OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- I often make fun of my husband, who was born and raised in New York, for living in the Brooklyn bubble. I’m not slamming so-called “New York values” (I’m a proud New Yorker of more than 10 years myself). But having grown up in the Midwest, I can appreciate that just because something’s trendy in the Big Apple doesn’t mean the rest of the country is even aware of its existence.
There’s times I’ve had to wonder if this Brooklyn bubble distorts my view on vape. Sure, there’s vape shops popping up (and succeeding) all over the place here; I frequently spot people from all backgrounds vaping, and even the mom-and-pop bodega on my corner is selling $100 tanks.
To be honest, I haven’t seen quite as much interest on visits back to my hometown of St. Louis. It’s not terribly surprising given the tax disparity—New York City has the highest cigarette excise tax in the country ($5.85 per pack), while Missouri has the nation’s lowest (17 cents per pack).
Yet, over Christmas, I caught my cousin pulling out a massive sub-ohm tank system, along with several high-end juices. It’s one thing to spot Leonardo DiCaprio vaping during the Screen Actors Guild Awards; in my mind, vape really proved its staying power when my self-proclaimed “farm boy” cousin started embracing it.
Perhaps more impressive, he’s embracing it despite the lack of a tax incentive. He’s embracing it even though many bars and restaurants will not allow him to vape inside. He’s embracing it despite a slew of misleading press stories about e-cigarettes being just as dangerous as smoking (as the Mayo Clinic recently claimed).
I know 2015 wasn’t a great year for e-vapor, at least by the numbers. Once growing by double digits, Nielsen showed c-store e-cig dollar sales were down 1.1% year over year as of Dec. 26, 2015.
But so long as people such as my cousin are still entering the category—despite all the doom and gloom—I have to believe there’s hope for the future. Could regulations cripple this hope? Absolutely. But this Midwest native is going to try and stay optimistic that maybe some regulations could actually help the nascent category. Imagine how many more people might embrace vape if, say, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were to say the science shows this segment is indeed less harmful than cigarettes.
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