It was a cold, rainy morning when I walked into “Happy Habits,” our local vape store in the Hudson Valley. It was the day after the federal government’s January 2 announcement of an effective ban on flavored vape cartridges.

The mood inside matched the weather, despite the brightly-lit JUUL display and many other colorful items. When I asked the friendly employee at the counter how the ban would affect the business, she immediately replied that more people would get sick from smoking. She added that jobs would be lost.