Boulder vape store owners voice support for nicotine sales

A Boulder couple who tried everything to quit smoking unsuccessfully until they tried vaping want to see the sale of nicotine in vapes legalised, heavily regulated and promoted only as a tool to quit smoking.

In Australia the sale of nicotine in vapes, also known as e-cigarettes, is illegal, as is the sale of any product designed to resemble a tobacco product.

News of the first vape-related death in the US has sparked another wave of scepticism and uncertainty surrounding the health risks involved with vaping.

But Rikki and Melanie Smedley, who started vaping years ago after they were unable to knock their smoking habits, believe the sale of vapes with nicotine should be legalised and used as a “stepping stone” for people to cut back on nicotine and eventually replace the habit of smoking with nicotine-free vapes.

“If we could steer away from looking at vapes as tobacco products and look at them instead as a product to quit smoking I think it would be great in the future,” Mr Smedley said.

Earlier this year the couple opened Wild West Vapers on Burt Street, selling vape products, which are legal because they do not contain nicotine and the devices are sold as separate components, to help others quit smoking.

Mr Smedley said every day they had a current smoker in their store who wanted to quit, which he said was 99 per cent of their customers.

But he said they turned away people who they believed had never smoked a cigarette or vaped previously, saying it was “not for them”.

The success rates using vapes to quit smoking are high for the percentage of people who could not quit smoking, Mr Smedley said.

“It’s not a realistic goal without something to take the place of smoking ... Australia has a percentage of people that can’t quit despite trying and the huge taxes on cigarettes,” he said.

With the current laws, Mr Smedley said people purchased nicotine elsewhere to use in vapes to “wean” themselves off it and said the Government was “ignoring it.”

He said if the Government “didn’t take responsibility” and regulate the so-called black market, people would not know if the products they bought were safe.

“We’d like to see the Federal Government legalise the sale of nicotine products in the form of e-liquids and heavily regulate it ... there should be a preference towards vaping over tobacco,” he said.

But he said forcing people who sell vapes with nicotine to hold a tobacco licence would destroy the purpose of allowing nicotine in vapes. “We hate tobacco companies trying to get involved in the vaping industry ... tobacco licences could be abused and tobacco companies could push their products in the industry.

“There are trials to make countries 100 per cent smoke-free who are promoting vaping ... New Zealand has a public health system that is promoting vaping to get away from tobacco products.”

Mr Smedley said although they were not without potential risks they would not present a fraction of the risks associated with smoking cigarettes.

In regards to the death and other vape-related illnesses in the US he said a common denominator in the cases was that people had been using illegal “black market” THC, a component in cannabis.

Mr Smedley said the vaping industry in Australia needed to be regulated in order to ensure safety of products. “It has been the responsibility of store owners and we’ve done a great job of self-regulating but it’s not good enough.

“It would be good to see some sort of regulation in terms of non-nicotine e-liquids.”

The WA parliamentary select committee on personal choice and community safety, including laws surrounding vaping, was set to be tabled last month but was extended.