Ecig Sales are Booming
The Electronic Cigarette (aka Vape) sector has been growing at a breakneck pace over the past couple of years. The majority of the country’s demand for vape supplies are being met by a variety of Internet Vape Stores and “Brick and Mortar” Vape Shops (B&Ms) popping up on practically every corner the majority of large U.S. cities. People often wonder how much cash the Vape industry will generate in 2015. The numbers are not surprising given the proliferation of vaping in our modern culture. Hipsters, Movie Stars, Drake Music Videos, etc all share a common thread, these new fangled ecig contraptions and people “vaping” the hell out of them.
More Vapers than ever?
The Los Angeles Times sheds some light on the topic at hand, noting that: Wells Fargo Securities Inc. estimates that the vaping industry will net $3.5 Billion in revenue during 2015. This growth trend is staggering considering the fact that ecigs and vaping in general barely even existed a few years ago. The growth potential is rather large considering that vaping has been proven help to save lives, reduce tobacco dependance, and possiblly and save the government billions in health care costs.
FDA Regulation could bring an end to small Vape Businesses
Like most things, The Government (in the form of the FDA) wants to step in, play Nanny, and Over Regulate the Industry. Check out the proposed FDA vaping / ecig regulations
In a nut shell: The US Food and Drug Administration wants to regulate all forms of eJuice (aka eLiquid, Goo, etc). The eJuice is traditionally a combination of Propylene Glycol, Vegetable Glycerin, and Flavoring.
As a result, the regulations would cost each company millions upon millions to run the necessary “tests” on each product in order to be authorized to sell it. The tests are very costly, some proposed examples requiring application of ingredients to lung tissue and such. Since most of the new Vaping businesses are small, independently owned operations they won’t be able to afford tests of this magnitude; thus, the new FDA regulations would force them out of business.
It almost seems as if Big Tobacco lobbied for the ability the flat out write the new regulations, leaving them with all the power in an a brand new Billion dollar alternative industry. Ethics committee anyone?