SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN — State Rep. Brad Paquette said he other members of Congress were blindsided Tuesday.

That day, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced she ordered a ban on the retail and online sale of flavored e-cigarettes in her state, the first sort of state ban in the nation. She also banned misleading marketing of vaping products.

Paquette said no legislators he knew were aware the move was going to be made.

The administrative ruling, once filed, will act as a law and be imposed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The ban is expected to go into effect in a few weeks. It will last six months and give Michigan e-cigarette sellers 30 days to adjust.

“No one knew about this was going to happen,” Paquette, who represents Niles, said. “We would have been a receptive partner for a permanent solution.”

Whitmer’s decision comes after she signed two strongly bipartisan bills into law in June that prohibited the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. It also comes after the MDHHS announced it would investigate six illnesses in Michigan allegedly caused by e-cigarette and vape use last week.

When Whitmer signed the June bills into law, she called e-cigarette usage a “health crisis.” On Tuesday, she said she decided ban flavored e-cigarettes to better protect children from the addictive and health-adverse products.

Paquette is a former Niles-area teacher. He said he saw the increase and impact of e-cigarette usage by children firsthand.

“I agree with our governor,” he said. “We don’t want our young people get addicted to nicotine.”

However, he said Whitmer is bypassing the legislature and prohibiting something already illegal for children.

He said officials met Thursday to figure out why Whitmer made the decision. He thinks Whitmer may be “shimmying” away from her 45-cent gas tax proposal, which has hit a road block in the legislature.

In an email statement to the Niles Daily Star, Joanne Schemahorn wrote she thinks Whitmer’s decision was “reckless.” She is the owner of Ecig-Works Vape Shop, a Michiana chain that sells e-cigarettes and has a storefront at 2436 S. 11th in Niles Charter Township.

“Clearly, she doesn’t care about small business or their employers,” she wrote.

Schemahorn wrote that once the e-cigarette law goes into effect, it will send hundreds of small businesses that employ thousands of people into “a frenzy.”

Two other Niles-area vape shops declined to comment for this story.

While both Schemahorn and Paquette believe giving e-cigarettes to minors is bad, Schemahorn wrote that she believes a black market is selling such products to children, not local businesses.

Paquette said he has not heard of such a black market, but he knows that children are obtaining e-cigarettes and getting addicted.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration found in 2018 that 3.62 million children nationwide used e-cigarettes, and according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, e-cigarettes are found to be harmful and addictive.