Alabama state Senator Gerald Allen, R-District 21, recently prefiled a bill for the 2026 Legislative Session that looks to restrict vaping in public areas under the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act.
Under Allen’s legislation, Senate Bill 9, vapes—or “electronic nicotine delivery systems”—would be added to the listed forms of “smoking” that are prohibited in enclosed public places under Alabama law.
The bill uses the definition for electronic nicotine delivery systems found in Section 28-11-2 of the Code of Alabama: “Any electronic device that uses a battery and heating element in combination with an e-liquid or tobacco to produce a vapor that delivers nicotine to the individual inhaling from the device to simulate smoking, and includes, but is not limited to, products that may be offered to, purchased by, or marketed to consumers as an electronic cigarette, electronic cigar, electronic cigarillo, electronic pipe, electronic hookah, vape pen, vape tool, vaping device, or any variation of these terms. The term also includes any e-liquid intended to be vaporized in any device included in this subdivision.”
Additionally, SB9 would rename the Alabama Clean Indoor Air Act to the “Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act” in honor of state Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile. Figures has been a longtime advocate for clean air regulations in the state and was instrumental in originally passing the Clean Indoor Air Act through an increasingly conservative state legislature in 2003.
Allen’s pre-filing of SB9 comes after a failed attempt to pass identical legislation during the 2025 Legislative Session. The bill (SB10, at the time) passed out of the Senate Healthcare committee but failed to ever receive a vote on the Senate floor.
Were SB9 to pass into law in 2026, it would be another in a series of recent laws restricting the use, sale and possession of vapes in Alabama.
Just last month, a new law went into effect establishing stricter requirements for the sale of electronic nicotine delivery systems and other “alternative nicotine products.”
Sponsored by Representative Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, House Bill 8 established new, expensive permits for the sale of vape products in Alabama and limits the type of products which retailers are allowed to sell. In particular, the law bans the sale of fruit- and candy-flavored vape products at convenience stores in an attempt to curb youth access.
Gov. Kay Ivey also signed HB529 (introduced by state Rep. David Faulkner, R-District 46) into law this year, levying an additional tax on the sale of “consumable vapor products” in Alabama.
In theory, SB9—if passed—would work in tandem with such laws to further discourage both the sale and use of vape products across the state.
