Oregon House revenue panel hears split testimony on HB 2528A to regulate and tax nicotine pouches

The House Committee on Revenue held a public hearing May 13 on House Bill 2528A, which would add nicotine derived from any source to Oregon’s legal definition of tobacco products for regulation and taxation, exempt FDA‑approved cessation products, require sales be made on licensed premises (prohibiting delivery), and apply regulatory changes beginning Oct. 1, 2025 and taxation beginning Jan. 1, 2027. The hearing brought sharply divided testimony from public health officials and local health leaders on one side and retailers, trade groups and some industry representatives on the other.

“The loophole that we see here in Oregon is, I think one of the continued examples that we see of tobacco industry innovation to evade existing regulations,” said Sarah Wiley, manager of the Tobacco Retail License Program at the Oregon Health Authority. Wiley told the committee that some oral nicotine pouches and other products containing nicotine but not tobacco leaf fall outside current state tobacco laws and are untaxed, making them cheaper and more attractive to price‑sensitive youth. “These are not the seven approved medications to help people quit smoking,” Wiley said. “Nicotine pouches … are not safe to quit tobacco. They are not free.”

Wiley and other public‑health…