Tough new vaping rules are suffocating e-cig retailers - LA Daily News

Darth Vapor store owner, Garrett Blankenship, says business at his Chatsworth store is down considerably. Across the nation, new rules kicked in for sellers of e-cigarettes Monday, but some of California's rules are already tougher, such as the age limit of 21 and older. Vape-store operators say such restrictions have made it much tougher to do business and tracking the rules is complicated. (Photo by Dean Musgrove/Los Angeles Daily News)

New federal regulations kicked in Monday for electronic cigarettes and some tobacco-related products, giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration greater control over what can be sold and limiting the way retailers interact with customers.

Such restrictions, however, are nothing new to California’s owners and operators of “vape bars,” where customers gather to smoke e-cigarettes. Two months ago the state launched its own restrictions, including raising the legal age for all smoking from 18 to 21.

All products that use a device in which a flavored liquid is heated into vaporized so it can be inhaled must now earn government approval. Also, merchants can no longer give free samples to customers, must ask customers for age-verifying identification and cannot claim that their products help smokers quit tobacco, store owners say.

Garrett Blankenship, owner of Darth Vapor in Chatsworth, said he took a huge hit when the smoking age went up, and expects another blow to the business from the tougher federal regulations.

“It’s the beginning of a new generation,” he said of customers between 18 and 21. “We’ll see where this heads.”

The new regulations also cover hand-rolled cigars, hookahs and pipe tobacco.

FDA officials now must assess all e-cigarette products available since 2007. To stay on store shelves, nearly every vaping product must secure FDA approval, though manufacturers will be able to keep selling their wares for up to two years during the application process and for a year during FDA review.

The American Lung Association embraces the new rules and wanted the government to go even further.

“Youth are using e-cigarettes at an increasing and alarming rate,” Harold P. Wimmer, national president and CEO of the association, said in a statement “E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product by youth.”

The FDA fears that e-smokers, who are often attracted by the wide variety of vapor colors and flavors, will simply become tobacco consumers.

Wimmer agrees.

“The most common reasons for trying e-cigarettes included curiosity about e-cigarettes, good flavors and friends’ use.”

Demand exists


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While smoking is generally declining for teenagers, e-cigarette use is on the upswing. Among high school students, it rose from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2015, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 3 million middle- and high-school students use e-cigarettes, the CDC says.

Blankenship, a former Apple technician, said he invested about $120,000 to start the store two years ago. He’s lost about $15,000 in sales since the smoking age increased.

“We’re having a hard time meeting our bills,” he said, “I can’t restock product.”

Greg Honbo, co-owner of Vape Guys in Rancho Palos Verdes, took issue with the limits on what he can say to customers. He said he quit a 15-year cigarette habit when he started vaping.

“I was a victim of cigarettes, and I had to find a way to quit,” he said, adding that he tried nicotine patches and other methods. “I’ve been cigarette-free for five years now. Vaping was created for people who couldn’t find anything else to help them quit cigarettes. Now they’re treating it like it’s really bad. But I wish they had vaping when I was younger.”

While he doesn’t agree with the law, he said it likely won’t impact business much.

“It moved out some of the riffraff, the younger kids just hanging out,” Honbo said. “We don’t mind the younger crowd, but the majority of them don’t purchase too much. They just look for freebies and hang out.”

Minors still have easy access to vapes and accessories online and through friends anyway, he said.

Carlos Montolfo, co-owner of Loyalty Vape in Riverside, said raising the age limit to 21 knocked out close to one-fourth of his shop’s business overnight, given his proximity to the UC Riverside campus, although sales have rebounded a little since then.

The free-sample ban will have an impact, too, he said, forcing operators to focus more on service and building a base of repeat customers.

“I’ve always considered a vape shop to be like a barber shop,” Montolfo said. “You’ll drive a little further if you like your barber.”

As for e-cigarette juices, some shops sell more than 100. Montolfo said that, because his shop is one of the smaller ones, he offers fewer varieties — about 50 — that tend to sell well. Flipping through a menu of flavors is like reading the choices on an ice cream shop sign: watermelon bubble gum, lemon blueberry pound cake, deep-fried ice cream with cinnamon apples, and more.

Customer Brandon Jankel, 33, of Menifee says he will miss the samples.

“The free samples are what actually draws you to the new juices,” Jankel said, after purchasing a 30 milliliter bottle of strawberry champagne-flavored vape juice Monday afternoon at Loyalty Vape for $20.

“As a customer, you want to be able to try different flavors. There is so much variety out there and you don’t want to waste money on what you don’t like,” he said. “A lot of the convenience that has been around is going away.”

James Lua opened the Hidden Vape on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills three years ago. He said raising the smoking age cut into his sales and expected the new federal regulations to have a similar impact.

“It’s hard getting product out the door,” he said. “And we can’t assemble or advise people on how to use the devices.”

Jason Sy, manager of Pure Vapor Torrance, said he personally doesn’t understand the negative attitude about vaping because he believes it’s preferable to cigarettes. But the store no longer allows anyone under 21 to even walk inside, and that has cost the store about a fifth of its clientele, he said.

“I’ve been smoking 12 to 15 years, but I feel a lot better since I’ve been vaping. I can play basketball longer. I smell better. Food tastes better,” Sy said. “The FDA thinks we’re creating a gateway (with e-cigarettes). I could see why they think we’re attracting minors. And I do see the FDA’s concern that there haven’t been any long-term studies” of the health impacts of e-cigarettes.

Trade group takes stand


The American Vaping Association warned that new rules on vapor products will harm public health and close thousands of businesses.

“It is a misnomer to refer to what the FDA is doing as ‘regulation,’ ” said Gregory Conley, President of the AVA. “This isn’t regulation; it’s prohibition for all but Big Tobacco and perhaps a couple of companies with big Wall Street investments.”

Lacey Miller, owner of The Vapour Lounge in Rancho Cucamonga, said she thinks the new regulations will give potential vaping consumers pause, “because they’re not quite sure what’s going on with it.”

“I think in the long run it will be OK,” said Miller.

“I mean most big shops are like us. We never advertise it as a quit-smoking device. However, we would all give our stories about how we all quit smoking on it and it has helped us.”

Staff writers Neil Nisperos, Sandy Mazza and David Downey contributed to this report.