These Democrat-led states have turned vaping into a pricey habit

Democrats are making vaping, one of young Americans' most popular habits, more expensive in blue states.

The price of vaping isn't just determined by what's on the shelf. Tax policies can add nearly $18 to the cost of the same vaping product from state to state, creating sharp price differences for U.S. consumers where the price of the same product depends on where they live and shop.

The result is a fragmented tax landscape where blue states are on average paying much more than red states for the same product.

Minnesota and Washington tie for the nation's highest vaping tax burden at about $17.90, with Vermont just behind at roughly $17.33.

At the other end of the spectrum, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina and Wisconsin each add just $0.36 to the same product, the lowest tax burden among states that tax vaping products.

"Unlike other excise taxes, like those on gasoline or even cigarettes, vape taxes have almost no conformity across U.S. states," Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation, told Fox News Digital.

Hoffer said those differences make it difficult to compare states without a standardized analysis.

"Vapor products get taxed sometimes by the amount of milliliters in the product, sometimes by the retail price, sometimes by wholesale price. Sometimes it depends on the kind of vaping product it is," he said. "And, so, it's really hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison across states when we look at vaping access."

Despite those differences, Hoffer said one trend has become increasingly clear: More states are looking to vaping taxes as a source of revenue, particularly as cigarette tax collections decline alongside falling smoking rates.

"Some states are simply trying to replace their cigarette tax revenue with taxes on things like vaping products," he said.

"In some cases, you can be close to doubling the legal price of the product in the state," Hoffer said.