Repeal the ban on flavored harm-reduction vapor technology in New Jersey.

Today, former cigarette smokers are facing increased anxieties while sheltered in place due to COVID-19. They now have no access to flavored vapor products and very few, if any vapor options at all. Instead, combustible cigarettes are becoming their only option. More than 9/10 adults choose a flavor of vapor other than tobacco. This is primarily because they want to leave smoking and the flavor of tobacco in the past as it is now disgusting.

The Royal College of Physicians has proven that vapor is 95% less dangerous than tobacco smoke. Smoking creates incomplete combustion, releasing thousands of harmful chemicals and free radicals into the lungs. Every year, nearly 500,000 American smokers die because of their habit. To date, there are no known deaths caused by vaping flavored nicotine or nicotine free e-juice products.

Deem licensed vape shops as essential businesses in New Jersey.

Vape shops are essential to adults in New Jersey. Because of the shelter-in-place rules, adults are forced to either travel to another state to purchase vapor products, or go back to smoking combustible cigarettes. Cigarettes are readily available at many essential businesses such as convenience stores, gas stations, and grocery stores. These stores are not permitted to carry e-liquids that adults need to stay away from cigarettes because they do not hold a Vapor Business License in New Jersey. Adults now have no outlet to the same vapor products that were readily available just weeks ago.

In addition to harm reduction, over three hundred vape shops provide thousands of jobs in New Jersey. These are all small businesses which sell American manufactured e-juices and complimentary accessories to adults above the age of 21 ONLY. Vape shops also contribute to New Jersey's much needed taxation pool by means of nicotine tax, sales tax, and other taxes. Many of these small businesses will not survive if they are not deemed essential immediately.

States such as Louisiana have already deemed vape shops as essential. It is time to end the war on adult harm reduction and flavored vapor products. Flavored alcohol and combustible cigarettes are readily available and essential. The hypocrisy of this situation if obvious to all adults in New Jersey. Leaving tens of thousands of New Jersey adults without the harm reduction products in a time of shelter-in-place poses a substantial detriment to public health during a public health crisis.

Please sign this petition and call Governor Murphy's office to tell him that New Jersey adults deserve flavored vapor products and need vape shops to be deemed essential today.