Ban on flavoured e-juice will not curb youth nicotine use: vape shop owner
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. — A provincial ban meant to keep flavoured vape juice away from youth is being called heavy handed by shop owners who say the ban will put them out of business.
“If I can’t sell flavored e-liquid, I’m done,” said Eva Campbell, owner of The End Vape Shop in New Glasgow. “That’s it, we’re closed. You can’t take 95 per cent of my business and expect me to succeed.”
A survey conducted by Smoke Free Nova Scotia recently found that 95.8 per cent of participants between the age of 16 and 18 preferred flavoured juice over the tobacco-flavoured juice.
To combat youth vaping in the province, Nova Scotia Health Minister Randy Delorey announced the province will ban all flavoured vape juice on April 1, 2020. But Campbell says that will not change the rate in which youth vape juices with extremely high nicotine concentrations in devices like Juul, which will still be sold in convenience stores and gas stations.
“It’s Juul, it’s nic-salts,” said Campbell, referring to the concentrated dose of nicotine that the much more compact Juul device delivers.
A corporation named Altria Group Inc., bought 35 per cent of Juul for $12.8 billion back in 2015. Alria Group Inc. produces and markets cigarettes and tobacco worldwide.
In the same survey by Smoke Nova Scotia, the one that said 95.8 per cent of participants preferred flavoured juice over tobacco, it was also found that youth prefer juice containing high concentrations of nicotine.
The nicotine concentration in a single nicotine Juul pod is 59 mg/ml. Campbell says none of the e-juice that she sells goes over 18 mg/ml.
Rather than banning flavours, Campbell says she would like to see the Nova Scotia government put a blanket ban on all vapour products that sell nicotine levels higher than 20 and to raise the age limit for purchasing nicotine products to 21.
“When nic-salts dropped, when they could get a huge amount of nicotine in one hit, that was it. It was for the head rush,” said Campbell, who believes that once flavors are banned, youth will continue to vape tobacco flavours with high concentrated nicotine. These products, although not flavoured, will still be available to the public.