New York Vape Shops Are Moving to Native American Reservations

Governor Andrew Cuomo's new $117 billion budget signed last April has set in place some questionable measures. Among other things, it bans flavored e-cigarette products.

 

However, despite the panic felt by most e-cigarette business owners, Taobi Silva is not among them. As a member of the Shinnecock Nation, a tribe of 1,500 people located outside Southampton on Long Island, he knows he has a unique opportunity. An article about filters pointed out that a member of an indigenous tribe can conduct business on their sovereign land, where New York's flavor ban does not apply.

 

In fact, many are taking advantage of this. There are many rumors that several vape shop owners around Buffalo and Niagara Falls have revealed that competitors have already crowded out and relocated to neighboring territories. One vape business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The best way to describe it is that a manufacturer in New York State is helping Native Americans establish a new business to sell [the manufacturer's] flavored e-liquids on sovereign land."

 

It's just a matter of time.

Andrew Osborne, vice president of the New York Vapor Association, stated that it is no longer a question of whether it will happen, but rather when it will happen. Osborne told Filter: "The reservation is undoubtedly part of that gray market and will remain so."

 

"In the days following the implementation of the flavor ban, people either called me or came into my shop to tell me that there were still available flavors in the reservation," he continued. "If I didn't have business partners, I would seriously consider moving to the reservation in some way."