Anti-vape law is a buzz kill for retailers
A new law enacted by the Virginia General Assembly that restricts the sale of vape products is already claiming at least one casualty; the House of Vape in the Eastgate Shopping Center in Annandale is expected to close by the end of the year.
The Virginia Code prohibits the sale, distribution, or resale of any liquid nicotine or nicotine vapor product unless the product is included in a directory established by the state’s attorney general. The law was approved in April 2024 and takes effect on Dec. 31, 2025.
House of Vape opened at 4351 John Marr Drive in February 2022. Nicotine products make up the bulk of their business. The 1,700-square-foot storefront is available for lease from H&R Retail Inc.
Vape products must be certified
Attorney General Jason Miyares’ website says the directory of vape products for which certification forms have been submitted will be available on Dec. 31.
To be certified, the manufacturer of a liquid nicotine or nicotine vapor product must receive a marketing authorization for the product from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Related story: Vape store opens in Annandale
Anyone who sells a vapor product not listed in the directory will be subject to a $1,000-a-day fine for each product.
The manufacturer of vapor products can also be fined $1,000 a day for each non-certified product offered for sale until the product is removed from the market or listed in the directory.
Following publication of the directory, retailers will have 60 days to remove non-certified vape products from their inventory and return them to the manufacturer for disposal.
The first submission for certification from a manufacturer carries a $2,000 fee for each vape product. Manufacturers are required to submit a recertification application annually with a $500 fee.
According to a 2025 report by Monitoring the Future, 15.3 percent of secondary school students in the U.S. used nicotine vaping products within the last year, while 11.5 percent used cannabinoid vaping products.
Health risks
A study of vaping among Virginia students released by Virginia Commonwealth University in October found “Vaping is a significant public health and public safety threat to the well-being of our children.”
Of the 1,300 vaping products tested by VCU’s Laboratory for Forensic Toxicology Research, 83 percent contained nicotine, and 14 percent contained cannabinoids. Many also contained microbiologicals, such as bacteria, yeast, or fecal contamination.
Less than 0.1 percent of the products tested had been authorized for sale by the FDA. Many products had no label defining the drug contents.
“The presence of nicotine and unregulated chemicals is more than just a classroom distraction; it introduces teens to addictive nicotine and harmful chemicals at a critical stage of brain development,” the VCU study concluded.
Virginia cracking down on vape products makes sense, but it’s hard not to notice the double standard. States across the country are rushing to legalize marijuana and cannabis derivatives, not out of public-health concern, but because they’ve become tax-revenue cash cows. It’s only a matter of time before Virginia joins them.
VA voted to legalize marijuana YEARS ago. The current governor won’t sign it into law. So, its already happened.
Fines of $1,000 per day per product? Seems a little heavy handed. I love it!
Agreed this law is a cash grab by the state masked with the intent of making products shopes pay crazy prices so every bottle of vap fluid needs to be certified 2000$ for each bottle to be certified come one that crazy most vap shopes have hundred of flavors and types of juice most mom and pop shoppes have at least 400 bottles so each bottle gonna cost them 2000 to get certified wtf so each shop will need to pay say 500k to 2million. With 300 to 1000 bottles
I been vaping for 4yrs know it help me to quit smoking and it is a lot cheaper then cigarettes kids will always find something to get into what about snuff and alcohol why don’t y’all do something about alcohol it kills more people then anything y’all want do anything about it because all y’all politicians and doctors and lawyers drink it yourself it doesn’t matter how many people it kills. Leave our vapes alonenif you can’t do nothing about snuff and Alcohol
What should be “done” about alcohol?
We tried that and it failed.
We don’t need dozens of vape shops in a one mile radius. GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE.
Too Funny -These same Democrats that passed this law (however well intentional ) about to legalize Marijuana – which, is slightly just less toxic to the lungs and brain than cigarettes – not to mention how many drugged while driving fatalities we are going to see – not to mention school kids getting high before school because of the forthcoming wide availability…
Its already widely available. The “medical” certification process is a joke. If you’re older than 18 and pay the fee, you qualify. Its laughable.
Marijuana and tobacco have very different toxicity profiles, so comparing them directly is misleading.
Tobacco doesn’t have significant psychoactive effects on brain structure or function in the way marijuana does. Marijuana’s brain risks are real, particularly for adolescent users, where heavy use can affect memory, attention, and increase psychosis risk in vulnerable individuals. However, these effects are largely dose-dependent and often partially reversible with abstinence. Tobacco’s brain effects are primarily related to nicotine addiction rather than structural damage.
With lungs is where the comparison falls apart entirely. Tobacco smoking is definitively linked to lung cancer, COPD, and severe cardiovascular disease. It’s one of the leading causes of preventable death worldwide. Marijuana smoking does cause bronchitis symptoms and airway inflammation, but the lung cancer link remains unclear despite decades of research. Studies have been surprisingly mixed, likely because marijuana users typically consume far less volume than tobacco smokers.
The claim that marijuana is “only slightly less toxic” dramatically understates tobacco’s harm profile. Tobacco kills approximately 480,000 Americans annually through well-established mechanisms. Marijuana has documented risks (especially for developing brains and when smoked) but lacks tobacco’s clear causal links to fatal lung and cardiovascular diseases.
Both substances carry risks, but their toxicity profiles are fundamentally different. Marijuana’s primary concerns center on mental health and cognitive effects in heavy/young users, while tobacco’s dangers are predominantly life-threatening physical diseases affecting multiple organ systems.
Beautifully put!
Thank you for bringing some facts and rationality to the discussion. Truly refreshing!
A major issue missing from the discussion is marijuana’s growing role in impaired-driving incidents. Multiple states have documented increased crash rates involving drivers who test positive for THC after legalization. Controlled studies consistently show that marijuana slows reaction time, impairs lane control, reduces divided-attention performance, and increases the likelihood of driver error. Unlike alcohol, we have no reliable roadside test for acute THC impairment, which makes enforcement far more difficult.
And while cigarettes are unquestionably a health hazard, they do not impair a user’s coordination, judgment, or reaction time the way marijuana does. Tobacco carries long-term medical risks, but it doesn’t create the immediate functional impairment that threatens every other driver on the road.
Marijuana may not equal tobacco in long-term toxicity, but in the context of driving, its impairment risks are a very real and growing public-safety concern. Someone dying of lung cancer doesn’t cause collateral damage to innocent bystanders.
So they have a list that they’ll enforce on January 1st, but nobody can see the list until then? Seems like a perfect opportunity for the state to fine every vape shop that does still have products on the shelf on Jan 1.
Big tobacco companies have cornered the market, and kids are still going to be using the approved disposable vapes. While the older folks who have used vapes to stop smoking are going to end up going back to smoking unless they also get the approved disposable ones that are a one-time-use. Who does this benefit other than tobacco companies and anyone who might want to lease a former vape shop?
And while you at it take them damn cigarettes off the market they cause cancer and heart problems I’m not understanding and second hand smoke kills as they say if you going to do it do it all….🤦🏾🤦🏾🤦🏾
GOOD RIDDANCE. Now do the other 20 vape shops in Annandale.
Great news. Close all of the vape shops. I was told the county has no control over the businesses that are established in the county and that it is a state issue. I find that hard to believe. All the county seems to be looking for is more tax income.