Emma Olson, a first-year majoring in English, recently messaged her DoorDash driver asking for a favor.
Olson, who is under 21 years old and unable to purchase nicotine products under new legislation, said she promised her DoorDasher a $20 cash tip if he bought her a disposable puff from the smoke shop next to the restaurant she ordered her food from.
“And they did it, so they got a $20 cash tip from me,” Olson said.
Olson is just one student who faces a challenge due to new legislation that requires people to be older than 21 to purchase tobacco or vape products. Students are finding it increasingly difficult to get access to nicotine products, and while some are taking the legislation as a chance to wean themselves off of nicotine, others are simply finding others ways to obtain the products.
Olson said prior to the law, she was a daily Juuler and spent between $20 and $30 a week on Juul pods. She said the law immediately changed her access to vape products.
“Literally the day or two after I saw the law, all of the smoke shops that I tried to go to were already carding,” Olson said. “It wasn’t a slow moving thing. They made it happen really quickly, which I was kind of surprised about.”
Several vape shops in Chapel and Durham declined to comment on how the law has affected customer demographics and ID-checking procedure.
Olson said she has used nicotine products less since the law was put into place. Though she still uses her friends’ Juuls almost daily, she said she no longer owns her own because it feels pointless if she can’t get pods regularly. She said the law has given her and one of her friends an extra push to quit using nicotine products altogether.
“We were already self-aware, and we already wanted to stop, but having the law change was kind of like a, ‘OK, we might as well quit now because how else are we going to get any?’” Olson said.
