A g u i d e t o t h e t r u c k e e M e A d o w s ’ vA p i n g s u b c u lt u r e STORY & PHOTOS bY JeRI CHAdweLL-SIngLeY jeric@ newsreview.com
lot has been written about e-cigarettes—or “vapes” as they’re known these days—since they first appeared on store shelves in the U.S. during the mid-2000s. A Google search for “e-cigarettes” comes back with nearly 16 million results, including abstracts for scientific studies, advertisements from sellers, blog posts by users, and newspaper and magazine articles. From the small, local daily papers to big, national publications like Rolling Stone—everyone’s had something to say or some question to pose about vaping at some point during the last 10 years. Common themes range from the potential health risks or benefits to predictions for future regulations on this currently largely unregulated industry. (It wasn’t until the 2015 legislative session that Nevada enacted a law via Senate Bill 225 to bar businesses from selling vaping devices and e-liquids to minors.) Much remains to be seen about vaping, and there’s not a lot of consensus to be found among the public, or even the scientific community. And the media doesn’t help things with its proclivity toward hype and hyperbole, alternately proclaiming with breakneck speed the undeniable detriments or advantages of vaping. But in the meantime, the vaping industry continues to grow rapidly around nation and in the Truckee Meadows. Along with it, a vibrant subculture—unknown even to many vape users—is growing too. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I’m one of those vape users who was unaware of emerging vape culture. (In a 2015 report, the CDC estimated that as of 2014 nearly four percent of U.S. adults regularly used vapes.) I finally committed to switching to e-cigs a few years ago after nearly a decade of smoking. I tried them in the early days when short-lived versions that ostensibly looked and felt like the real deal (called cig-alikes) still ruled the market and the 12 | RN&R |
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first generation of “vape pens”—the long, cylindrical ones with tanks for the nicotine-laced liquid—sold for more than $100 dollars and leaked like a sieve. By the time I switched for good, the technology was in its second or third generation and had finally come far enough to provide me with a satisfying alternative to real cigarettes. Also, the price had come down significantly—in part, I suspect, because vape pens were already becoming old hat as more committed vape users began moving on to larger, more powerful, box-looking devices called “mods.” Mods work in much the same way as vape pens—both rely on a battery to engage a cotton-wrapped coil that heats the e-liquid (usually made from propylene glycol, glycerin, water, nicotine, and flavoring) into an inhalable aerosol or mist. But mods are much more powerful and thus yield a larger cloud of vapor. And the vaping subculture revolves around mods. I set out to visit local shops to get a better feel for that culture. To make my quest for knowledge a manageable
task, I decided to visit only stores that specialize in vapes and skipped the ones that also sell cigarettes and other tobacco products. In all, I spent time at 15 vape shops, where I learned more about everything from industry standards for e-liquids and equipment to the importance of vape shop environments and events. (As a side note, I’ve little doubt I missed some stores and that new ones will have opened before the paper goes to press.)
E-liquids At Slushee’s Vapor Headquarters, 2005 Sierra Highlands Drive, owners and spouses Kenneth and Jacquelyn Webster were among the first to start selling their own line of e-liquid—which cognitive and brain sciences Ph.D. candidate Jacquelyn decided to learn how to make in late 2013 after meeting an e-cig vendor while in England for a school-related conference. “He taught me all about it and told me everything, and he was very informative,” she said. “And I bought my first e-cigarette from him. … And when I got back to the states, I couldn’t find a juice [e-liquid] that didn’t have, like, additives or sucralose or ethyl alcohol or things that I knew—like artificial sweeteners—things that I didn’t want to be vaping. I couldn’t find a clean vape. So I researched it and figured out how to make it on my own. And then people started wanting it.” In August 2014, the Websters turned it into a business, which has since expanded to include a wide variety of vaping hardware and e-liquids from other manufacturers. Webster
explained that e-liquid manufacturing in the United States has grown rapidly over the last few years to meet the demand for USA-made products that satisfy vape users’ desire for what she calls a “clean vape.” These days, it’s a point of pride among vape shops to offer only e-liquids made in the United States. On a visit to School of Vape, 580 E. Plumb Lane, I learned why from general manager, Nathan Evans. “We only sell premium e-juice that’s made in an ISO-7 or higher lab,” Evans said. “We don’t sell anything that’s not made in the USA … and we do not sell any juice that contains diacetyl.” ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. It’s a non-governmental body comprised of people from 164 member countries who come together to develop voluntary standards for various industries, including manufacturing. An ISO rating for a lab is basically an accreditation level it receives based on technical competency and cleanliness. The diacetyl to which Evans referred is an organic compound with a buttery flavor. It’s added to some foods and has been linked to “popcorn worker’s lung” or “flavorings-related lung disease.” It’s also present in small amounts in some sweeter, dessertflavored e-liquids. According to Evans, it has become an increasingly serious concern for vape users over the last few years and, in response, a lot of e-liquid manufacturers are reformulated their products to omit the ingredient. The fear of afflictions like popcorn lung and also growing popular demand from brand-loyal customers has led many local shops to follow
in the Websters’ footsteps by creating house lines of e-liquid. In fact, the majority of the shops I visited offer an exclusive line—many with the option to create personalized flavors. All of the lines are advertised as “lab-made.” At Slushee’s, the Websters have started receiving their own brand of e-liquid, complete with slick new labels, from a lab in California. One of the newest shops in town, Midtown Vape, 600 S. Virginia St., is predictably Midtown hip with clean, Spartan décor, high vaulted ceilings and a house line of e-liquid in long squeezable bottles featuring names like Hidden Dragon, Basic B and Wolf. Over on the west end of town is another newcomer to the vape scene. Mathew Gibbs opened Lord Vapor, 9570 S. McCarran Blvd., in September 2015. In addition to Star Wars memorabilia, the shop offers custom vinyl stickers for mods and a house line of e-liquids with movie references built into the names, including a tobacco and bourbon flavor called He Shot First and a tobacco and menthol flavor called Force Choke. “The way I’ve been running it is, I come up with flavors,” Gibbs said. “And while we’re in the process of designing labels for flavors that we think our customers are going to like, we actually manufacture some of those potential flavors [by commissioning it from the lab he uses], and we place them out here for our customers to kind of give us a baseline—if they like certain stuff or they want to change certain stuff—so we can kind of customize our juices to our customers’ specific profiles without having to do an individual juice for every individual person. And I do custom orders.”
