Citing regulatory complexities on local, state, and federal levels, Walmart has announced that it will stop selling e-cigarettes in Walmart and Sam’s Club locations across the United States once their current inventory has been sold.
“Given the growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty regarding e-cigarettes, we plan to discontinue the sale of electronic nicotine delivery products at all Walmart and Sam’s Club U.S. locations,” the company told its local managers in a memo.
The company’s decision comes at a time when U.S. health officials are investigating hundreds of cases of potentially vaping-induced lung injuries.
Critics of the company’s decision to halt e-cigarette sales cited the fact that Walmart will continue to sell cigarettes while no longer providing customers with access to e-cigarettes, which Public Health England has called likely 95% less harmful than cigarettes.
Gregory Conley, the president of the American Vaping Association (AMA), released a statement in which he said, “You know you are in the middle of a moral panic when big corporations like Walmart find it is easier to sell deadly combustible tobacco products than to sell harm reduction alternatives.”