New Jersey ranks sixth in U.S. for this dubious distinction

A generation ago, you would smell cigarette smoke just about everywhere you went. Even growing up as a child, I can remember walking into a doctor's office and finding ashtrays in the lobby and in the examining room.

Often a doctor would come in smoking a cigarette. Yes, that actually happened…Often. As time went on cigarette smoking became less and less popular and more and more of an evil taboo in American society.

In 2006 Big Tobacco lost a major lawsuit to the American Cancer Society and other plaintiffs. Costing the industry millions and millions of dollars. In the fall of 2023, the tobacco industry was forced to post eye-catching signs in 220,000 retail stores nationwide warning the public of the dangers of cigarette smoking.

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With all of the negative messages in the media, it’s no wonder that cigarette smoking among the youth seems almost nonexistent today.

But there are other ways to get your tobacco and other forms of fixes. Introducing vaping. It’s been around for at least 20 years. Long enough for it to catch on with the youth. And the youth of New Jersey has embraced it fondly. A whopping 25% of young people in New Jersey vape.

That puts us at the sixth highest rate of any state in the country. Whether it’s tobacco or marijuana young people are vaping at a much higher rate than smoking actual cigarettes. It doesn’t stink like cigarette or marijuana smoke. Sometimes it even has a pleasant floral aroma.

It doesn’t have the same ominous and or dangerous appearance as tobacco cigarettes, or weed does. Therefore, it’s easier to get away with.

Young people have always experimented with things that they probably shouldn’t do. Vaping seems less harmful and more innocuous than traditional smoking. And if your parents ask,

"What’s in that thing you're puffing on"?

You can say "oh it’s just, a mint vape, no harm”.

Well, lots of experts say there is harm in vaping, especially in young people.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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