Mass. retailers feeling effects of ban on vape product sales

SEEKONK, Mass. (WLNE) – A day after Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced a temporary ban on the sale of all vape products, local retailers are already feeling the effects.

Shop employees tell ABC6 they wish they had some notice, and such a strict ban feels completely out of the blue.

“Just a notice would have been nice, not a pull immediately off shelves.”

Bryan Rodriguez, an employee at Smart Shop Vape in Seekonk, spent the morning pulling vape products off of his shelves. Some of it, brand new.

“We just ordered 50 cases of Juul products Monday, which we just got in yesterday, which we can’t sell now. So now we’re just sitting here stuck cause distributors aren’t taking them back either.”

Chris Thistle, co-owner of Growing In Health in New Bedford, is feeling the effects in his shop too. All of their vape products, which customers can touch and learn how to use before purchasing online, has now been put away.

He’s also feeling the ban himself. He says he’s used a vape for the past ten years to help curb his addiction to smoking cigarettes.

“Now, I’m gonna have to order online my nicotine juice, and I’ve seen that some companies now aren’t even shipping to Massachusetts,” said Thistle.

He said it’s the vapes that are sold illegally on the black market that are the real problem, and that this ban on all products is just too strict.

“If you’re not allowing the tested, quality THC vapes to be sold in dispensaries, then people are still going to get them on the street, and it’s probably going to compound this problem, and these cases of lipoid pneumonia are going to triple.”

The temporary ban will last four months while state officials meet with experts on how to address the issue.

“I’m declaring this public health emergency because medical and disease control experts have been tracking a rapidly increasing number of vaping-related illnesses that in some cases have led to death,” Gov. Baker said to media Tuesday.

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced a ban on e-cigarettes Wednesday afternoon.

© WLNE-TV 2019