The scene is disconcerting: A woman in a restaurant exhales what appears to be cigarette smoke, but there’s no accompanying smell.
She was using an e-cigarette, which doesn’t burn tobacco but heats a liquid that contains nicotine that was derived from tobacco. It has become an increasingly popular habit among longtime smokers, those longing to quit and young people.
The last factor is why Attorney General Greg Zoeller, state legislators and public health advocates want to tax and regulate the growing industry.
Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, is co-authoring a bill with Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, that would require “vape shops” that sell e-cigarettes to be licensed, tax e-cigarettes similarly to traditional tobacco products, include e-cigarettes in Indiana’s statewide smoking ban, and require that e-liquid containers be sold in child-resistant packaging to discourage accidental, potentially fatal poisoning.
In a recent study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014 was the first year that more teens smoked e-cigarettes than traditional cigarettes. Sixteen percent of high school students reporting regular use of the electronic nicotine product.
“It seems this may be the way some companies are circumventing trying to get young people away from smoking,” Brown said. “If they start smoking e-cigarettes, how long until they start smoking traditional cigarettes? The biggest thing is that it’s still unknown how the minimal amount of nicotine works in getting you addicted.”
Vaparaiso residents Walter Stotts and his wife, Donna, own three e-cigarette stores in Hobart, Valparaiso and Portage, which they have opened in the past three years.
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“We were nothing a few years ago,” he said. “And now the government seems to come right in and want a part. It sure appears to be greed.”
Stotts smoked for 35 years before switching to “vaping” three years ago.
“In the liquids there are four ingredients compared to 4,000 in cigarettes. What would you bet your life on?
“I’m not going to say it’s perfectly healthly.”
Several customers said vaping had helped them to reduce the amount of nicotine or quit smoking entirely.
“For an alternative, why would the government want to discourage that?” he said.
At a news conference Jan. 2, Clere said revenues from an e-cigarette tax would go toward underfunded smoking cessation efforts. Brown said some of the funds already go toward the state’s Healthy Indiana Plan, so if the federal government approves the state’s HIP 2.0 Medicaid expansion plan, it could also go toward that.
“We always say that we don’t have enough to fully fund education, but here are some opportunities to get additional revenue,” Brown said.
E-cigarettes are relatively new technology and have only vaulted to popularity in the past few years. Tobacco companies Altria (formerly Philip Morris) and Reynolds American have entered the e-cigarette market.
Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are not regulated by the Federal Drug Administration. Rules proposed in April 2014 would require all products to carry a label saying they contain nicotine, which is addictive. They would also not be able to assert that e-cigarettes were less harmful than real cigarettes unless they got approval.
E-cigarettes come in a variety of flavors — like butterscotch and pomegranate — and nicotine levels. Critics like Brown say the flavors are working to hook young people to a bad habit, and said the lack of regulation in China — where most e-cigarettes are produced — means heavy metals and carcinogens are also inhaled.
“It is essential that we provide safeguards to protect Hoosiers, especially children,” Brown said. “It is illegal to sell e-cigarettes to minors, but we know that is happening.”
Stotts said he stocks only vaping products made in the United States to avoid some of the contamination issues associated with Chinese-made e-cigarettes.
While several customers at the Hobart stores were longtime smokers, others — like Crown Point resident Kyle Poling — weren’t previously smokers before trying e-cigarettes.
“I smoked like two cigarettes in my life before I started vaping,” said Poling, 20. “A buddy of mine was vaping and I tried it, then bought a starter kit.”
A Merrillville resident, who didn’t want to give her name, said she agrees with keeping it out of the hands of teens, but she said the new regulations punish adults who use e-cigarettes.
“I think that’s baloney,” she said. “I don’t want to go back to smoking.”
She said her health has improved since switching full-time to vaping: improved sense of taste and smell, and feeling less winded when walking up stairs. She wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who has smoked before, but she has noticed it growing in popularity among students and other teens.
“Some kids buy the non-nicotine kinds, which I don’t think that’s right,” she said. “You should have to be 18 years old to buy e-cigarettes.