Task force to Eliminate Illicit Chinese Vape Sales
Don't be fooled by the advertisements flooding the Arizona capitol community lately. No one is trying to limit freedom in Arizona. Lawmakers are trying to stop the flow of illicit, unregulated and potentially dangerous chinese vape products into our state.
The federal government has already sent a letter to retailers explaining to them that many of the vape products coming over from China are being smuggled under mislabeled packaging allowing them to bypass safety and regulatory inspections.
Shockingly, while the Chinese are flooding America with their vape products, they're banned in China. That's right. These products are banned in China but shipped overseas and pushed on our school children.
U.S. agents for Chinese manufacturers of illegal vapes, some currently facing federal RICO charges, are leading lobbying efforts and funding disinformation campaigns as they lobby our state government.
They are fighting bills that would publish a list of legal products because they don’t want to be exposed for their illegal business practices. They are using illegal proceeds from the sale and widespread distribution of illegal vapes to fund campaigns in several states including Arizona.
Follow the Money:
One longtime agent, serving as the middleman between China manufacturers and U.S. lobbying operations is Matthew Jonathan “Jon” Glauser. For nearly a decade Jon Glauser has been a board member of the Vapor Technology Association and involved at some level in the American Vaping Manufacturers (ironically funded by Chinese vaping manufacturers).
Glauser is a founder and/or officer of a network of companies including but not limited to Magellan technology, Demand Vapes, and Ecto World. These companies may be the biggest distributors of illegal Chinese vapes in the United States.
Glauser leads and funds the Vapor Technology Association and contributes to other lobbying groups. He or his companies can be found here in leadership positions for the lobbying groups.
https://vaportechnology.org/about/
https://theavm.org/avmmembers (Firmitas is a Glauser company, perhaps others)
In a federal complaint filed by the City of New York excerpted below and linked here, Magellan is described as a "middleman" and "master distributor" for the China-based manufacturers.
Complaint Page 8:
Complaint Page 19:
Complaint Page 4:
Complaint Page 3:
Glauser actually complained that the FDA rejected its applications for Hyde branded vapes due to translation issues from the company’s Chinese manufacturer:
Jon Glauser, who has been running the company for over a decade from Buffalo, New York, explained to Filter that the RTA Letter noted two of the Magellan’s bundled PMTAs did not contain a signed declaration from a Chinese translator—certification, he maintains, that was not needed because the documents were initially in both English and Chinese, as the company’s manufacturer keeps them in both languages.
Source: https://filtermag.org/hyde-vaping-fda-youth/
Elf Bar is banned for sale in the United States and is the number one product used by middle and high schoolers according to government data.
Glauser has commented on how much business he has made selling Elf Bar for his Chinese partners:
Jon Glauser of Demand Vape told a federal judge his company had sold more than $132 million worth of Elf Bar products last year.
“We were selling it faster than we could get it in,” Glauser said, according to the court transcript.
Glauser attributed Elf Bar’s quick rise to its profit margin. Sellers make about a 30% profit, double that of other disposable e-cigarettes.
Evidence of the VTA lobbying to protect its illegal businesses can be found on its tweet stream here and pasted below:
