The Michigan State Health Department has issued a state of emergency rule, banning flavored e-cigarette sales after being directed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
This legislation will take action starting Friday, Oct. 4, when stores selling flavored vape products must take them off the shelf. All vape products containing tobacco or unflavored vape juice may remain in stock.
“We have 30 days to sell through everything. It’s going to affect the entire industry in Michigan,” Ferris alum and E-cig Outlet manager Nick Krave said.
With health officials investigating more than 200 cases of lung disease among 25 states, possibly related to vape product usage, Michigan is now the first state to ban flavored vape products in hopes that it will protect the health of children among the state from the potential dangers of vaping. Government officials believe vaping is appealing to children because of the range of flavors.
“I think it’s crap. It’s a drug, it’s not a kid’s fault that you left it out,” Ferris automotive management junior Thaddeus Malosh said.
As efforts have been made to ban all tobacco products on Ferris’ campus, the new legislation is also concerning students, who are wondering if rules for vaping on campus will be affected.
“I think it will change our vaping laws on campus and I think it’s going to encourage students to pick up cigarettes again,” Ferris pre-diagnostic medical sonography senior Jonathan McAdams said.
This is a growing concern to many as well, due to how popular vaping has become over the years. Especially when products are pulled from shelves with such short notice. E-Cig Outlet in Big Rapids supplies vape products to be- tween 300 and 400 people a day according to Krave.
This ban on flavored vape products doesn’t just apply to sales but advertisement as well. Vaping is advertised as a product to help former smokers stop smoking cigarettes. Products are no longer allowed to be advertised as safe or harmless alternatives to smoking cigarettes.
Although a flavor ban may be an inconvenience to many vape users, Gov. Whitmer feels strongly that this will be a part of the solution to stopping children from using vape products.
Vape stores have applied rules in the past to diminish the number of underage people buying vape products, one being that no one under the age of 18 is allowed inside the store.
“We can’t regulate what happens outside these doors,” Krave said. “We do our duty by asking for the ID of everyone who walks through those doors.”