March 17, 2015

Sponsors of HB5 and the General Assembly who support it,

I am writing this open letter to you in response to the proposed HB5, which intends to ban the use of Vape Pens and all other electronic cigarette type devices in all public places unless exempted.

Let me start by saying, I am a lifetime non-smoker. I am the guy who has spent his entire life calling smokers out in public places for blowing smoke, flicking butts, or dropping pack trash. I can’t stand to be around cigarettes. Not only do they smell awful, they stick to your clothes and the secondhand smoke makes me dizzy. I spent the better part of the last 14 years married to an over 1 pack a day smoker. She was not allowed to smoke in our vehicles, our home, or around our children. Mostly because of my personal dislike for them, but also because of the secondhand smoke.

In June of 2014, I smelled smoke on her really strong one day and decided it was time for her to quit once and for all. She had tried everything. The patch, the gum, cold turkey. Short of hypnosis, she had tried and failed EVERY cessation device available. My father-in-law had purchased a vaporizer pen online and recommended that she try it. Without her knowing, I ordered the pen. When it arrived, after a long discussion, she agreed to give it a shot. She would smoke 2 cigarettes per day. One in the morning when she woke up, and one in the evening after dinner. She would resolve her nicotine craving the rest of the day with her 18mg e-liquid and her vaporizer pen.

After 6, yes I said SIX, days of doing this, she threw away the rest of her pack of cigarettes and hasn’t touched one since. She has reduced her nicotine level from 18mg to 6mg since then and is working towards getting rid of it all together. The immediate change in her physical ability to just breathe easier was undeniable within a few weeks.

The entire experience motivated me so much that my brother and I decided we needed to open a Vapor Shop so we could pass this life changing experience on to others. Here I sit, less than 7 months after this became a thought in my head. I own the shop in Middletown, called Unreal Vapors. As I said before, I am a LIFETIME non-smoker who gave my wife a hard time every single day for over 13 years about her cigarette habit. I FULLY endorse, not only this product, but this lifestyle. It has not only changed the lives of myself and my children, but our entire family. This past Thanksgiving, not a SINGLE smoker was present at our table. Everyone had either given up nicotine completely or had switched to a vapor pen and was reducing their nicotine levels.

I spend hours upon hours in my vapor shop, with big clouds of vapor in the air all around me and I have never once felt dizzy, or light-headed, or anything. I am not saying there isn’t a secondhand effect from vaping, but even if there is, it is NOTHING like cigarette smoke. I have watched grown men in their 50s come into my shop and share their stories about a lifetime of smoking, only to break down to tears when they take their first puffs on a vapor pen and realize that they can FINALLY quit smoking once and for all.

Let’s move on to the content of this proposed bill. In the bill, in section 2902, you describe an electronic smoking device with a few vague terms and then leave it open-ended with ‘under any other product name or descriptor.’ This is just my personal belief, but we live in the freest nation in the world and you are going to include a ‘catch-all’ in a bill of this magnitude? I think if you folks are too lazy to do your homework and know the appropriate terms related to this life-saving industry, you are unfit for your jobs and should not only retract this bill, but step down from your elected positions. We the people did not elect you to be lazy on our behalf.

In that same section, you define ‘Smoking’ as an electronic smoking device which creates an aerosol or vapor, in any manner or in any form. Just above that you define SMOKING as the burning of a lighted cigarette, etc. So if smoking involves lighting something (which is in fact the EXACT reason that vaping is so much better for you, there is NO burning of tobacco/paper), then how is vaping smoking? And if you argue that it IS smoking, then by your description, so is every single vapor creating device on the market. I expect that with the poor wording and lack of descriptive terms, your bill would also affect every single concert smoke machine. It would also impact every single Halloween event that uses similar machines. It would ALSO include every single handheld aerosol sprayer, which includes medicinal devices.

The bill also states that Vape Pens should be banned anywhere that smoking is banned and then lists a LONG line of places where smoking is banned. Smoking is banned in many of these places because of the close proximity to others. I have seen many vapers with a lack of concern for others blow big giant clouds in tight spaces. I personally, and MANY of the vape community, do not have a problem with a ban on use in most indoor places. The problem that I have is again, that you are vague and have put no research into this. Banning them in ‘all places open to the public’ is just ridiculous. First off, I own a VAPE shop. One can expect there to be vapor in my shop. Your bill states that because it is open to the public, vaping is banned inside my shop. I am a small business owner with less than 4 months in business and I pay taxes and employ 9 full time employees. I know that between myself and the other approximately 20 vape shops in the state, we collectively employ over 150 people. That is 150 jobs that you are IMMEDIATELY taking from the state if you pass this bill in its current form. We will all be put out of business because of this poorly written legislature.

The point that I am trying to make is that you have CLEARLY thrown this bill back on the table after it failed last time without putting in any additional thought or research. There is a reason that big tobacco and officials like yourselves are fighting this product SO INTENSELY. This product is cutting into big tobacco’s billions of dollars in revenue and they don’t like it. The rest of you are just looking for a reason to compare vaping to smoking, so you can hit it with a huge tax to generate revenue.

I challenge each of you to take a step back, do some REAL research, and then come up with a reasonable bill that not only includes a CLEAR definition of vaping and the associated products, but also includes a CLEAR exemption for Vape Shops on your list of banned locations. We the people, and we the small business owners of the state of Delaware DEMAND that you do your due diligence and provide us with an intelligent, and well-researched study BEFORE you try to lump our products in with the disgusting products that have been killing millions of Americans for decades.

Vaping is NOT smoking.

Sincerely,

Kevin Christensen

CEO/Founder, Unreal Vapors

kevin@unrealvapors.com