After ignoring protests last year, then seeing a preliminary injunction issued by a U.S. District Court and an FBI investigation launched, Indiana House Republican leaders now want to overhaul a vape law that would have created a monopoly.
The law would have mandated a certification process that would create a monopoly for Mulhaupt's Inc. a Lafayette-based business. The law had been championed by state Sen. Ron Alting, who is — you guessed it — from Lafayette.
Back in May 2015, Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed the vape bill, House Bill 1432, into law, to fill the vacuum created by lack of federal regulation of e-liquid products. (A year later, federal regulations were enacted.) The state law was amended last year, leading to the preliminary injunction and FBI investigation.
E-liquid is used to carry nicotine in electronic cigarettes. Vaping describes use of e-cigarettes, which create a vapor.
Along with manufacturer regulations, the amended law stipulated that an independent security firm would inspect e-liquid products before they could be sold in Indiana.
In the initial absence of federal regulation, the stipulation that e-liquid products be independently inspected for health and safety made some sense. But why by a security firm?
Here's where the law got really weird. It required the security company to have the following:
• A locksmith-certified employee of at least one year.
• An employee of at least one year with an Architectural Hardware Consultant certification.
• An employee of at least one year with a Rolling Steel Fire Door Technician certification.
• A year of security monitoring station experience.
• And a year of experience operating a facility that has authority to modify commercial metal doors, frames and lights.
Say what?
Essentially, these random, nonsensical requirements eliminated all businesses — other than Mulhaupt’s — from qualifying to inspect e-liquid products to be sold in Indiana. And it should be noted that Mulhaupt’s vice president Michael Gibson is president-elect of the Door and Hardware Institute.
Democrats in the state legislature, as well as news media, squawked about the law, a kowtow to special interests.
In August, Judge Richard Young of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana issued a preliminary injunction. The judge found that the security firm stipulations likely violated the U.S. Constitution's dormant commerce clause.
Even before Young's injunction, the FBI began investigating the Indiana law.
So, GOP leaders, who had initially defended the amended law, have finally been brought to their senses. The Republicans, in firm control of the Statehouse, now say elimination of the stringent e-liquid regulations is high priority.
The folly and unfairness of the amended vape bill should have been obvious to all from the beginning. It's disturbing that it took GOP leaders this long to recognize it.