The government won’t leave vapes alone

New Jersey government hates vapes. When smoking was recently banned in all parks and on all beaches they made sure to include e-cigarettes. A move that truly made no sense considering no one has shown any carcinogens in the mist produced by vaping. For years e-cigarettes have been included in the indoor smoking ban in workplaces, bars and restaurants in the Garden State. Again, to ban something just because you wonder if there might someday be proven a second hand health risk when you can't even yet prove a firsthand health risk is specious at best. It certainly can't be argued that it's an unpleasant odor. In fact a big complaint of anti-e-cigarette crusaders is that the flavors and scents attract young people, with things like bubblegum and fruit and candy tastes and smells.

Now it turns out the federal government hates vapes too. The US Food and Drug Administration just announced historic action again more than 1,300 retailers and several major manufacturers for luring youth to the devices. Says FDA commish Dr. Scott Gottlieb, "I use the word epidemic with great care. E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous -- and dangerous -- trend among teens. The disturbing and accelerating trajectory of use we're seeing in youth, and the resulting path to addiction, must end. It's simply not tolerable."

Path to addiction? I'm sorry, haven't we overwhelmingly heard how this is a path from addiction? So many smokers have broken the habit by switching their nicotine delivery system to e-cigs, free of known cancer causing agents. The nicotine may still be there, but nicotine is not what causes cancer in smokers. Plus many vapers slowly ween off the nicotine down to little or nothing. I personally know more smokers who have been helped by vapes than hurt. Could there someday be something in vapes that proves to be harmful? Sure. But until they actually know this, we shouldn't regulate based on speculation.

Gottlieb is warning of the possibility of requiring companies to alter their marketing practices (think Joe Camel outrage of the 90's), and removing some if not all of their flavored products from the market. This could happen in a sudden policy change with the immediate removal of most of these flavored products from shelves.

"I'll be clear. The FDA won't tolerate a whole generation of young people becoming addicted to nicotine as a tradeoff for enabling adults to have unfettered access to these same products," Gottlieb said.

How about let parents do their jobs? I know that's a novel concept these days. Not to shock the village that thinks it's responsible for raising my child, but if I don't do my job as a parent then I have no one to blame but myself. To deprive adults from enjoying the vapes they've become accustomed to and that have helped them eliminate their cancer causing smoking habit in the name of government playing daddy is arrogant and short-sighted. Government, please, until there's hard science, leave vaping alone.

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