OKLAHOMA CITY – It’s not a cigarette. It’s not a cigar, either. Nor is it a vape.
In fact, it’s a new, high-end scientific product for smokers – a product designed to ‘heat’ tobacco – but not burn it. A product that even some critics say is safer than a cigarette.
It’s a state-of-the-art tobacco heating device that’s coming to Oklahoma.
And State Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Faxon, is ready to regulate and tax it.
Known as an external resistive heating product, the high-tech device uses a tobacco stick and resistive heating instead of small pieces of tobacco wrapped in a smokable rolling paper. Its manufacturer says this new device doesn’t burn tobacco but, instead, simply heats it.
Some experts say it is far safer than vapes and could help many cigarette users stop smoking altogether.
For Caldwell, the new product has two positives – fewer risks than a cigarette or a vape and a design that could help people end their use of cigarettes.
“So, I look at it from the point of view: we want to encourage people to stop smoking cigarettes and do something that’s less harmful,” he said. “I mean, option number one for every Oklahoman is to not use any tobacco products. I think everybody agrees on that, but it’s also unrealistic to tell people who have been smoking cigarettes for 30 years that they are going to quit smoking cigarettes.” So, state government can’t convince people to stop smoking, Caldwell said, “How do we divert them off of it?”
Can new tobacco products really be safer?
Caldwell said some of the products from Philip Morris International might have the answer. According to the company, scientific data show the primary cause of smoking-related disease is the high level of constituents found in smoke that is formed during the combustion of tobacco.
“We have conducted several studies to demonstrate the absence of combustion in THS (tobacco heating system), including temperature measurements, experiments demonstrating the absence of net exothermic processes, and measurements of constituents that represent typical markers of combustion,” a report from PMI said. “Our studies also support that the aerosol of THS does not contain solid particles that are produced when tobacco is burned.”
The result, PMI reported, was that “by eliminating combustion, the levels of HPHCs (harmful and potentially harmful constituents) are reduced on average by 95% in the aerosol of THS compared with those in cigarette smoke.”
Although many experts, including those in the tobacco industry, agree that stopping the use of all tobacco would best improve America’s health, new products aimed at reducing tobacco-related risks are viewed as promising developments.
In fact, during the 2025 legislative session, state lawmakers worked on Senate Bill 680 to address the new technology being used by the tobacco industry.
That bill – the same bill now being carried by Rep. Caldwell – would expand the definition of cigarettes to include “products that are intended to be heated or burned.” It establishes a 50% tax exemption for the sale of cigarettes designed to be heated rather than burned and mandates that the Oklahoma Tax Commission issue stamps for these products before the effective date,” an analysis of the measure by OTC noted.
State records show the measure cleared the Senate on a 31-14 vote on March 26, 2025, and passed the House Appropriations and Budget Committee on a 15-12 vote on April 15, 2025. Following its approval in the House committee, the bill has stalled and is currently awaiting further action in the House.
Caldwell said he hopes to change that.
While Caldwell would prefer to see the state stop using tobacco entirely, he believes that goal is unlikely. Instead, he aims to embrace changes that reduce smokers’ risk and to properly regulate these products.
“What we don’t want is a repeat of what happened with vape products,” he said. “They chose not to add a new taxation line and reclassified them, which led to court challenges over whether they counted as tobacco products. That meant they were only taxed at sales tax rates. We’re working to avoid that and create a fair solution, so our approach is to tax these products by weight, as we do for many others.”
Other industry experts emphasize that new products raise similar health questions as vapes and cigarettes and remain risky.
In the online health journal STAT, a report studies new products that heat tobacco rather than burn it.
“Philip Morris has found the emissions of harmful chemicals from IQOS are 90% lower compared to cigarettes,” the journal noted. “That said, research funded by the Swedish government suggests that while heated tobacco releases fewer toxicants than cigarette smoke, their aerosol still contains some ‘harmful and potentially harmful’ chemicals, including tar, nicotine, ammonia, and formaldehyde.”
Still, Caldwell is adamant that the issue needs to be addressed – and addressed soon.
“Anything involving revenue and taxation falls within my responsibilities as Appropriations chairman,” he said. “Conceptually, the main argument presented to me was: while we’re increasing taxation on it in one sense, from a usage standpoint, we’re actually taxing it less.”
Taking that approach, Caldwell said, “was kind of thought-provoking.
“At the end of the day … we need the revenue. And this product has characteristics similar to both cigarettes and vapes.
“Delaying action could leave Oklahoma in the same situation as states that hesitated with vape regulation. Politicians stalled and ended up in legal trouble,” he said.
Those cases ended up in court, with ugly rulings that reduced the taxes on vape products.
“We don’t want another round of that,” Caldwell said.
How did this gear get developed?
Historians will tell you that the United States has a ‘love-hate’ relationship with tobacco. It wasn’t long ago that attorneys general from across the country – including Oklahoma – sued tobacco companies over the damage caused by tobacco products.
There have also been efforts by local, city, and state governments to reduce cigarette use and to regularly increase cigarette taxes.
At the same time, a person doesn’t have to look hard to see just how the country has also embraced tobacco. Inside the U.S. Capitol, the “Tobacco Capitals” are unique, American-designed columns featuring carved tobacco leaves and flowers, created in 1816 by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
The columns are located primarily in the Small Senate Rotunda and were designed to celebrate native American flora rather than traditional European designs. This means they focused on symbolizing the United States’ wealth and agricultural roots, particularly in Maryland and Virginia, once the center of the U.S. tobacco industry.
With that history and impact on government, the economy, and our culture, completely eliminating smoking will probably never happen.
But changes could make improvements.
One expert, who asked not to be identified because he fears retribution, said there is value in new projects because of the people who’ve been smokers for some time.
“They are used to the taste. They’re used to the ritual. They’re harder to get to quit,” the source said. “And so this sort of product appeals to someone who’s like, ‘I don’t want a boysenberry vape. I want, I want to keep smoking, but like, I know it’s bad for me.’” According to the expert, older populations and long-term smokers have responded well to new products. “So, this is tobacco—just not burned but heated,” the expert said.
Caldwell agreed. He said he was supportive of ways to reduce the health problems associated with tobacco, but, at the same time, he said he also expected opposition from some groups whose only goal was to either end tobacco use or expand their market share.
“The Heart Association and cancer association have started engaging on this issue. I expect more groups, including other tobacco companies, to weigh in once it’s on the floor calendar,” Caldwell said.
The tobacco groups, he said, are fighting for market share. “You know, we looked at maybe trying to do a grand bargain with vapes, with moist tobacco, and with cigarettes and with heated tobacco, a big four-way deal,” he said. “All the tobacco companies; they’re really fighting over market share.”
And while Caldwell said he expected the bill to spark a rigorous debate, he said estimates of the revenue the bill would generate haven’t been released yet.
“It’s impossible to predict revenue; it depends on how many switch from cigarettes. With fewer smokers, tobacco companies pay less in other programs and taxes, so transition rates matter,” Caldwell said.
He pointed to changes in Greece, where the new technology was adopted. “If you look at Greece, where you’re seeing close to, you know, 40 to 50% of traditional smokers in Greece move to this new product, this heated product, as opposed to a traditional combustion product … you could see the revenues, the tax revenues, what the tax revenues that it would create.”
And those changes will evolve over time.
For people like Rep. Caldwell, scientific experts, health care officials, and those in the tobacco industry, all would say they want the risks reduced as much as possible. But he and other state lawmakers would also say they have no problem with taxing a tobacco product.
“From my perspective, if we can get fewer Oklahomans smoking cigarettes, and let’s say the numbers are off and it’s not a 90% harm reduction, but even if it’s a 50% harm reduction, I think it’s a net benefit for the state,” he said. “And you know, that’s the reason that I’m interested in this. I think we can. We can help Oklahomans make better health choices, even if they aren’t the best health choices.”
State lawmakers will continue their examination of the bill at the State Capitol over the next few weeks. Lawmakers must have their work finished by 5 p.m. on May 29.