes, and not the ban on flavored marijuana products.
The hold comes in response to two lawsuits filed Wednesday. One was filed by Oregon attorney J. Ryan Adams on Oct. 16 representing No Moke Daddy LLC, which runs two vaping shops in Portland.
The other lawsuit was filed on Oct. 16 by three vaping companies, two of which have holdings in Oregon. They requested that the rules be suspended until a full judicial review is completed. The lawsuit alleges that the OHA implemented rules outside of their regulatory powers.
WW obtained a copy of the lawsuit.
"That [executive order] directed the Authority to 'develop legislative proposals' to 'clarify and expand OHA's authority to take action when a harm or risk to the public's health is present,'" the lawsuit reads. "One imagines the Governor would not have told OHA to 'expand' its powers if she simply could have pointed OHA to an existing statute giving it the authority to promulgate the Vaping Prohibition. And it is the legislature, not the executive, that can expand (or contract) an agency's authority."
The three vaping companies are represented by the Oregon-based Angeli Law Group. The three companies are Vapor Technology Association, Smokeless Solutions, LLC, and Vape Crusaders Premium E-Liquid, LLC.
"Petitioners move for an order staying enforcement of the challenged rule pending judicial review, on grounds that petitioners will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay and can demonstrate (at the very least) colorable error with the rule," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit shifts the attention to THC-containing vape products, claiming that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "principally attribute [the illnesses] to THC-based vaping products."
The OHA released a statement on Oct. 17 in wake of the stay confirming that the "rules are, for now, not in effect."
But the OHA is standing behind the governor's decision: The statement encourages business owners to "voluntarily keep flavored vaping products off the shelves to protect Oregonians."
Image Courtesy of Vaping 360