FOR SAFIA JAMIL, the owner of vaping shops in Marlborough and Walpole, the one-two punch of Gov. Charlie Baker’s emergency vaping ban and legislation passed this week to ban all flavored tobacco products is likely to be a knockout that puts her out of business. 

Jamil said she has lost “thousands of dollars” because of the vape ban, imposed in late September, but her two stores stayed afloat from cigarette tobacco sales and by laying off employees and reducing one manager’s pay to minimum wage. 

However, when Jamil heard that the Legislature passed a ban of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, a measure that is now on Baker’s desk, she concluded it was time to throw in the towel on Vape City Smoke Shops. “The bill was the last straw and a confirmation that I should close down my stores,” she said Friday, adding that she plans to file for bankruptcy. “I’m probably going to lose my house,” Jamil said.  

Jamil was one of two dozen store owners and vape users who testified at a Department of Public Health hearing on the vape ban.  

The September 24 emergency vaping ban was announced by Baker without warning and was driven by concerns nationally over vaping-related lung illnesses. Since it was put in place, 21 cases of vaping-related illnesses in the state have been reported, including three deaths.  

If Baker signs the flavored vape and tobacco product ban, the prohibition on flavored vaping products would take effect immediately, with the ban on flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, taking effect in June 2020.  

It would be the first statewide ban on menthol cigarettes in the country, and also impose an excise tax of 75 percent on vaping products. Anyone found selling or providing tobacco to minors would be hit with a $1,000 penalty for a first offense.  

Vape shop operators have argued that black market products, not their merchandise, is the cause of the vaping-related illnesses. A recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests they might be right. According to the agency, black market vitamin E acetate is now widely suspected of being the culprit, after it was found in lung samples from patients with vaping injuries.   

Many store owners cited the CDC report at Friday’s hearing, arguing they should not be shut down because of illnesses caused by black market vaping products.  

Craig Rourke of Rourke Law Office, represents six clients involved in two lawsuits in state and federal court over the vape ban, including the one before Wilkins. He says that smaller operators have lost $250,000 to $400,000 in sales. He said one large operator, Vapor Zone, which had four stores, has seen $4 million in lost sales and laid off all 11 of its employees.  

Michael Siegal, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health, testified that the ban on e-cigarettes is “no longer justified” in light of the CDC report. “There is simply no evidence that these products are causing the outbreak, and there is incontrovertible evidence that vitamin E acetate oil, or some chemical contained in that oil” – found only in black market marijuana vape cartridges — “is now implicated as the culprit,” he said.  

The state’s Cannabis Control Commission has sought more information on the state’s vaping-related illnesses and whether there is any connection to the marijuana products it oversees. Commission chairman Steven Hoffman testified at the hearing that public health officials have yet to turn over data on what products appear to be linked to the cases of vaping-related illnesses in the state.  

“We are here today to follow up on our request to share with us whether you have collected any evidence implicating regulated THC products, and if so, which products and where they were purchased, in order to inform our regulations,” he said.  

The department did not respond to questions following the hearing about whether it plans to release this information.  

The hearing was set into motion when Suffolk Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins ruled that the Baker administration must reissue the vape ban as an emergency regulation approved by the Department of Public Health, which triggers a required public hearing.