Owners of vape lounges say Chicago’s ban on using electronic cigarettes indoors is snuffing out part of their business. Some owners say they would not have signed leases if they’d known the city was going to put e-cigarettes under the same rules as tobacco cigarettes, DNAInfo.com reports.
The City Council on Jan. 15 banned e-cigarettes wherever smoking is prohibited, moving them behind the counter of retail stores and snuffing out sales to minors.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel got his way — by a vote of 45-to-4 — one month after aldermanic opposition forced him to settle for the weaker of two ordinances designed to curb teen smoking.
“We got a bigger place for people to come here and relax in, try different flavors. (The ban) threw a monkey wrench in our plans,” Daryl Cura, co-owner of Vape at 1722 N. Western Ave., told DNAInfo.com.
Other new shops affected include Prime Vape, which opened Saturday at 2140 W. Division St., and Level Vape, which opened a week earlier, at 1747 W. North Ave.
