New vape policies having minimal effect on business and promise to curb smoking

New policies aimed at cutting down on teen vaping are having a minimal effect on businesses that sell them, several local stores told The State.

The new policies include raising the smoking age from 18 to 21 and banning most flavored “pods” that are popular with teens, according to media reports. Anti-smoking advocates are divided on whether the new laws were a step in the right direction, or a half-measure designed to appease tobacco companies.

For some vape shops, the new regulations are a way to mitigate fears about vapes that emerged after several people died from using similar devices in the fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked those illnesses to vapes loaded with THC — the chemical in marijuana that produces a “high” feeling — and vitamin E acetate.

“For me I think it’s good,” Sammy Abdullah, the manager of 540 Smoke and Vape on Decker Boulevard, said of the new policies.

Some vape shops have suffered, but not necessarily because of the new vaping policies.

Kevin Brown, the owner of Bizarre Bazaar Smoke Shop on Garners Ferry Road, said his business has yet to recover from the hit it took after the outbreak of vaping-related illnesses from illegally sold products in the fall.

As far as the new laws go, it’s a “hindrance” to sales, but not a serious threat, he said.

“We’ve had a huge effect on business ever since the deaths from the illicit THC cartridges,” Brown said.

Mallory Roberts, a manager at Dab City Tobacco and Vape on Killian Road, said the new laws have had an impact on business, but that most of the fears around vapes has come from the deaths associated with THC cartridges.

“People are getting scared of vapes,” Roberts said.

Brown supports keeping vapes away from teens and has had to turn away regular customers between the ages of 18 and 20 because of the new law, he said.

As for the flavored vape pods, companies have 30 days after the order, issued Jan. 2, get rid of them, according to the Associated Press.

Brown is trying to “dump all that stock” before the deadline, he said.

Health Impacts

When President Donald Trump issued a partial ban on fruit, dessert and similarly flavored vape cartridges — vape “juice” that feeds larger vapes — earlier this week, it was a step back from his initial plan to ban most flavored e-cigarettes and vapes. Menthol flavors are exempt from the ban.

For the anti-smoking group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Trump’s backpedaling was breaking a campaign promise.

“This policy falls woefully short of the bold action the Administration promised,” according to a January statement from the organization.

But both advocates and health experts agree raising the smoking age to 21 is a good public health decision.

Anthony Alberg, the chair of University of South Carolina’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, said there is a “tremendous public health benefit” that will come from raising the smoking age.

Alberg acknowledges some of those under 21 will still find access to nicotine, but making that harder, over the long run, will reduce the number of minors starting to use vapes.

“The older the age of initiation to the product...the folks tend to smoke less cigarettes” and it’s easier to quit, Alberg told The State.

In 2015, Alberg co-authored a scientific paper commissioned by the Food and Drug Administration to study the potential health impacts of raising the smoking age. When he was working on the paper, he thought it was unlikely the federal government would actually raise the smoking age, he said.

“Every little piece counts,” Alberg said.

Though limiting flavored vapes isn’t his specific area of expertise, he doesn’t discount the likelihood that it can reduce the numbers of teens trying vaping for the first time.

“For this policy to be successful, it has to be enforced.”