E-cigarette sales outlets visited by police, health workers
Groton — A Groton Town Police officer and a Ledge Light Health District official visited 22 convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets this week to remind those who sell electronic cigarettes that they could face fines if they continue to offer the products without getting a state license.
“It was a courtesy visit to remind everybody to get their acts together, or they could face enforcement,” Carolyn Wilson, health program coordinator for Ledge Light and coordinator of the Groton Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, said Friday. She visited the stores with Groton Town Police Officer Erich Banwell.
Elsewhere in the region, representatives of the Southeastern Regional Action Council paid similar calls in recent weeks to retailers in several towns, Wilson said.
Of the 22 retailers, Wilson said, all but two have a license to sell the Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, called ENDS or e-cigarettes. Some retailers said they were not aware of the new law, Wilson said.
The law took effect in March 2016. It requires retailers to pay a $75 application fee plus a $400 registration fee to sell e-cigarettes. The license must be renewed annually for $400.
Lora Rae Anderson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Protection, said 1,061 retailers statewide have obtained the license.
The licensing law is the latest effort to regulate e-cigarettes. In 2014, a law took effect prohibiting sales of e-cigarettes to anyone under age 18. The next year, the state passed a law banning the use of e-cigarettes in all locations where smoking of regular cigarettes is prohibited.
Wilson said several of the retailers said that although they had paid the fees for the license, they barely were selling enough e-cigarettes to recoup their investment. One store, however, sold exclusively e-cigarettes and reported strong sales.
GASP, Wilson said, is concerned about the availability of e-cigarettes because a 2016 survey showed 13 percent of 11th- and 12th-graders had tried one, and 8 percent of all seventh- through 12th-graders had — higher than the rate of regular cigarette smoking.
Also troubling, she said, are recent reports that some types of e-cigarettes are being used with a highly potent marijuana product called “wax,” “oil” or “shatter.” The practice, known as “dabbing” is favored by some youth as a way to get high with less odor, Wilson said.
For more information, visit the state Department of Consumer Protection webpages http://bit.ly/2l9a7RN and http://bit.ly/2l99tn3.
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