DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) — Vape shop shelves across Pennsylvania are looking a lot emptier, as enforcement of Act 57 officially began Monday, restricting which vaping products can legally be sold in the Commonwealth.

At Union Vapors 570 in Dickson City, the impact is already visible, with store products nearly wiped out.

The law, signed by Governor Josh Shapiro last year, establishes an approved directory for electronic nicotine products.

The bipartisan law establishes a state directory requiring vape products to meet certain federal FDA criteria before they can legally be sold in Pennsylvania.

As a result, some vape shops, including Union Vapors 570, have had to remove around 95% of their inventory.

Co-owner of Union Vapors 570, Gage Lewis said the restrictions could create a ripple effect, limiting what wholesalers can distribute, what businesses can stock, and ultimately what customers can buy.

“It creates a registry for vape products. So, the state is currently trying to regulate how many vapes are in circulation, who can get them, who can sell them. And also control what you brands are in the industry. What that means for vaping is as a manufacturer, you have to register your product with the state, you’d have to say, hey, here’s what it is, here’s our name or branding, here’s a little bit of money. Then the state will have the ultimate power to approve or deny any of these products, which will then obviously trickle down to us at the vape shop level, meaning that we won’t be able to get it from the wholesalers. Therefore, our customers won’t be able to get it from us,” said Lewis.

While more products could eventually be added to the approved list, Lewis is skeptical. For now, he said Union Vapors 570 will continue selling the one approved brand, along with vaping hardware.

“In the world of vaping at the time, there was so many brands that came out from, different juice brands to disposables. When you think of vape, you think of a certain brand, you think of Juul, you could think of Flair, or Foger or something like that. But none of those were on the list,” said Lewis.

“Since there’s only one approved brand and there’s no clear answer, the bill is very confusing to read without hiring a legal team, to help digest all of the terminology that’s being used. It’s very hard for an average shop to just stay open. We’re going to sell what is approved on that list, which is one brand. We’re going to carry that. We’re going to carry some of the hardware that’s still approved. That doesn’t make any nicotine products, just the actual hardware itself,” said Lewis.

Lewis fears the restrictions will push customers to buy vape products online or out of state rather than quit vaping, ultimately hurting local businesses.

“I do know that with this change, there’s going to be a lot of customers, ourselves included, that are going to find ways to get our product. If you think back way back to the prohibition days when they took away booze, people found a way to do it. It’s the same thing with vaping. People are going to find a way to do it. People do not want to go back to combustible tobacco. They don’t want to smell the way that they did. They don’t want the health decline that they did when they were smoking. So, people are going to drive out of state. They’re going to order online,” said Lewis.

After learning about Act 57 in June, Lewis said the shop began exploring new options, including a café-style set-up and wholesale partnerships with other local businesses.

“We were kind of talking about opening a small cafe here in the shop, just to have it be like coffee. You know, we’re addicted to nicotine and caffeine, so make the best of both. But now we’re going to pivot heavily into the cafe part. Maybe in the near future, people are going to get to see pictures and things on our social media about this new project that we’re starting up. And it’s going to be a coffee bar. We’re going to turn this place into a nice venue. We’re going to have coffee. We’re going to sell wholesale like baked goods and stuff like that. We’re going to work with other local businesses to get their stuff kind of more talked about,” said Lewis.

Violating Act 57 can carry strict penalties, including a $500 fine per unlisted product, higher fines for repeat offenses, and possible confiscation and destruction of prohibited items.