TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County Commissioner took a big step toward raising the age for vaping from 18 to 21 Wednesday.
Board members voted in favor of the idea and set it for a public hearing two weeks from now.
Critics question whether that age change will really accomplish anything other than putting local vape shops out of business.
The proposed ordinance stops short of a ban on flavored e-cigarette products, which had also been discussed earlier.
Commissioner Sandra Murman said the proposed law has teeth and a promise from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office to aggressively enforce it.
“Well, we have penalties in the ordinance. It’s not just penalties for the retailer,” Murman said. “It’s also penalties for the user.”
Murman said she would still like to see the ordinance include a ban on flavored products before they discuss it again during a public hearing on Oct. 16.
However, some commissioners, much like state officials, are hesitant to go that far. Several places that have already tried are being sued.
“But we can’t be afraid of lawsuits,” Murman said. “That shouldn’t be the scare tactic or fear tactic. And tobacco companies have been using that all along.”
Raising the age by just three years may not seem like a lot. But, proponents argue it will sharply reduce the number of 18-year-olds sharing it with their underaged high school friends.
T.D. Bowen owns the Moon Mountain vapor cafe in Brandon. He said he got into the business because vaping helped him kick a 15-year cigarette habit.
He said he has no problem raising the age to 21.
“Look, vape shops do not want kids to access these products,” he said.
Bowen said if they take away the flavored products, they would lose business from adults who prefer that product to help quit smoking tobacco.
“We would have to shut our doors,” Bowen said. “I mean, there are 167,000 jobs in the vapor industry that are at stake for, I think, a false narrative being pushed.”
The Florida legislature is set to take up a bill that would also raise the vaping age to 21 statewide.
Murman said she doesn’t want the commission to wait for that to happen.
“We had discussed that, but you all know how long it takes for the state to get things done,” she said.
“We’d like to see consistency,” Bowen said. “If they’re going to do it for e-cigarettes they also need to do it for a combustible tobacco cigarettes.”
Moon Mountain and other vaping retailers said they will be at the county’s public hearing in a couple of weeks, in full support of anything that keeps the product out of young people’s hands.
But, they are adamantly against anything that threatens to put them out of business.
What other people are reading right now: