MRM EXCLUSIVE: Vaping vs. Smoking: What Does the Law Say?

It’s Friday night and your bar and grill is hopping with eating, drinking, socializing guests. Suddenly, one of your servers rushes up to you. “Customers are complaining of a guy vaping over there,” she says. “Look at all that smoke.” Sure enough, a patron at the bar is happily puffing on a battery-powered e-cigarette, sending an enormous cloud of water vapor into the air. Never mind that it is a no-smoking area.

So what is the restaurant manager to do? When it comes to no-smoking laws and regulations, are e-cigarettes any different than conventional Marlboros, Camels, and Kools?

Much to the annoyance of vaporizer users, in a growing number of states and municipalities the answer is a straightforward no. In March 2016, the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium and the Public Health and Tobacco Policy Center conducted a 50-state survey of the U.S. landscape of e-cigarette legislation. Researchers found that several states—including Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, North Carolina…