Orange County discusses zoning tobacco, smoke shops

Orange County District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson has heard a variety of complaints from parents across the county regarding vape shops and their close proximity to schools. 

An example of this would be SkyWalker Smoke Shop, a smoke and vape shop fewer than 500 feet away from Olympia High School’s baseball field. 

Wilson said this proximity, combined with flavored products and sometimes a lack of age verification, are increasing the likelihood of teen vaping, impulse purchases and addiction. 

“The placement near schools for these smoke shops and retail outlets is not coincidental,” she said. “It’s very much a marketing tactic. … Vape retailers often locate near schools to maximize exposure to youth and utilize high-traffic areas to target students. If you are a businessperson who claims not to want to market to children, why are you using childlike names, Star Wars characters, bright colors? … It is a targeted marketing ploy, and it’s successful.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.2 million students use tobacco in the United States, an alarming number to Wilson, parents and even teens. 

On Tuesday, April 7, Wilson asked the Orange County Board of County Commissioners to research ways an amendment can be made to the Orange County Use Table that would prohibit smoke shops from opening 500 to 1,000 feet away from public schools. 

As a result, she said, teens would be less exposed, decreasing the initiation rate of teenagers who smoke. 

Board members were supportive of Wilson’s suggestion and so were parents and teens. 

Horizon High junior Gabriel Serrato said vaping has become normalized, casual and desensitized — so much so, he said it’s not uncommon to see his peers vaping in the school’s bathrooms, hallways and even classrooms. 

He believes advertisement on storefronts, family members who smoke, peer pressure and mental health all are causes for this wide use. 

“Teens think vaping and alcoholism is a way to escape their mental-health problems,” he said. “It’s a way to get away from everything they’re going through in their life —that might be school, that might be their family issues — and it’s just something we need to emphasize, (because) it’s only going to make It worse.” 

With Wilson’s initiative to look into buffer zones, Serrato hopes vape and tobacco products become harder to access, lowering the amount of teenagers who smoke. 

“It’s not a miracle proposal, but it’s a huge step in the right direction,” he said. 

Horizon High junior Adi Subramanian said she’s seen the negative effects of smoking on close friends. She hopes buffer zones can be implemented to stop students from going through a “lifetime of horrible addiction and a really bad spiral that’s extremely difficult to get out of,” she said. 

Subramanian said parents need to become educated on the effects of vaping to help prevent teenagers from trying it. 

“The more we emphasize the impacts of doing drugs, doing vaping and drinking alcohol, the more we emphasize the negative impacts of that, the more educated everyone is and the more everyone stays abstinent,” she said. “Students need to stay focused on their goals … and not let these distractions such as the vape shop influence them and influence their decisions, especially in partaking in drugs, vaping, alcoholism, all that.” 

Evan Quiquia, junior at Windermere High, agrees. 

“A lot of students don’t even think about the risks (of smoking) because of how normalized it is between teenagers,” he said. “Creating these buffer zones and more regulations on it would create a safer environment at schools.”

His father, Ivan Quiquia, said he’s concerned about the chemicals in vapes, and how long-term effects still are unknown. He hopes Orange County’s research on the topic helps bring attention to the matter and helps teens stay away from smoking.