"Biggest black market since the alcohol ban"
Illegal e-juice. With more US states banning different flavors of e-liquid, illegal sales are on the rise. This is reported by the American the online magazine Filter.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Sally gets in her car and drives her rounds. In her trunk she has coils, mods and tanks. And e-juice, of course. Fruity flavors, candy, mint. Goods that her customers used to buy from her over the counter in her shop. Not so many tobacco flavors, the only flavoring that, along with menthol, is allowed to be sold. But they don't go for much either, she tells Filter magazine.
Sally is one of several vejpshop owners who, when New York banned all sales of flavored e-juice (except tobacco flavors), chose to continue selling their products black.
Moved the juice lab to the home
And she is not alone. In other prohibition states, like Massachusetts and New Jerseyy the same thing happens. Filter magazine has followed several vejpers and shop owners who use different methods to sell flavored e-liquid. On the street.
Sally (a fictitious name) has about 50 customers. They are between 50 and 80 years old and used to shop in her store. But when the ban came, Sally decided to move the juice lab out of the shop. Now she blends at home, in her studio. All to avoid controls.
"It's like being in a mafia movie" Sally tells Filter.
Illegal e-juice on the black market
The emergence of a black market when popular products are suddenly banned is not entirely unexpected. Quite the opposite. The prohibition of liquor in the 1920s in the US is a classic example. And when Donald Trump considered introducing a national ban against flavors in e-cigarettes, it was, among other things, the fear of a huge black market that him to change his mind.
But states were free to impose local bans. Strong voices from the anti-tobacco lobby In addition, many marijuana users suffered lung damage in the fall of 2019. The injuries occurred after they used vejpning (e-cigarettes) to inhale incorrectly manufactured e-juice containing cannabis.
Fear of nicotine
However, the debate after the lung injuries became more about nicotine and regular e-cigarettesthan about the black market where THC juicer, laced with the harmful thickener e-acetate, were rampant. This was despite the fact that authorities suspected early on that it was e-acetate in combination with cannabis use that was the underlying cause of the lung damage - not nicotine or conventional e-cigarettes. It was also clear that the dangerous THC juices were coming from a growing black market.
Obvious risk of illegal e-juice
But a growing concern that flavors would entice young non-smokers to start using nicotine took root in several states. E-cigarettes are largely unregulated in the United States, which created opportunities for new and untested legislation: flavor bans. At the same time, e-cigarettes are a multi-billion dollar industry driven primarily by small independent vejpshoppers. According to the VTA, flavored e-juices (excluding tobacco and menthol) account for as much as 90% of sales. That a flavor ban would create a huge black market was therefore "quite obvious" according to industry representatives.
Passion for quitting smoking
"E-juice is a product based on a strong do-it-yourself tradition. That's how it started 10 years ago" notes Filter.
Smokers opted out of poorly flavored e-cigarettes from tobacco companies and started experimenting with their own variants. Both in terms of devices and the e-liquid itself.
"Vejpare is passionate and resourceful. Many who open vejpshoppes are driven by the desire to get smokers to quit, just as they did themselves. They are not just salespeople, but activists and guides in equal measure" writes the newspaper.
Today, the penalty for selling flavored e-liquid in New York is the equivalent of $1,000 per bottle detected.
Nicotine and taste separately
In Europe, legislation such as restrictions on bottle sizes and nicotine has led to a system where nicotine and flavoring are sold separately. In some US states, where the flavor ban is a fact, vendors are finding similar solutions.
"Some retailers only sell the nicotine. They count on customers buying their flavored juice elsewhere" write Filter.
"Warned politicians to make e-juice illegal"
One example is the former shop assistant Nic Holden (fictitious name). The flavor ban opened up a simple business idea: he buys the nicotine, customers buy the flavor. He meets them in parking lots somewhere on Long Island. And mixes the juice for the customers in small 10 ml bottles, on the spot in the car.
Word of mouth and social media lead customers to Holden. He earns 1500 kroner a day. That's more than he earned as a shop assistant in a vejpshop. The drive is still to help people quit smoking and then to keep them away from analog cigarettes, he says. He would do that, regardless of whether flavored e-juice is illegal or not.
"I was one of those who warned politicians that this will happen. The flavor ban is leading to the biggest black market in the country since the alcohol ban. And now here I am, in 2020, selling nicotine to ex-smokers, 21 and 75 years old. People who suddenly feel like criminals. But no one should be surprised."
More countries ban flavored e-cigarettes
In the current situation, among others Denmark and The Netherlands to ban flavors in e-juice, as in the US states mentioned above. Similar laws are being discussed in Ireland. Also in Sweden there are lobby groups calling for a ban on flavors in e-liquid. The Swedish government has also put forward a proposal to ban virtually all flavors in e-liquid, including shortfills - e-juice without nicotine.
Must tell you about my story and contact with the vape world and community.
In 1979 in Sweden you could buy cigarettes in most shops without age limits, I was 13 years old
We sneakily grew for parents. The more brands the tougher. In 1996 I started to get asthma and got different medications for it, and was advised to quit tobacco, started with nicotine gum, patches, read a book about quitting smoking everything but neither worked. 2010 I was told by doctors that I had a start to coal. The doctor wrote a prescription for champix, felt very badly from that medicine mentally, anxiety tremors etc, continued with tobacco, Voxra was the next medicine, nothing worked.
When the first e-cigs were released, they were only available online, I think it was aio ego,
Got on that train but it didn't go well. But when the first physical store opened in town that sold vapes with different brands and juices. I said I have to try this in 2016 I bought my first vape an eleaf ijust s . There bent my salvation from tobacco and am extremely grateful for this and then it was with melonade and an apple juice. So with that I say let's preserve the flavor in the juices. It may be man's salvation from tobacco, it was mine. Thank you vape community for my 4 years free from tobacco and much better health.