Vape shop owners and advocates expressed their frustrations Thursday with an upcoming state ban on flavored vaping products.
The state Legislature can’t stop Governor Gretchen Whitmer from instituting a ban on flavored vaping products but it decided to hold a hearing anyway.
Whitmer announced the ban last week. She said it’s to protect children’s health.
But shop owners say the ban will put them out of business and take away a valuable tool to help people stop smoking.
Marc Slis said flavored vaping was the only way he could quit smoking, now he owns 906 Vapor in the Upper Peninsula.
“You won’t just be banning flavors," said Slis. "You’ll be banning a lifesaving industry from this state. Guaranteed.”
Whitmer’s administration is still working on the details of these emergency rules. They would be in effect for six months.
The federal government will act to ban thousands of flavors used in e-cigarettes, President Donald Trump said Wednesday.
The surprise White House announcement could remake the multibillion-dollar vaping industry, which has been driven by sales of flavored nicotine formulas such as "grape slushie" and "strawberry cotton candy."
The Food and Drug Administration will develop guidelines to remove from the market all e-cigarette flavors except tobacco, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters during an Oval Office appearance with the president, first lady Melania Trump and the acting FDA commissioner, Ned Sharpless.
