Drawbacks of the E-Cigarette Ban
In a recent Oval Office press conference, President Donald Trump proposed plans to implement a wide-scale ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarette products after several deaths were found to come from mysterious pulmonary illnesses associated with vaping. This move prompted many states, such as New York and Michigan, to announce or even implement their own bans of flavored e-cigarettes. These bans foreshadow a possible trend of restricting these products in states across the country.
Despite how proposed legislation is targeting flavored e-cigarette products, the FDA has linked the unknown deaths and illnesses to Vitamin E acetate, an oil found in black-market marijuana products that is mostly used for CBD pain creams, and not the commercially sold vape products. Vitamin E acetate is used as a thickener in black market vaping products. It allows dealers to lower the THC content of their products by diluting them without noticeable impacts on the product. According to a New York Department of Health press release, Vitamin E Acetate was found in every cannabis-based product submitted for testing by patients in New York but was not found in any of the nicotine-based products tested. However, if people are addicted to recreational marijuana, they can check drug rehabs near anaheim and get the necessary treatment. Although the FDA has not determined a causal relationship between the use of vape products that have the oil and the unidentified illnesses, it still has strongly cautioned against their use.
Implementing similar public health campaigns targeted against nicotine vaping could lower its prevalence.
A significant problem with banning the commercial sale of flavored e-cigarette products is how it will encourage the growth of black markets for vape products. By instantly cutting off the supply of these products without altering their demand, the public could either turn to illegally purchasing flavored e-cigarettes liquids or creating and selling their own flavored liquid mixes. People already buy unregulated vape products over eBay and other social media channels in an attempt to save money. A rise in the unmanaged sale of products by unlicensed dealers, which is an issue already linked to numerous deaths and illnesses, is bound to cause more problems.
In addition to the formation of black markets, rapidly banning flavored e-cigarette products paired with unfair dramatizing of nicotine vaping’s association with recent deaths may even incentivize a return to conventional cigarettes. Health officials are still not completely certain of the exact cause of the deaths, with the FDA advising people to avoid vaping THC products and the CDC advising people to avoid vaping in general. These mixed messages paired with how many media sources do not mention that most of the reported deaths and illnesses associated with vaping have been connected to THC products with Vitamin E Acetate may lead to people switching back to smoking cigarettes to get their nicotine fix. After all, cigarettes can kill in decades while nicotine vapes reportedly can kill within years. Banning flavored e-cigarettes may just lead to people smoking cigarettes, exactly what e-cigarettes were intended to stop.
The FDA has linked the deaths and illnesses to Vitamin E acetate, an oil found in black-market marijuana products, not the commercially sold vape products.
Teenagers in middle school and high school use nicotine products at alarming rates; this rise in nicotine usage must undoubtedly be curbed. Due to the vaping culture’s strength among American youth, simply banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes will not change it. A recent Federal Survey found that 27.5% of high schoolers had used an e-cigarette product within 30 days of taking the survey. Early exposure to nicotine during the brain’s development can damage the parts of the brain that coordinate attention, learning, and memory, and can start life-long nicotine addictions. Banning such products will only cause them to find other outlets for nicotine. Instead, to determine the most effective solution to stopping teenage nicotine usage, wide-scale public health campaigns should be implemented to educate the public about the dangers of nicotine vapes.
Cigarette use was once widely prevalent in the United States. In 1953, 47% of American adults smoked cigarettes. As research focusing on the harms of cigarettes was widely publicized through similar wide-scale public health campaigns, cigarette usage steadily declined. People learned about nicotine’s strongly addictive property and about how second-hand exposure to cigarette smoke can be dangerous. With an educated public paired with stricter laws about where people can smoke, stigmas against cigarettes slowly spread in the United States.
By instantly cutting off the supply of these products without altering their demand, the public could either turn to illegally purchasing flavored e-cigarettes liquids or creating and selling their own flavored liquid mixes.
Implementing similar public health campaigns targeted against nicotine vaping could lower its prevalence. Mandating that nicotine vape packaging have vibrant warnings against the dangers of nicotine along with graphic images of what vaping can do to one’s lungs would cause people to hesitate when purchasing vape products; those who can benefit from nicotine e-cigarettes would still purchase them to wean off cigarettes and people who have not smoked would be discouraged from doing so. By mirroring policy that significantly reduced cigarette use rather than outright banning the sale of the majority of e-cigarette products, lawmakers could safely reduce unnecessary consumption of nicotine.