New vaping laws will take effect - The Lawton Constitution

When new federal laws take effect Monday for the vaping industry, time will stand still for the products inside shops across the country if it doesn't exist now, it's going to be hard to break new ground.

It's also going to establish a two-year window for existing shops to follow the new protocols and find the means, resources and support to stay in business in this new frontier.

"It's insanity! Insanity!" said Chad Johnson, owner and operator of 580 Vaperz, 211 SW C, on Friday as he and his staff worked with customers while also trying to get every last of tens of thousands of samples ready for testing before deadline. "My head is about to explode."

Johnson's shop, as well as those of the other entrepreneurs in the burgeoning industry, have been scrambling. The regulations taking effect allow the shop owners and industry advocates two years to make their case to let their products remain on the market.

"I began planning for this after the first rough draft of the regulations appeared over a year ago," Johnson said. "When they were finalized in May, I started the preparations and documentation process."

A manufacturer of house liquids, Johnson's shop has 560 custom flavors available. As part of the federal Food and Drug Administration testing protocols, he has to make sample bottles of every flavor available in every conceivable configuration each individual blend, bottle size, nicotine level, etc. which means that by tomorrow morning his shop will have over 58,000 samples turned into the FDA. The product application process, legal counsel and lab testing add enormous cost burdens, he said, but they're the price to pay if you want to continue forward.

For the battery, modification and tank equipment used, if it doesn't exist today, it will be a while before something new comes out. Johnson said that has its pros and cons.

It's less likely that someone will put out a slipshod product, Johnson said, "but it could stifle new developers from being able to move forward with innovations."

Citing tobacco use as the single largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, the FDA says the goal of its new regulations is to improve public health and protect future generations from the risks of tobacco use. That's why it extended its authority to cover all products meeting the definition of a tobacco product.