Mercer County’s Vape Shop Restrictions Miss the Mark on Public Health

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Key Points:

• Proposed Limits: Mercer County, WV considers restricting vape shop numbers and advertising under its public nuisance ordinance.

• Selective Targeting: Plan singles out vape shops while leaving alcohol and cigarette retailers untouched.

• Youth Trends: CDC data show West Virginia teen vaping and smoking have fallen sharply since 2019; current smoking is at historic lows.

• Strong Compliance: FDA checks since 2020 show only a 7.6 percent violation rate – well below the federal 20 percent threshold.

• Adult Impact: 20.4 percent of West Virginia adults smoke; vaping is mainly an adult behavior and is far less harmful than smoking.

• Policy Risk: Restricting safer alternatives while leaving cigarettes widely available sends the wrong health message and protects the cigarette market.

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Commissioners in Mercer County, West Virginia are considering restricting the number of vape shops in the county, as well as implementing regulations on retailer advertising. The proposal follows a similar ordinance that passed in neighboring Raleigh County. While Mercer County does not have a similar zoning ordinance to enact such restrictions, the county plans to move the measure forward under its public nuisance ordinance.

While keeping age-restricted stores away from kid-heavy neighborhoods can be a reasonable goal, specifically targeting vape shops – while ignoring retailers of other age-restricted goods such as alcohol or combustible tobacco products – is a step in the wrong direction. The policy also ignores state and national data showing that youth vaping is declining and unfairly punishes responsible retailers and the adults who rely on e-cigarettes and other tobacco harm reduction products to remain smoke-free. Instead of restricting access, Mercer County should strengthen existing tobacco control programs, including education initiatives and retailer compliance checks, to weed out bad actors without harming adults and small businesses.

Simply put, this legislation is not needed. Retailers in Mercer County are already performing well at preventing underage sales. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration routinely employs underage decoys to attempt tobacco purchases during compliance checks. Since January 2020, the FDA has conducted 351 inspections in the county, resulting in just 27 violations – only 7.6 percent of inspections – well below the federal threshold of 20 percent.

Youth vaping is at record lows in the Mountain State, and there is no evidence that the 2019 peak in youth vaping increased cigarette smoking. According to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, in 2023, 48.8 percent of West Virginia high schoolers had ever tried vaping, and 27 percent were current users – down sharply from 2019, when those figures were 62.4 percent and 35.7 percent, respectively. Even better, youth smoking is at historic lows: in 2023, just 28.3 percent of high schoolers had ever tried smoking and only 6.7 percent were current smokers. Two decades ago, those numbers were 62.8 percent and 28.5 percent. Between 2003 and 2023, ever-use of cigarettes fell by 54.9 percent, and current use dropped by 76.5 percent.

The ordinance would disproportionately harm adults. In 2023, over 289,000 West Virginians – 20.4 percent of adults – were smokers, well above the national average of 12.1 percent. That same year, 10.1 percent of adults vaped, again higher than the national average of 7.8 percent. More than half of adult vapers were between 25 and 44 years old, showing that vaping is primarily an adult behavior. Despite the rhetoric, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and oral nicotine pouches are far less harmful than smoking, and a substantial body of evidence shows they help smokers quit. The FDA has even authorized 39 e-cigarette products as “appropriate for the protection of public health.”

West Virginia has recognized the promise of harm reduction, with legislation introduced in 2024 and 2025 to reduce tax rates on heated tobacco products – an approach proven to reduce smoking rates in countries like Japan and Hungary. Yet the Mercer County proposal ignores the fact that it is combustion, not nicotine, that causes most tobacco-related harm. Under the ordinance, retailers selling far deadlier cigarettes would be unrestricted, while those selling safer products would face new barriers. This sends the wrong message to the nearly half a million West Virginians who smoke, potentially leading them to believe vaping is more dangerous than smoking.

Rather than imposing unnecessary and harmful restrictions, Mercer County Commissioners should press the state to invest more of its tobacco tax and settlement revenue into cessation, education, and prevention programs. In 2023, for every $1 West Virginia received from cigarette taxes and settlement payments, it spent less than a penny on tobacco control.

This proposal is a solution in search of a problem. Youth vaping and smoking are already declining, retailer compliance is strong, and thousands of adult smokers in Mercer County still need access to safer alternatives. Restricting vape shops will not meaningfully protect youth – but it will reduce harm reduction access, mislead the public, and protect the cigarette market. Mercer County should reject this ordinance and focus on proven strategies that actually improve public health.

Nothing in this analysis is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of Tobacco Harm Reduction 101.