On October 10th, 2019 Washington State banned flavored vape juice to the public because of a nationwide outbreak of lung issues related to e-cigarettes and vaping. 

After the government announced that there was going to be a ban,  some people were going crazy and vape stores through Washington were selling out rapidly. Once the ban was in effect all of the vape juice that was left in stores needed to be taken off the shelves until further notice. 

The ban is effective for 120 days and after that the government can choose to renew the ban or they can lift it and let the stores restock their shelves with flavored vape juice again. 

After talking with a few Kitsap County locals about how they felt it was pretty obvious these teens around here weren’t very happy. After asking Chase Murphy, 19, how the ban affected him Murphy said “I can’t wait to see if they will lift the ban or not, I’m stocked up but running low.”

Once I talked to a few others and asked them the same question these are the results that were gathered. Avery Dean 19, “I want to go to the doctor to get a nicotine patch to quit because I’m addicted to it and it’s affecting my everyday life.” 

Kenny Goldsbury 19, wasn’t too affected by the ban, “I didn’t have my own device so it didn’t affect me as much as it is affecting my friends. I would just hit theirs when we would hang out it wasn’t a part of my routine.” 

Erica Wynia 18, seems to have found a substitute for her vaping device, “I miss the flavors but I’ve been getting menthol pods for my juul instead of mint and it isn’t that bad.”

People have made it part of their daily routine to hit a vape throughout the day. For Murphy and Dean they have jobs where they can hit their vapes on the job or during a break, so once lunchtime comes they’re ready to inhale some fruity goodness. 

When they were planning on letting go of vaping there were some mixed responses. 

Murphy confidently said “Not at all. I’m going to find online sites that sell it to Washington when I run out.” 

After this ban, my main question was would they rather be inhaling a vape with tobacco flavoring or hitting a cigarette with real tobacco so I asked Murphy about that and this is the answer I got on that; “One hundred percent, cigarettes. Tobacco flavored stuff is gross,” Murphy said.