Troy LeBlanc bio:
When I got into this industry, I quickly realized just how much money we were spending with our wholesalers and I began looking for ways to potentially offset some of those costs by buying from ourselves. We then began to research what it was that people were looking for when it came to flavors and what exactly they needed. What we found is that we knew we could come out with great flavors that people really enjoyed and that’s when we started OPMH Distribution – which was just a juice company. That company spiral pretty quickly into something much bigger and became a full distribution company.
As a co-founder of the Kentucky Smoke Free Association, what drove you to start this organization?
With all the new legislation coming into the market, we felt that instead of having all the shops work against each other, that we should come together and pool our resources. Out of this idea of getting everyone to work together, we formed the Kentucky Smoke Free Association.
The KSFA is consumer advocacy group and trade organization with a focus on Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) through the use of personal vaporizers (electronic cigarettes) and other smokeless tobacco products shown to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with smoking.
We focus on the prevention of tobacco harm and seek to cooperate with the Kentucky Health Agencies to function for the greater health of the Kentucky public as well as monitoring the legislation for or against our movement of tobacco harm reduction. The KSFA was formed in 2015 to provide support and education regarding alternative methods of THR after seeing many years of failed attempts by our public health agencies to reduce smoking rates in the region.
Each of us smoked for many years but failed at quitting through countless attempts following our doctors’ advice at using NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy), cold-turkey, hypnosis, and many other alternative methods. None of us expected personal vaporizers (electronic cigarettes) to work but for each of us, it did with incredible results.
The Kentucky Smoke Free Association is a not for profit corporation comprised of consumers, retail vendors, manufacturers and supporters. Vape Lobbying Fund