Lawsuit filed against the emergency ban of flavored nicotine products
MARQUETTE — The vape ban will affect local vape shop retailers in just under a week, which means flavored nicotine products will have to be gone before next Thursday.
One lawsuit in Houghton has been filed against the state and the emergency ban itself. They are hoping to at least get more time to figure out a more reasonable solution than an all–out ban of the product.
Many people who use vaping to get off cigarettes are concerned about not having an alternative.
But the owner of Rustic Vapor is following the new guidelines and will still provide legal products to his customers so they can stay off of cigarettes.
“You know we are allowed to sell tobacco flavors with nicotine,” said Eric Curtis, Owner of Rustic Vapor. “We are also allowed to sell unflavored e–liquid with nicotine and we will have other options that do not have nicotine in them. So we are going to be able to take care of all of our customers as far as what they want and need to stay off of cigarettes.”
Beau LaFave introduced a bill recently to the Michigan Legislature, known as the house bill 4996.
This new piece of legislature would be able to reverse the ban but calling for regulation and sensible regulations on the industry.
It would also impede the federal government from taking away the states’ rights to regulate the products that the state regulates.
On September 25th, 2019, State Rep. Steve Johnson, introduced legislation this week that would exempt flavored vaping products with 2 percent or lower levels of nicotine from the emergency rule banning flavored vaping products.
Even local vape shop owners are ok with this kind of regulation.
“As a responsible business owner and vape shop owner I totally agree with it,” said Curtis. “A lot of these kids got hooked on the product JUUL’s that had 5.9 percent nicotine. We at Rustic Vapor were selling e–liquids at 0.3, 0.6 and 1.2 percent.”
We will have an update on the lawsuit filed in Houghton in the near future, as well as an interview with Marc Slis, the owner of 906 Vapor and the man filing the lawsuit.