Sweeney Urges Vaping Businesses to Join Effort to Combat Crisis, Protect Young People

Trenton – Senate President Steve Sweeney met with the New Jersey Vapor Rights Coalition today to urge the vaping businesses, local retailers and organizations to help keep dangerous, unregulated and counterfeit products out of the hands of New Jersey consumers, particularly the youth.

The NJVRC is a nonprofit advocacy group made up of vape shops, e-liquid manufacturers, hardware manufacturers, distributors and the vaping community in New Jersey. They are actively engaged in advocacy – both legislative and regulatory – on the federal, state, and local level.

“The crisis is upon us and the time to act is now. The fact that the coalition came to the table today shows that they understand both the severity of the problem and the role they need to play if we are going to solve it. When youth tobacco use goes up 900 percent in four years, it’s incumbent upon everyone involved to be a part of the solution,” said Senator Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “That means the Legislature, the administration, the corporations, the investors, the manufacturers and the local shops need to work together to clean up this under regulated market. No shop manager should be selling counterfeit products if they can’t verify the ingredients, it’s that simple.”

The use of electronic smoking devices among U.S. middle and high school students increased 900 percent from 2011 to 2015 and grew by 78 percent among high school students during the past year alone. A reported 3.6 million young people are currently using e-cigarettes, including one in five high school students and one in 20 middle school students.