The Rising Tide of Disposable Vape Bans in the U.S. | The Bills Keep Coming

Disposable vapes, simply “disposables,” have come under constant heavy attacks in recent years—from the fed bodies enacting stringent regulations to laboratories releasing reports that could push people away from using them. 

Well, at the moment, there is currently no federal ban on disposables, but a patchwork of state-level regulations is rapidly forming, scaring people from using disposables; thus, impacting the sales reports of retailers across the state.

Here, we will be taking a deep dive into the several state-level bills to ban disposable vapes, and what the possible outcomes could be if the bills are passed or vetoed.

The Federal Context: FDA Enforcement & PMTA Directives

Up until now, disposables aren’t outrightly banned at the national level; it’s just federal and state authorities tightening their regulations and updating bills:

· The FDA has issued over 200 warning letters since mid-2024 to manufacturers and importers of flavored disposable devices lacking proper premarket Tobacco Product Applications (PMTAs).

· In April 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the FDA’s actions against flavored vapes without PMTA approval—effectively reinforcing the regulatory framework that disqualifies many disposables.

These federal constraints form a backdrop against which states are accelerating their own restrictions. Popular disposable vape brands like Geek  Bar, and Lost  Mary will be affected if these bills are approved. 

State-Level Bans: Current and Incoming Regulations

Already, there are approved state-level bans on disposables and vapes in general, and at the same time, some States are adding more bills to enforce more stringent regulations.

1. North Carolina: House Bill 900 (2024)

HB 900, signed in late 2024, barred the sale of vapor products that lack FDA approval. A publicly accessible directory of approved products is maintained by the N.C. Department of Revenue. The law took effect May 1, 2025, with a 60-day compliance grace period—retailers had until June 29, 2025, to clear unapproved items. Full enforcement began July 1, 2025.

Impact: Any disposable device without PMTA approval—such as devices from Lost  Mary, and Geek  Bar—is now illegal unless under FDA review. Retailers must hold a state license, and vendors face fines or license suspension if found in default.

2. California: AB 762 Under Legislative Review

California had long banned flavored vape products since 2020 (SB 793), effective in 2022, and further enforced the ban with additional bills in 2024 (SB 1230, AB 3218). Well, that wasn’t enough, and here in 2025, the State of California is introducing AB762.

· AB 762 (introduced Feb 2025): would prohibit all new or refurbished non-refillable disposable vapes—nicotine or cannabis-based—starting January 1, 2026, with penalties of $500–$2,000 per violation.

· Status: Passed committee in April 2025; still pending floor action.

Cited in committee testimony, disposables contribute an estimated 142 million units of e-waste annually, leach hazardous chemicals, disrupt recycling systems, and pose battery fire risks.

3. Northeast States: Flavors-Only Bans

A cluster of Northeast States has outlawed non-tobacco/menthol flavors since 2019, while some just got into the train in 2025.

· New York (April 2020) banned all vape flavors except tobacco and menthol, covering disposables and online sales.

· Massachusetts (late 2019) enacted a full flavor ban on nicotine vapes.

· New Jersey (early 2025) implemented flavor restrictions similar to MA.

· Rhode Island (2020; reaffirmed 2024) followed suit.

All flavored disposables are prohibited; only tobacco/menthol remains available.

4. Other Western & Southern States

These states haven’t targeted disposables but have made access more difficult via flavor or sales restrictions:

· Utah: Unique double-barrel rule—flavored vapes vetoed, online sales banned entirely since Jan 1, 2025.

· Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Vermont, Nebraska, South Dakota, Georgia: No direct flavor bans, but complete prohibition of out-of-state online vape sales.

5. PMTA-Registry State Bans: Early 2025

Several states (including Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Virginia, and Nebraska) implemented PMTA registry restrictions—effectively banning all products not on the FDA’s approved list as of January 1, 2025.

How Did We Get Here?

Wondering how it all got to these levels? Well, here’s a rundown of some historical context to bring you to the know:

1. 2016–2018: The sleek, high-nicotine Juul devices were analyzed to propel youth vaping upward by 78% among high schoolers during this period, which alerted regulators to reconsider the product’s safety.

2. 2019–2020: The lung illness outbreak (EVALI) of 2019 – 2020 was blamed on illicit THC cartridges, subtly affecting vapes, setting the stage for stricter rules on all vape products, including disposables.

3. 2020–2022: Immediately after California passed the SB 793 (2020) bill, several other jurisdictions started initiating flavor bans.

4. 2023–2024: As Juul left the U.S. market due to the heavy negative sentiments, foreign brands like Elf  Bar, Geek  Bar, RAZ, and Lost  Mary filled the vacuum and flooded the US vape markets with a ton of variety at much affordable price points. 

5. Mid-2024 to 2025: The FDA PMTA enforcement accelerated. States raced to adopt non-FDA disposables bans, flavor prohibitions, or tightened sales rules on disposables.

What This Means for all Affected Persons/Businesses

Of course, this whole thing has a toll on both the vapers and retailers who strive to keep up their sales and remunerate their taxes.

For Vapers

If you’re living in states where disposables and flavored vapes are outrightly banned, you should consider pod kits and mod kit boxes with valid PMTA approval. Interestingly, those ones are refillable and deliver even more power than disposables.

For Retailers

Retailers are under compliance pressure regarding their inventory and licensing—any violation attracts huge fines or license confiscation. So, most distributors are now cutting back on unsellable products, retooling toward FDA-cleared devices. That said, retailers will need to diversify their product lines to accommodate more of FDA-approved vapes and products.

Unintended Risks

Of course, when products from Geek Bar, Elf Bar, Lost Mary, and other popular brands become illegal and removed from the shelves of verified vape retailers, vapers who are already fans of these brands may resort to black market OTC purchases, which may give room for more unregulated products to flood the OTC market. A good number of others may fall back on traditional smoking, which is more harmful to the body. These unintended risks are part of biases projected by advocates to see that these bills and stringent regulations are halted, vetoed, or at least reconsidered.

As It Stands

How to Stay Ahead?

Even if the new bills don’t get passed, which is highly unlikely anyway, the existing regulations have placed vapers on a tight edge. If you prefer disposables to other vape types, here’s a tip to keep you one step ahead in all this brouhaha.

A good number of vape stores are running massive sales events at the moment to offset their stock of products that will soon become outlawed. So, the best move would be to hop on these sales events and buy bulk; that way, you can have a stockpile that would last over the next 6 months.

Disposables have an average shelf life of 12 – 24 months, depending on how they are stored, so you will have a long time to catch up. VapingLand offers up to 40% discounts and a plethora of mouthwatering bundle deals. Well, if you miss out on these sales, you can actually switch from disposables to vape devices like mod kits and pod units, which, so far, haven’t caught the “ban” attention.

Final Takeaway

The brands on FDA-Approved lists also have disposable vapes as part of their product lines, just that they aren’t too popular and “chic” like the Geek Bar, Lost Mary, RAZ, SMOK, and the rest stuff. But then, the rules, regulations, and bills are literally here to stay—all you got to do is adapt and evolve.