HANCOCK COUNTY — Things have been a little different at Vapor Madness in Greenfield ever since late last month.
“Sadly, we did have to tell some of our teenage customers they’re no longer allowed in,” said Samuel Sochocki, manager of the e-cigarette store.
He was talking about the business’s clientele between the ages of 18 and 21, who, up until Dec. 20, 2019, could legally buy tobacco and e-cigarette products.
But the change is hardly sad to Hancock County’s chief tobacco prevention and cessation advocate, who says that it needs to be part of larger plan to keep children and young adults from taking up nicotine.
“It is now illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product — including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes — to anyone under 21,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s website states, referring to President Donald Trump’s signing of legislation amending the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Brandee Bastin, director of the Hancock County Tobacco-Free Coalition, expects the change to reduce youth initiation and addiction to tobacco products.
“These kids are just addicted in horrific numbers,” Bastin said. “I think anything that helps reduce the access and likelihood to that is going to save lives.”
According to the Indiana State Department of Health, e-cigarette usage by high school students has increased by nearly 400 percent since 2012. Use by middle school students has increased by approximately 300 percent in the same period. At the same time, use of traditional cigarettes has decreased among both groups.
Younger kids look up to their older peers when it comes to these kinds of behaviors, Bastin said, adding it’s not uncommon for upperclassmen to buy tobacco products for their younger counterparts. Raising the age to buy tobacco products to 21 reduces the likelihood of that occurring, she continued.
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies reported in 2015 that about 90% of adult daily smokers reported first using cigarettes before age 19, and almost 100% reported first use before age 26.
That report concluded increasing the minimum age of legal access “will likely prevent or delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults,” adding the “age group most impacted will be those age 15 to 17 years.”
The institute also reported on nicotine’s effects on young minds.
“The parts of the brain most responsible for decision making, impulse control, sensation seeking, and susceptibility to peer pressure continue to develop and change through young adulthood, and adolescent brains are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of nicotine,” according to the report. “In addition, the majority of underage users rely on social sources — like family and friends — to get tobacco.”
Trump is far from the only official who’s had raising the age to buy tobacco products to 21 on his mind. A bill proposing to do just that in Indiana is among the 10 Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, has drafted ahead of the state legislature’s upcoming session.
An effort to raise the age failed in the Indiana General Assembly in 2019.
Bastin said raising the age to buy tobacco products isn’t the solution to reducing the nicotine addiction rate among youth, but it’s an important step in that direction.
Harold Olin, superintendent of Greenfield-Central Schools, agrees.
“I am optimistic that the change in legal age will help with the battle we are fighting,” Olin said. “It certainly won’t end the epidemic by any means, but it should help the cause.”
Bastin said other measures need to include funding for strong prevention and cessation programs, like the Indiana Tobacco Quitline and programs that the tobacco-free coalition presents at Hancock Regional Hospital and in schools.
“We’re fighting an industry that spends billions and billions of dollars,” Bastin said.
States should spend more than $73 million a year on tobacco cessation and prevention, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 2018 Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation report found that Indiana spends just more than 10% of that amount.
Another part of the strategy for reducing youth nicotine addiction needs to be ridding the wide array of flavors available in the e-cigarette market, Bastin said on Tuesday, Jan. Dec. 31.
Two days later, the Trump administration announced it will prohibit fruit, candy, mint and dessert flavors from small, cartridge-based e-cigarettes favored by high school and middle school students. But menthol and tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes will be allowed to remain on the market.
The targeted flavor ban will also entirely exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.
Under Thursday’s policy change, the FDA said it would begin targeting companies that continue to sell the targeted products. Companies will have 30 days after the policy is published to halt manufacturing, sales and shipping.
Officials noted that products submitted by the deadline that don’t appeal to kids will be permitted to remain on the market for up to one year pending FDA review. They also clarified that some vape flavors could return to the market if they can win FDA approval.
Trump suggested ahead of the announcement that the flavor restrictions might be temporary.
Vapor Madness sells tank-based vaping devices and liquids used to refill them, not pre-filled cartridge-based cigarettes, so Trump’s most recent measure doesn’t affect the store.
As far as the minimum age rising to 21, Sochocki expected there’d be a phase-in period before the business and others would be required to comply. Most of the store’s customer base in Greenfield is 21 and older already, he said, but added he expects the company’s stores in other locations have larger clienteles in the 18-21 range.
Overall, he’s torn on the issue. He said he recognizes that underage e-cigarette use is bad and that the recent law change could help prevent it. On the other hand, he continued, 18 is old enough to have the right to use nicotine products.
“Professionally, I think it’s a good thing,” Sochocki said, “but personally, I think it’s kind of bonkers.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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