Utah stores — not just tobacco specialty shops — will be allowed to sell flavored vape products for awhile longer.
A judge ruled Monday morning that a state cannot immediately enact an emergency ban on flavored e-cigarette products for general retailers, like grocery and convenience stores.
The state had justified emergency restrictions on the popular flavored products by arguing they attract young people to vaping, and that can eventually lead those consumers to illicit THC products — the kind that have been implicated in an outbreak of serious lung illnesses nationwide.
While Utah District Court Judge Keith Kelly acknowledged that Utah has been hit especially hard by the mysterious illnesses, and that many of those affected have been younger patients, he wrote that state health officials did not show that new nicotine vape customers were likely to immediately switch to THC products.