Vaping in the Wild West

By Todd Shearon

A Windsor man is providing a viable option to help people quit smoking, through vaping.

Mike Hart, owner of Vape Me Vapables, has been running his home-based business for three years and it has a growing success rate of people quitting smoking.

According to Hart the number of smokers is dropping in favour of vaping. He said people are exchanging their smoking habit for vaping, but the second habit is not nearly as addictive as the first.

“It’s ridiculous how effective it is,” said Hart. “You get numbers published like six to 20 per cent, but I’m being really generous saying 20 per cent, for the patch and Zyban. Whereas anecdotally speaking I’d say my success rate is 70 to 80 per cent. It might even be higher.”

Creating his own e-juice in the lab based out of Hart’s home, he said if someone else is talking about his product he loves it. He does not like talking about himself.

After smoking for over 15 years, Teresa Knight decided to start vaping in order to quit smoking after a friend who tried vaping mentioned it to her. She also watched her parents, who were smokers for over 40 years, quit smoking through vaping.

“I never ever in my life thought my mom would quit smoking,” said Knight. “I vaped for about a month and a half and forgot it one day when I went to work. I realized I didn’t need it. I didn’t miss it. I decided I was going to continue on and see how long I could go without it. I never touched it again.”

Hart said his business has increased with the success rate of people quitting smoking through vaping.

“Vaping is split into two markets,” said Hart. “You’ve got the people who are quitting smoking and generally go down in the amount of nicotine they’re vaping.  And you’ve got the recreational vapers who spend hundreds of dollars on a monthly basis blowing big clouds that have no nicotine. That’s what vaping is turning into in the public eye. They see low milligram vapers blowing big clouds.”

Customers are quitting and losing their dependence on nicotine by lowering the milligrams of nicotine they’re vaping with every new bottle of juice they order.

Hart said there are currently no laws creating obstacles for him in the vape business and he looks forward to when there are actual regulations on making e-juice and selling hardware.

“It’s like the Wild West in Canada. I can do anything,” said Hart. “I chose to take the high road and built a lab and make sure I get my flavours tested.  Joe Blow juice maker could put bleach in his juice if he wanted. There are no regulations and no one inspecting them. He could make it in his bathtub.”

However, Hart said he is concerned with how vaping might be regulated in Canada.

Like the United States, Canada could aim to declare everything related to vaping as a tobacco product. He said this could wipe out the entire vape industry overnight as he would be regulated in a completely different way. He said he hopes the government acts reasonably and suggests they regulate him like a microbrewery.

“They’re working with alcohol which is technically a poison, like I’m working with nicotine which is technically a poison,” said Hart. “You have to have general manufacturing procedures that apply to every juice maker. That would bring us into a golden age of juice making. If it goes the opposite way it will turn them into criminals. If you want to start a black market that’s how you do it.”

There is no timeline as to when Canada might regulate vaping as an industry. He said in his opinion it is not about people’s health, it’s where the dollars are coming in from the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.

“The pharmaceutical industry would be the scarier of the two in Canada. They would love to own this technology and sell it over the counter like the patch,” said Hart. “You need someone like me to teach someone who’s starting vaping and how to do it properly. These are the things required for quitting smoking. Do it the wrong way and it’s not going to be a viable option for people anymore. They’ll just smoke again. It takes a little bit of effort to quit smoking. Make that a big effort and it won’t happen.”