Controversial E-cig store opens on Main

By Carrie A. Mizell

Electronic cigarettes don’t make real smoke, yet Trenton’s newest business has ignited a firestorm of controversy.

Dwayne and April Plass opened Backwood Vapors, an electronic cigarette and juice business on Main Street several weeks ago. The Trenton store is the latest in a string of storefronts the Plasses have opened in small towns like Branford, High Springs, and Jennings.

According to Dwayne Plass over 500 customers have come through the door since he opened on Main Street in Trenton, and not all the feedback has been positive.

“A woman came in here and cussed me out,” Plass said. “She was worried about me selling to kids, but I won’t sell to anyone under 18.”

Barry Hummel, Jr., MD, of the Tobacco Prevention Network of Florida, is another vocal critic. In a letter written to the Gilchrist County Journal, Hummel stated, “I think the citizens of Gilchrist County should take a careful look inside. You may not like what you find.”

Backwood Vapors initially advertised “E-cigs” scribbled in marker on a cardboard sign and placed in one of the front windows of the business. Despite the simple sign, Hummel fears the Plasses do not have the best interest of Gilchrist County youth at heart.

“This is clearly not intended to be a modest store dealing in electronic drug delivery devices like e-cigarettes,” Hummel said. “The owner has big plans. The store is going to be a combination vaping lounge and electronic gaming hall. By the owner’s own admission, he does not plan on restricting the age of his patrons. In fact, he doesn’t even have the age-restriction signs in his store mandated by Florida’s new e-cigarette law.

Hummel said that parents should go to the Backwood Vapors Facebook page and see the pictures the Plasses have posted of their children sitting amongst the e cigarettes.

“The pictures should make every parent in town question his intent,” Hummel said.

According to a recent study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, e-cigarette use among school age children has tripled in the last three years, with half of the kids who report vaping saying they intend to smoke conventional cigarettes within the next year.

When asked about his business, Dwayne Plass said he lost his whole family to cancer and he hopes that selling electronic cigarettes will help people who are trying to stop smoking cigarettes.

“E-cigs help people slowly wean themselves off nicotine,” Plass explained.

Invented in China in 2004, electronic cigarettes come in many shapes and sizes. Some look like long cigarettes, while others look like cigars or pipes. Electronic cigarettes start at $15 in Plass’ Trenton store. It works by users inhaling through the mouthpiece and the air flow triggers a sensor that switches on a small battery-powered heater. The heater vaporizes liquid nicotine in a small cartridge. The user gets a puff of hot gas that feels a lot like tobacco smoke. When the user exhales there’s a cloud of propylene glycol (PEG) vapor that looks like smoke, but has a fruity smell rather than a cigarette smell.



Dwayne and April Plass are shown with their daughter amongst the haze of

electronic cigarettes in this Facebook photo.

Plass mixes his own propylene glycol in his shop on Main Street. Though he would rather not give the name of the doctor who trained him to mix the chemicals, Plass said he studied and perfected his technique for two years before selling electronic cigarettes and vapors. Some of the vapors he sells contain nicotine, while others do not.

Larry Davis, of Chiefland, credits electronic cigarettes with helping him kick the habit of smoking cigarettes, a vice he started at the age of 7.

“I tried all that stuff you can buy over at the drug store, but none of that worked for me like this does,” Davis said, as he pointed to the rainbow colored electronic cigarette he wears on a cord around his neck.

Davis is now a regular customer, buying electronic cigarettes and vapors from Plass at his Trenton store and at another location he has set up at the Chiefland Flea Market.

“It’s pretty much just like a breathing treatment,” Plass said. “And every container of vapor I sell has a child safety lock lid.”

Currently, Backwood Vapors in Trenton features little more than a display case filled with electronic cigarettes and bottles of vapor. Plass has also set up a long table with collectible toys still in their original packaging.

Plass said he does not believe in selling electronic cigarettes and vapors to anyone under the age of 18, but he will reward children who come into the store with their parents and are well behaved with a free toy off the table.

“We don’t look at e-cigs as a habit, it’s more like a hobby,” Plass said.

Despite the store owner’s assertions that he is providing a public service to the community by offering electronic cigarettes to help people kick smoking, Hummel is urging leaders in Gilchrist County to take a strong stand on regulating this type of business.

“He can choose to experiment on his own kids,” Hummel said, “but you cannot turn a blind eye when he tries to experiment on your kids.”