Certain flavors of e-cigarette juice could soon be banned on a federal level if President Donald Trump pushes through with his proposal. If this ban is enacted, the e-cig market could see a tremendous downturn in sales, and many worry that a federal ban will put them completely out of business.
This ban proposal comes on the heels of a mysterious outbreak of lung illnesses, which have led to six deaths across America. These illnesses are thought to be related to vaping, but e-cig officials believe most of these illnesses are related to e-cig juice bought either at gas stations or online through the black market, oftentimes containing THC.
Michigan has already proposed a statewide ban on flavored e-cig juices, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced just this week that a ban may be proposed in his state as well.
“It’s very serious for us, and we’re looking at it closely,” said eCig Source Founder Tony Trego. “If this ban goes through, it would shut our business down and 14,000 others as well. It would leave 150,000 employees without jobs.”
Less than 10 percent of eCig Source’s customers purchase e-juice with the traditional tobacco flavor — the majority of their customers opt for the type of flavors the president has proposed to ban.
Tony and his wife, Robin, founded the e-cig company in 2011, and it remains Owensboro’s most prevalent source for e-cigarette materials and juices, with three stores open across the local area. Tony and Robin said that while the issue with children and teenagers taking to vaping is a serious one that needs to be addressed, their stores operate under strict guidelines that don’t condone the selling of e-cigs to underage customers.
“We’ve been carding since before we opened the door,” Tony said. “We’ve always been very cautious, and almost every store like ours is cautious. The FDA requires us to be. They do inspections regularly to make sure we abide by those guidelines.”
Tony said the issue with underage smokers primarily stems from gas stations who sell JUULs — USB-like vaping devices that sell high-nicotine e-cigs that most professional e-cig stores don’t even carry — and those who buy their juices off the internet.
As for this proposed ban, Tony said it’s a scary and frustrating situation for those in the e-cig business.
“I think the [government] wants someone to blame,” he said. “The illnesses are a horrible situation. The FDA and CDC said it’s most likely the black market THC cartridges that are causing these issues. It’s not coming from standard electronic cigarettes.”
Even more, Tony said that while Trump wants to ban fruit-flavored juices to prevent a further onslaught of underage vapers, the flavors aren’t causing the issue at hand — it’s the high-nicotine vaping devices sold at gas stations that are attracting young people to the trend.
Electronic cigarettes were originally designed to get tobacco smokers off traditional cigarettes and offer a healthier alternative. Tony said professional studies have been done that show e-cigs are 95 percent safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.
“When we started out, Owensboro had the highest smoking proportion in the state,” he said. “We opened the doors, contacted Dr. Brad Rodu, and he worked with us from the start. He put eCig Source on his website for tobacco harm reduction.”
Robin said eCig Source, along with other vaping companies, has taken a huge hit since news of the lung illnesses broke out. In fact, she said the government has been trying to take the e-cig industry down from the very beginning.
“They have been wanting to get rid of e-cigs for a long time — it takes away from the tobacco industry,” she said. “The states have lost quite a bit of money from vaping.”
According to the local business owners, 1,300 people die a day from smoking tobacco cigarettes, while vape-related deaths are very rare in comparison.
“It doesn’t make logical sense to ban this,” Robin said. “It only makes sense because of money. It’s a total overreach of government. So many people don’t see the bigger picture. We’ve done everything the FDA has asked us to.”
As for the future, neither Tony nor Robin is sure what will happen, but they hope that this ban falls through.
“We’re praying that it doesn’t go through,” Robin said. “Kids don’t need [to vape]. E-cigs are there as a better alternative for adult smokers. That’s where responsible parenting comes in. You have to make sure they aren’t getting vaping products.”
