Author of Kentucky anti-vaping bill says she's not surprised by favorable court ruling

The chief sponsor of an anti-vaping bill that will become law January 1 ^st said she’s not surprised by a Franklin Circuit judge’s ruling that the bill does not violate the Kentucky Constitution. State Representative Rebecca Raymer said she authored House Bill 11 after conversations with school officials in her two counties and seeing photos of vape devices school children were using.

“They were actually products that were not approved by the FDA. They were products that were not even supposed to be offered for sale here. So what I think, and what I hope will happen is those products that our youth are being drawn to will not be available for purchase in the state.”

Judge Thomas Wingate didn’t agree with the Kentucky Smoke Free Association’s argument that HB 11 was unconstitutional because it was too broad, too arbitrary and discussed other substances. Raymer said some of the products the FDA hadn’t examined were making kids sick.

“The bill really is just saying that we are following the FDA guidelines, and we needed to have the ability to give our ABC and local law enforcement the ability to take those products off the shelf.”

In a statement, the commissioner of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control – ABC – said they’ll be prepared to enforce the law when it takes effect in January.

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