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 This year, President Joe Biden publicly lauded
small business week (May 1-7) remarking that “small businesses across America
have shaped and embodied our Nation’s entrepreneurial spirit and driven our
economy forward.” In this year’s statement, the president acknowledged how the
“pandemic … devastated America’s small business community.”
Unfortunately, thousands of small businesses are struggling and are not being
acknowledged by the government. The most underappreciated small businesses are
in the vapor industry. Despite helping thousands to quit smoking, vapor product
manufacturers and the vape shops that sell harm reduction products are
mistakenly accused by many in the tobacco control field of being “Big Tobacco”.
These small businesses are essential in promoting harm reduction. The vape shop
staff helps people who smoke find the right device, flavor, and nicotine level
to “substitute the physical, psychological, social, cultural, and
identity-related dimensions that were previously enjoyed by tobacco smoking,”
using a product that is 95 percent safer than smoking cigarettes. Vape shops not
only help customers quit smoking, they also help them from returning to smoking.
Unlike government-funded smoking cessation services, the services vape shops
provide to consumers don’t cost taxpayers a dime. The use of vapor products
could also reduce taxpayer-funded expenses of those suffering from
smoking-related illnesses.
The vapor industry also makes a substantial contribution to the nation’s
economy, but excessive regulations are causing this financial contribution to be
eroded. Hundreds of small businesses have been shuttered due to ideological
antipathy to safer smoking alternatives. The industry has seen a steep decline
in jobs and revenues from 2018 to 2021, amounting to more than a $2.3 billion
reduction in total economic output.
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) premarket tobacco application (PMTA)
process is so cost-prohibitive that most of the small vapor businesses don’t
have the finances or manpower to comply. This leaves the door open to the
products sold by large tobacco companies and a handful of larger vapor
companies. The few marketing orders granted to e-cigarette products are not
products sold in most vape shops. In fact, the FDA has denied nearly 1 million
products that were manufactured by small businesses and sold by vape shops.
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The vapor industry has been crippled by such regulations, as well as proposed
draconian taxes, product bans, and a stubborn refusal by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to acknowledge that the so-called vaping lung scare in
2019 were not related to regulated nicotine products.
The COVID-19 pandemic simply piled further pressure on many of these small
businesses as they were deemed non-essential and had to close their doors for an
extended amount of time. Many had to secure loans just to stay afloat and pay
employees, rent, and utilities.
Vapor businesses have closed, loans are unpaid and being turned over for
collection, commercial spaces sit empty, owners have gone bankrupt, and
employees have lost their jobs. Vaping consumers wishing to remain smoke-free
are left with high nicotine products sold in gas stations or a return to
smoking.
The sad truth is that 480,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related
causes. The companies owned by people who used to smoke help members of their
communities stop smoking and are working hard to reduce the number of annual
deaths. The vapor industry is eager to see President Biden’s statement to
prioritize investment in “Made in America” manufacturing so small businesses can
innovate, compete, and build the products of tomorrow become a reality. But
words won’t be enough. There has to be some power put back in the hands of the
little guys and regulations that protect only the big corporations should be
halted.
If Biden truly wants to celebrate “America’s small businesses and their enormous
contributions to American life and prosperity,” he should instruct government
institutions to cease actions that are destroying grassroots enterprises which
have saved thousands of lives and could save many thousands more.
Martin Cullip is an International Fellow at The Taxpayers
Protection Alliance's Consumer Center and is based in South London, UK. Kim
Murray is a Research Fellow at The Taxpayers Protection Alliance’s Consumer
Center.
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