New e-cigarette regulations taking effect in New Mexico

E-cigarettes will be included in New Mexico’s indoor smoking ban starting Friday. The amendment suggests a ‘reasonable distance’ between smokers and public businesses.

Doa Ana County moved forward with its own stricter vaping ban earlier tis week, when County Commissioners voted to expand the county’s smoking ordinance to the devices. The ban pushes e-cigarette smokers 50-feet from county property and public businesses.

“The state law sets a standard, in this case “a reasonable distance,” wrote Marisol Diaz, the Director of Prevention for the Center for Health Innovation at New Mexico’s Public Health Institute, in an email. “These local ordinances are critically important because they allow local communities to decide what that looks like for them, what is best for their community.”

Doa Ana’s ban will take effect 30 days after it is recorded by the County Clerk.

The state of Texas does not have a similar statewide law, but several cities and counties within the state (including El Paso) do.

“Should you be able to walk into a restaurant and smoke a cigarette? No. Should you be able to walk into a restaurant and smoke an e-cigarette, or vape? No,” says Jonathan Golden, the owner of smoke shop Golden Vapor Co. in East El Paso.

Golden agrees with some indoor bans, but doesn’t think vaping should be treated like tobacco.

“If you really think about it, there is nothing in an e-cigarette that is tobacco, except for what is extracted from tobacco which is nicotine.”

Some local groups are still pushing to continue decreasing the community’s exposure to e-cigarettes.

“I think the use of cigarettes in these spaces has really decreased,” says Bianca de Len, a program officer at the Paso del Norte Health Foundation. “Electronic cigarettes are so new that they’re hard. They’re not as visible. You can really hide one just in the palm of your hand.”

She says that can make enforcement of El Paso’s ban tricky. Plus, she says that many don’t understand the dangers of vaping.

“There are some surveys out that show that young people who use these electronic devices don’t even know that there’s nicotine in these devices.”

Golden believes the perceived dangers associated with e-cigarettes are overstated.

Regulations aside, the battle over these devices, and the freedom to use them, lives on.