LEXINGTON, Ky. – The owner of a Lexington vape shop is calling on U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to support an amendment he believes will protect his business.

Tony Florence, owner of the 723 Vapor Shop and Lounge, which hosts three storefronts in Kentucky, says that a move by the FDA to regulate vapor products could shut down his stores, and many like it, in a matter of years.

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“We’re already feeling some effects of the regulation, since many shops we distribute to have begun shutting down,” says Florence.

He’s hoping McConnell will support the Cole-Bishop Amendment, which would modernize the FDA’s current standards for approval of products. If the amendment is not passed into law, the American Vaping Association says all vaping products that have been released since February 2007 – virtually the entire industry – would have to retroactively undergo a potentially multimillion-dollar approvals process.

Florence, an advocate for the vaping industry, believes it has helped many people find a smoking alternative and become healthier. His father passed away from lung cancer in 2002, and Florence believes that if the products he sells today were available to his dad, he may still be alive.

He says many of his customers have told him they will probably go back to smoking tobacco products if vaping is not readily available because of this regulation.