Afzzal Mohammed of No Limits Vape and Smoke Shop, shortly after the Health Department served the ban notice and they began emptying their own shelves. (Photo by Peter Currier)
WESTFIELD- The city’s Health Department began enforcing Gov. Charlie Baker’s announced ban on vape sales this week and they went to dozens of locations where vapes were sold and told store owners to take them off the shelves.
Store owners reported that representatives from the Health Department came to their stores Wednesday and gave them notice to immediately end vape sales. Westfield’s Director of Public Health Joseph Rouse said that the department was given less than an hour of warning on Wednesday before Baker’s announcement.
“Up until that point, we had no idea that anything was in the works at the state level,” said Rouse.
He said that, because the state’s enforcement agency on the matter is the Department of Public Health, the city Health Department must comply with their policies. He noted that he and health inspectors were able to visit 42 of 47 stores in Westfield that sell vape products.
Rouse and several store owners expressed some concerns about a black market for vape products opening up across the state. The ban included legal THC vape cartridges sold in recreational marijuana shops, for which a cheaper black market already exists. It is the illicit THC cartridges that many vape and marijuana store owners blame on the recent spike in lung illnesses across the country.
“There is no evidence that I’m aware of that legally produced cannabis vaping products are contributing in any way to the spike in lung diseases that the nation is currently observing.” said Thomas Keenan, CEO of Cannabis Connection, which is expected to open in Westfield within months. “From what I’ve read, it seems that there are two likely culprits: 1) ILLEGALLY produced vaping products (both e-cig and cannabis) & 2) the sheer quantity of vapor inhaled on a regular basis by e-cig users.”
Rouse said that, should the black market for any of these products obviously expand during the ban, the state may expedite their research into the products and their safety.
“It may turn out to be that all the cases are just from black market products, or it could really turn out to be the legal stuff,” said Rouse.
He noted that non-compliance with the ban will result in a yet-to-be-determined fine. Further non-compliance will result in an order to cease and desist. Any non-compliance beyond that will allow authorities to come into the store and confiscate all of the vaping products.
Rouse said that none of the Health Department representatives received much pushback as they were serving the notices to store owners on Thursday. He noted that he understands that their income is being removed or reduced rather suddenly.
“I have great empathy for them and their livelihood,” said Rouse.
Among those who were served notices from the department on Thursday was No-Limits in Westfield, which the employees said only opened three months ago. The employees there said that they may lose their jobs, and they likely will not be able to survive as a business selling the few remaining products they have like cigarettes and smoking paraphernalia.
Afzzal Mohammed and Ashra Fathima, two employees of the store, said that their customers may now turn back to cigarettes, which they had successfully quit. They also said that people may just make the short drive down to Connecticut to buy vape products instead.
“We wish we just had a couple weeks to prepare so that we could have made a little more money to cover our bills,” said Mohammed.
