Vaping has been a hot topic lately. There has been a big push from the FDA to crack down on underage vaping, and here in New York Governor Cuomo announced he plans to ban all flavored e-cigarettes in an attempt to stop kids from using them. What are your thoughts? What do you think should be done, if anything? Do you vape?

I wrote an entire 2-page article for a publication I write for at my college on this topic, but for the sake of this thread I'll try to keep my thoughts brief. I do vape, but very infrequently. (You only need to be 18 to purchase tobacco / nicotine products in Broome County, where I go to college.) A ban on vaping wouldn't really have much of an impact on me - however, as a libertarian, I am firmly against it. Banning vaping because too many underage kids are doing it is idiotic and is not a real solution to the problem. I would support harsher punishments for businesses that sell to people that are underage, or other forms of legislation to keep nicotine away from teenagers. Preventing adults from using these products, however, is dumb. Adults have the right to choose what they want to put into their bodies.

I don't understand vaping... I've seen videos of them exploding in peoples pants and catching on fire! Why not just smoke tobacco like a normal person?



Ban or not, people will still find a way to vape just like they seem to find ways drink liquor as a minor and get a hold of crack pipes.

Kids like to experiment, therefore, good luck stopping them. When I was in school so many kids had their hands on marijuana and other sorts of drugs.

Haha wow, since kids are vaping, let's just ban vaping altogether! I am heavily against this proposal. If they ban vaping, they're just going to move to actual tobacco or something. It will have no effect. You can't ban it outright, and keep people who are LEGALLY following the rules by being of age and doing it, make them stop. That's just illogical. If you want kids to stop vaping, be on the lookout for them more, and check ID's. Parents should make sure their kids aren't vaping at all. 

I guess we should just ban driving since you have to be a certain age to drive and people under that age sometimes do it, huh?

JigSaw : Vaping is healthier (as far as we know), doesn't have the tar at rat poison and other crap in it that cigarettes have. Mine has never exploded in my pants, but it has leaked on me multiple times, which is really annoying. I really only do it as a social thing, I'm not hooked on it or anything, and I don't really get much out of it. It's just fun to do when I'm drinking with friends, or I'm at the bar, and everyone else is also doing it.

Lexatom : Exactly my point. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that way!

tgags123 : 19 year old at the bar? I’m callin the cops

Personally, I don’t vape. I see no point to. Everyone I knew Juuls instead of vaping, and they’re all hooked on nicotine. Vaping won’t mess you up like cigs or any of the “alternatives”, but there’s not really anything to gain from it anyway.

Plus, I’m not exactly putting myself in social situations where everyone is vaping anyway.

But blowing smoke rings is cool. I like seeing those videos.

It's OK, if they ban vaping, kid's'll just go back to huffing paint. At least they won't be using nicotine, right?

I remember keeping up with the vote behind Marijuana in Utah. My Church campaigned against a particular bill because of worry over the bill's too liberal nature in dispensing the marijuana. I frankly agree with that position, even though the bill was passed. A well-intentioned mistake can cause much damage.

What does this have to do with vaping? Well, consider things on a case by case basis. Something that may please or benefit the whole at first may grow out of hand and lead to issues below the belt. The adults who have the choice of what to put into their bodies have a moral obligation to look out for the younger generation, and to help them make decisions based on research and common sense.

If Jimmy (18) goes out in vapes in a legal, public place, Johnny (12), his brother, sees it and because his parents don't want to offend Jimmy, they let Johnny assume vaping is cool. Johnny steals Jimmy's ecigs and brings them to class and puffs in front of the teacher. Other children like the smell. Now a campaign brews in the background. Students refuse to do their homework unless Johnny "imports" these ecigs and lets them have a smoke. If Johnny doesn't apologize, best case scenario has him kicked out of school.

A series of small choices sets off a storm that leads to potentially very serious deliquency, and if not that, potential depression and isolation. Yes, this may be considered an extreme example...Yet it is a possibility, one of many, many things that could go wrong simply because his brother made the seemingly insignificant choice to smoke an ecig in front of him.

Very small things can have huge impacts. I recall a story about students being kicked out of college for being at a party where a doobie was passed around. Even if they hadn't smoked it, kicked out. Bam. The entire course of their life was altered because they had stayed at the party and only touched or passed around a doobie. Was the college's policy too extreme? Possibly. But that is irrelevant as to whether or not they should have done it. What matters is that their lives were not quite as good as they could have been if they hadn't done what they did. They lived with regret and disappointment over one small decision, a decision that should not have hurt so much...yet did.

Edit: Cool ok just eat my post Vizzed why don't you now I have to type all of this again...


supernerd117 :

You bring up some good points, but I don't think people who DO follow the rules and smoke safely should be punished by having their rights taken away from them because some people couldn't follow the rules themselves. 

Another thing to think about, if they do happen to ban vaping, think about how much that crime rate is going to go up. You'd think we'd learn from the prohibition...

Lexatom : Site ate your post, bro.

EDIT - Nevermind, too slow.

Lexatom : I agree. To set some rule or consequence and not reward those who follow the rules is wrong. Those who are vaping and following the rules ought to be allowed to, and maybe even praised for it. Prohibition didn’t work. Why didn’t it work? In my opinion, it was because the consequences for drinking were magnified by those who enforced the law. People were often embarrassed publicly for drinking, and iirc, drinking went UP during Prohibition. If you try to force someone to follow the law, they won’t tend to follow it because they want to.

While it should definitely remain illegal for minors, I think it's better if kids vape rather than smoke actual cigarettes as it contains less harmful chemicals.

I would definitely not support a complete ban. On the one hand bans tend to be ineffective in deterring people, particularly kids who may see it as all the more reason to try it as a way to rebel. A ban could also hurt people who vape as an alternative to tobacco due to it being less harmful and less costly, of which I know many examples.

I personally do not have much of a stake in it though as I've made it a point to stay away from smoking in any form.

I'm glad that vaping is being discouraged in advertisements, because vaping is really really dumb. Like, cool if you're into that, whatever, but the fact of the matter is that you can still get addicted, and you could probably damage your lungs if you do it too much. Sure, cancer might not get you, but you'll still mess yourself up pretty bad.

I'm all for having people do what they want, I don't think that sort of thing should be illegal, but it should definitely be discouraged.

I've never smoked before (except turkey) but I've always wanted to try vaping. Every time I'm near someone who's vaping, I smell it and I actually love it.

I don't think it should be banned, but I it feel that way because it's going to open way more doors for criminality.

I don't believe there's anything healthy about smoking, so taking out a few chemicals and calling it "healthier" I think is the entire problem. That's why it's becoming so popular, but taking out some secondary ingredients and keeping the addictive and cancerous ingredients isn't helping anyone. To be healthier is not necessarily to actually be healthy.

Except now they can say that it is, and they can have different methods and aromas, and that's what's dangerous about it. After so many commercials growing up where I saw it advertised to fight big tobacco on TV and those ads claiming mine could be the generation to end smoking, the companies have come out with vaping and there's been a new rise in popularity. Smoking is smoking. Honestly, alleged gateway drug or not, marijuana is far healthier. I think it smells even worse, to be honest, but I'll advocate people do that over killing themselves with tobacco products lol

danielbelitch : There are no known cancer-causing agents in vape juice. It's just propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nictoine, and whatever ingredients they use for each individual flavor. Cigarettes, on the other hand, contain over 7,000 chemicals, over 60 of which are known to cause cancer. I'm not saying vaping is healthy, but there is no doubt it is significantly healthier.

tgags123 : To be fair, while not cancer causing, there's rumor about people who vape a whole lot still getting an oily buildup on the inside of their lungs that never comes out. Whether that's just an extreme from overuse, general truth, or propaganda from the tobacco companies, I can't say and I don't know enough to take a position on it. But that's the rumor.

Well, banning flavored vape juice or liquid to stop minors from vaping that is the equivalent of banning flavored alchohol in an attempt to stop kids from drinking...at the end of the day just because you ban something doesn't mean you'll stop people from getting it it just means to have it you'll have to pay twice as much. Sadly banning flavored vape juice/liquid won't stop minors from vaping, minors vape to look cool in my opinion and all the people I've seen vape do it because in part of the flavor but also to do tricks with the ridiculous amount of smoke you can produce. Vaping is a fade(or trend) eventually it'll fade out almost as fast as it started. Whats really dumb is people think vaping is a healthy alternative to smoking lol but thats another debate for another day. Back on the subject at hand all you can do is educate the youth on vaping just like we educate the youth on alcohol and drugs, you can't force them to not do drugs or drink or in this case vape, but you can educate them on the dangers and health hazards associated with drugs, alcohol and in this case vaping, if they choose to do it then really its on them punish them to the full extent of the law if they have been educated on the laws and the health hazards it poses, but don't outright ban the flavors but to play devils advocate they can pull the flavors legally if they can prove it targets children directly , a while back camel had to take the image of a camel off there cigarettes because they proved it targeted kids 

tgags123 : Hmm, all right, my mistake then. I may have been thinking of the rumor m0ssb3rg935 mentioned. I remember seeing something on my local news station from which I drew most of my talking points. Don't remember exactly what they said, to be honest.

Still a shame they opted to still include the addictiveness of the nicotine, though. If the cigarette were to receive an overhaul, you'd think the first thing they'd want to do (if they cared) is to remove the burden of addiction.

danielbelitch : Well the reason they have nicotine is because they were originally designed for people to quit smoking cigarettes. The nicotine is the addictive part, so if vape juice didn't have nicotine, it wouldn't help people quit, because they would still go through nicotine withdrawals. Nicotine is also the ingredient that gives you the head rush, which is the feeling that a lot of people like.


m0ssb3rg935 : I have heard that as well, but I haven't seen any conclusive or concrete studies about it. It's still something that's up in the air about whether or not there is any direct correlation. I wouldn't be surprised though, inhaling hot vapor into your lungs is bound to cause some negative effects.

Divine Aurora : I completely agree about the first part. I do think vaping is a healthIER alternative to smoking, but obviously it still isn't healthy. And I also agree that we need to include vaping in our education and talk about it in health classes like we do with drinking, smoking, and drugs.

While I am mostly indifferent to the matter (since I've made it a point to not smoke in any form), I do think stricter measures need to be taken against vaping. I think the fair, reasonable approach would be to prohibit vaping in schools and other places designated for children while still allowing it in public settings like parks and beaches. As far as business owners are concerned, they should be left to decide if vaping is allowed in the restaurants, stores, bars, and businesses they own as they know how best to address the preferences of their customers. Simply throwing a blanket ban on vaping as if it's equally as dangerous as smoking real cigarettes will likely prove ineffective in discouraging people from doing it. In fact, doing so might result in people turning to more serious and costly alternatives like tobacco and nicotine.

I definitely think it should be illegal for minors to vape, but adults are another story. So long as they are doing it responsibly, I see no reason for them to be punished.

On a side note, while vaping doesn't expose users to some of the harmful chemicals found in tobacco, the flavoring liquids used can contain dangerous liquids known to destroy lungs (diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione). A recent study revealed that the flavoring chemicals used in e-cigarettes caused significant damage and inflammation in the lungs of mice.

Furthermore, it's also worth noting that studies now show that e-cigarettes produce just as much air pollution as regular cigarettes. Like the study suggests, I think e-cigarettes should be properly labeled with appropriate, obvious warnings of the potential health risks.