They’re a high-tech take on a low-tech vice, but with e-cigarettes growing in popularity, it was only a matter of time before a dedicated business opened in Wagga.
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Vaped, on Baylis Street, almost sold out of stock in its first week according to owner Lance Carr. A professional plasterer, Mr Carr set up the shop after he started “vaping” six months ago.
“I thought it was a good idea, there wasn’t one in Wagga and I thought I’d jump in before someone else did,” Mr Carr said.
“It was only a matter of time before it came to Wagga, it’s in the big cities and there was already a shop in Albury.”
The small electronic devices mimic the experience of smoking by vapourising flavoured liquids or “juice” instead of burning tobacco. Proponents have described it as a safe way to help smokers quit, but the legal system remains behind the times on the decade-old technology.
Vaping stores aren’t allowed to sell nicotine to users, but the highly-addictive substance is readily available online, which some users buy a mix themselves with double-strength liquids from vape stores.
Last month, the Senate referred legislation about liquid nicotine to a committee for an inquiry into the practice, but health experts say it should be legalised.
In an opinion piece for Fairfax Media, University of NSW public health professor Colin Mendelsohn wrote: “Vaping products are consumer goods designed to replace an existing, far more harmful, consumer product.
“E-cigarettes have only a tiny fraction of the risk of smoking. It is well known that almost all the harm from smoking is caused by the products of combustion, which are absent from vaping.”
Mr Carr said he had been a “pack a day” smoker for about 10 years before he started vaping, which was “pretty much the best thing I’d ever done.”
“I tried pretty much every method to quit,” he said. “You don’t cough in the morning, you just feel healthy and there’s a big cost benefit as well.”
However, the majority of users don’t want nicotine at all, Mr Carr said.
“I was surprised by how many use it without nicotine,” he said.
“I thought 80 per cent would be getting double-strength flavours to put nicotine in, but a lot of our sales just want the juice ready to vape.”