The recent FDA regulations banning e-cigarette sales to minors has received several applause from health advocates however there are a group of individuals who are certainly not pleased: minors.
Despite many vape shops already having internal rules on not allowing minors to purchase their products or any e-cigarette related products, minors were still able to get their hands on e-cigarettes from the very few vape shops which had not issue with selling e-cigarette products to minors. However, ever since the FDA introduced its regulations to ban e-cigarette sales to minors, no retailer, manufacturer or supplier is allowed to engage in such activity. The penalty for breaching this regulation equates to a $275 for each instance.
Let’s look at the case of Evan Wright, an 18 year old from Des Peres, Missouri. As early as high school, Evan got hooked into the world of cigarette and cigar smoking. It became a compulsive habit with the urge to smoke a pack a day. Due to his excessive behavior, Evan began developing serious breathing problems however, as early as a year ago, he changed from smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes to vaping. The benefit of vaping is that there is no tar smoke and no toxic chemicals that are often found in the papers of the cigarettes and cigars to help them burn longer. Surprisingly, his breathing problems subsided tremendously during the time he started vaping.
“Every day, I get the urge to go buy a cigar or a pack of cigarettes, but I pull out the vape and inhale the strawberry pina colada, and I’m good to go.”
The recent ordinance that was passed by St Louis County late September – which banned the sale of vaping products and tobacco products to minors (those under the age of 21) has seen the concerns of small vaping business owners fearing that their businesses will be hit hard with a negative profit for the year 2016 and all the future years to come.
According to Dru Fernandez, owner of Mape Vape in Maplewood, Missouri, “A lot of [minors] are vaping because they quit cigarettes… I don’t know anybody who comes in here that starts vaping because they think its fun. Everybody that comes in here, they tell you a story that they used to smoke.”
Fernandez states that an approximate of 8% to 10% of his total walk-in customers were minors aged 18 to 21. Despite the ordinance kicking in as early as December 1st, Fernandez isn’t so much concerned about the loss in profits due to minors not being able to purchase e-cigarettes or vaping products.
He said, “My main concern is the principle of this. A vapor product is not tobacco. You are taking away the option for younger adults to have safer alternatives than combustive tobacco.” This statement ties in with the debate of whether the FDA should be able to consider e-cigarettes as part of their purview due to e-liquids containing a derivative of nicotine but not nicotine itself. According to the FDA, traditional tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes fall under the same category which therefore gives them the authority to regulate it.