New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed licensing e-cigarette shops like traditional cigarette retailers and requiring pharmacies to pull tobacco from their shelves, saying the products are interlinked and dangerous.

De Blasio’s proposed restrictions are contained in a five-point plan soon to go before the City Council. They include a 24 per cent increase in the floor price of cigarettes to USD 13 (EUR12.10), which the mayor said would make the city’s minimum price the highest in the US. Another measure would pressure landlords to impose tougher smoking policies. De Blasio outlined his proposals in an address to the American Health Association which was released by the mayor’s office.
New York City is the country’s biggest single market, de Blasio said. “There will be a big fight over this – I guarantee it.”
A city survey shows nearly 16 per cent of high school students use vaping products, the mayor said. “They are not okay because they are clearly being used and end up being used as a gateway to tobacco use,” he said. “More and more the e-cigarette industry is the tobacco industry – major tobacco giants are buying the e-cigarette brands and promoting them. It is not a disconnect, it is now a coordinated strategy.”