Now that New York has become the first nail in the coffin of the vaping industry by outlawing flavored e-cigarettes (and New Jersey seems about to follow suit), let’s think of exactly how this is going to affect people who actually vape.

Of the 300-some-odd deaths due to vaping that have been reported across the country, there are reports suggesting those lung infections were not associated with the type of vaping that is meant to replace smoking cigarettes. Many of those lung infections may have been caused by smoking things that contained THC when, alternatively, people who are looking to give up smoking are not looking to get high.

The overwhelming majority of people who have used vaping as a substitute for smoking have only received benefits so far. But you won’t hear that reported in the media because the government wants to kill this industry. There are various and sundry conspiracy theories as to why the government does not like vaping (most involving money and their inability to get their hands on it) but those are beside the point. The fact is, vaping, as a nicotine reduction or nicotine replacement therapy, has saved many many lives. The millions of lives that have been saved because of people quitting smoking are worth the few hundred lives lost because of dumb people putting who knows what inside their lungs to get high.

As usual the government is penny wise and pound foolish.

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