New NC vape law targets shops. Critics say kids are still exposed.

North Carolina lawmakers approved new regulations this month aimed at reducing youth access to nicotine products, creating new requirements for specialty vape shops and expanding state enforcement authority. But public health advocates say the law doesn’t do enough to keep nicotine products out of kids' hands.

The new rules, approved as part of the new state budget, require vape shops to: 

• Obtain a $1,000 state license tax per year. 
• Electronically verify customers' ages before allowing anyone younger than 21 inside. 
• Face tougher penalties for selling unauthorized vaping products. 

The law also expands state enforcement authority to investigate violations and seize illegal products. Certain provisions of the law go into effect in October, while others go into effect early next year.

Many convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores sell vapes and other nicotine products, too, but the new rules don't apply to them. Public health advocates want lawmakers to broaden the restrictions to include those kinds of retailers.

“It leaves out so much of what’s important and we need to do more to prevent kids from being able to just pick up snacks at a store and get a vape too,” said Meg Molloy, a campaign director at the North Carolina Alliance of Public Health Agencies’ Tobacco 21 Coalition, which pushes for more restrictions on retailers who sell nicotine products.

Molloy said lawmakers should have instead passed legislation that sponsors titled “Solly's Law.” The bipartisan proposal was named after Solomon "Solly" Wynn, a 15-year-old New Hanover County student who died in 2023 from an illness that family members say was related to vaping.

Solly's step-mother, Charlene Zorn, has traveled the state urging lawmakers to strengthen youth nicotine laws, saying she hopes no other family experiences what hers did. 

“Solomon may have experienced the worst,” Zorn said, “but the risks for all the kids is so huge, and not having laws that protect our kids, it’s not right.”

Solly's Law would require every retailer selling tobacco or nicotine products — not just specialty vape shops — to obtain a state permit. It also would update North Carolina law to raise the state's minimum tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21, matching federal law.

Molloy says that's the biggest difference.

The law approved this month leaves convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and other retailers that sell nicotine products under the same rules. 

Representatives of the Vapor Technology Association and Smoke Shop Association didn’t immediately respond to WRAL’s requests for comment.

Global nicotine pouch sales are projected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2025 to more than $40 billion by 2033 as tobacco companies invest heavily in the products, according to a report from Grand View Research, a San Francisco-based marketing firm.

Adam Goldstein, a family medicine physician at UNC Health and director of the Tobacco Intervention Programs at the UNC School of Medicine, said the health risks of vaping extend beyond addiction.

"Virtually almost every single mental health condition that an adolescent may have can be worsened by the product, and it may make it more difficult to actually get over."

Despite bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers, Solly's Law has never passed either chamber. Representatives of House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger didn’t immediately respond to WRAL questions about why lawmakers pursued the narrower budget approach instead of advancing Solly's Law, and whether broader nicotine regulations remain under consideration.

Nicotine exposure during adolescence can interfere with brain development, increasing the risk of addiction while affecting attention, learning and impulse control, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the American Lung Association, tobacco use kills about 14,200 North Carolinians each year. The 2022 North Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey found about 76,000 middle- and high-school students regularly use tobacco products, with e-cigarettes remaining the most commonly used tobacco product among youth.

“There are all sorts of tobacco and nicotine-related products that are putting our children's health at risk,” Zorn said. “Going and fixing a half of a piece of the puzzle when you have a 100-piece puzzle isn't going to get the puzzle completed,” Zorn said.