Three men puffed smoke from their glossy vape pens outside Gainesville’s city hall in defeat.
The city commission passed an ordinance Thursday banning the use of electronic cigarettes where smoking is already prohibited.
The men — Kevin Skipper, Terryl Bowen and Eric Lievers — stood before Mayor Ed Braddy and a panel of commissioners in an attempt to stop or delay the decision.
“You still have the opportunity tonight to make a decision to table this discussion and let us come back and present to you some facts, because it doesn’t sound like you’ve had all of them,” Skipper, the president of the nonprofit organization VISTA Truth that promotes vaping business, said to the commissioners. He suggested holding an informational workshop about e-cigarettes in a month.
In a public debate, before addressing the ordinance, Braddy said attendees could speak in favor of e-cigarettes but will most likely not change the decision.
Braddy’s words proved true: Skipper’s proposal was unaccepted by the commissioners, and the ordinance had already been approved unanimously in the first round.
Commissioner at large Lauren Poe said people would not like the use of e-cigarettes in public because it is still an addictive substance.
“We do not want this product to be used in public environments where there may be underage people that do not know the difference between a cigarette and a vape device,” he said.
Poe said things might change in the next five years if public perception of e-cigarettes changes.
“Right now, I don’t think this is right for Gainesville,” he said.
Skipper said his biggest concern was having e-cigarettes lumped in the same category as tobacco products, which, unlike e-cigarettes, have been proven lethal.
“We don’t deal with perception, we deal with reality,” he said. “And the reality is that 1,100 Americans die every day from smoking or some sort of tobacco-related illness.”
Commissioner at large Helen Warren said the ordinance is simply bringing Gainesville in line with Alachua County regulations. With the exception of minors, she said, no one is banning the use of e-cigarettes in places where smoking tobacco products aren’t already banned.
She assured Skipper: “Vape on, man.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/21/2014]
