Alabama Redefines Vaping As “Smoking” And Taxes E-Liquid By The Millilitre – What It Means (And Doesn’t) For UK Vapers
A new law working its way through Alabama’s statehouse has grabbed attention this week, and it’s easy to see why. Senate Bill 9, put forward by Republican Senator Gerald Allen, doesn’t just add a few rules for e-cigarettes alongside existing tobacco laws. Instead, it rewrites the definition of “smoking” in Alabama’s 2003 Clean Indoor Air Act so that vaping is now treated as smoking in the eyes of the law. On top of that, e-liquids in the state will be taxed per millilitre, rather than as a flat fee per product or per bottle.
If you’re a UK vaper, this is a US state-level story, not a UK one. But it’s worth understanding, both because it shows where some lawmakers think vaping regulation is heading, and because it throws our own rules into sharper relief.
What Alabama’s bill actually changes
Before this law, Alabama’s indoor smoking ban applied to lit tobacco products specifically. SB9 removes that distinction. By folding vaping into the existing legal definition of “smoking,” it means anywhere lighting a cigarette is banned, so is using a vape device, from restaurants and bars to workplaces and other enclosed public spaces. There’s no separate, standalone vaping code being created here; existing smoking law is simply being stretched to cover it.
The second strand is the taxation method. Rather than a flat charge per bottle or per device, Alabama is moving to tax e-liquid by volume, so the more millilitres in the bottle, the more tax is owed. This is a meaningfully different approach from a flat per-unit tax, because it scales with bottle size rather than treating a 10ml bottle the same as a 100ml bottle.
How this compares with the UK’s own e-liquid tax
UK vapers don’t need to guess at how a per-volume e-liquid tax works, because we’ve just started living with one ourselves. The Vaping Products Duty came into force on 1 October 2026, charging a flat £2.20 per 10ml of e-liquid regardless of nicotine strength or brand. Under UK rules, nicotine e-liquid is already capped at a 10ml bottle size, 20mg/ml maximum strength, and a 2ml tank or pod capacity, so the duty effectively adds a consistent cost per bottle across the board.
Alabama’s model is conceptually similar in that it taxes by millilitre rather than by product, but the detail, rate, and legal mechanism are entirely separate and specific to that state. There’s no read-across to UK pricing, and nothing here changes what you’ll pay at checkout on this side of the Atlantic.
Does this change anything for UK vapers?
Directly, no. Alabama’s indoor vaping ban and its e-liquid tax are matters of US state law and have no bearing on where you can vape in Britain or what you’ll pay for e-liquid here. UK indoor vaping rules are already set by individual venues and existing smoke-free legislation, and the Vaping Products Duty is the UK’s own settled approach to e-liquid taxation, already live since the start of this month.
Where it is relevant is as a signal. It shows that in several jurisdictions, regulators are choosing to treat vaping as functionally equivalent to smoking for tax and public-space purposes, rather than carving out lighter-touch rules. UK vapers have already seen this direction of travel with the disposable vape ban that took effect on 1 June 2025, and now with the Vaping Products Duty itself. It’s a reasonable bet that oversight and cost pressures on e-liquid and devices will keep tightening rather than loosening, here as much as abroad.
Making the most of current UK prices
With the Vaping Products Duty now applied to every bottle sold in the UK, the smartest move for most vapers is to buy e-liquid while good pre-duty and promotional pricing is still being cleared through stock. Right now, Lost Mary Nicotine Salt E-liquid 10ml is down to £1.99, reduced from £2.99, and IVG Pro Salts Nicotine Salt E-liquid 10ml is also £1.99, both well within the legal 10ml bottle and 20mg/ml strength limits for UK nicotine e-liquid.
If you’re using a pod kit and need compatible juice, the Fumot RandM Tornado 7000 Nicotine Salt E-liquid 10ml at £2.29 is another option worth comparing before you commit to a larger haul. For anyone still using an older device or looking to switch away from disposables entirely, since they’ve been illegal to sell in the UK since June 2025, the Uwell Caliburn G3 Lite Pod Vape Kit at £4.99 is a straightforward, compliant replacement that sidesteps the disposable ban entirely.
The takeaway
Alabama’s move to treat vaping as smoking and tax e-li
