E-cigarettes should not be banned!
Electronic cigarettes are a popular way to get around just about any tobacco smoking ban. They offer none of the deadly poisons associated with conventional cigarettes. There are no second-hand smoke risks associated with electronic cigarettes. E-Cig smokers aren’t tossing flaming cigarette butts out the windows of their cars, littering, and setting forest fires. So, what are so many state and local politicians working so hard to ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public places? Why are so many businesses treating electronic cigarette vapers with the same oppressive hand as tobacco smokers?
Despite the fact that so many businesses and other public venues have permitted patrons to smoke only electronic cigarettes within their locations, cities, towns, neighborhoods are moving to ban them. They are moving to ban them despite the reality that eCigs don’t burn tobacco and produce no second-hand smoke. Further, they’ve helped countless people quit the dangerous and disgusting habit of smoking tobacco cigarettes.
Some legislators justify their actions by saying things like, “Electronic cigarettes are often mistaken for the regular cigarettes. Tobacco cigarette smokers might assume incorrectly that they can smoke, too, and fire up their conventional cigarettes in the face of current bans.”
They don’t pose a health risk to the general public. Shunning those who have found a credible alternative to regular cigarettes not only poses a health risk by potentially driving them back to tobacco smokes is undeniably stupid. It’s tantamount to banning nicotine gum or nicotine patches in terms of “protecting” the general public. Doing so because some person might “mistakenly” believe that it is a real cigarette is inexcusable.
The problem that we’re all facing here are local, state, and federal tax revenue that is going to be lost by the falling market share that Big Tobacco will suffer as a result of the proliferation of e-cigarettes. It seems that many legislators are bending over backwards to preserve the cash-cow that is peddling the poison that are regular tobacco cigarettes for as long as they possibly can. And it’s unconscionable that they would work so hard to protect something that harms and kills so many of their constituents.
And please, stop using children as a shield to justify such bans. Much like the virtually endless list of products that are not for sale to minors, electronic cigarettes need not be available for sale to children.
Shame on those who are fighting so hard to ban electronic cigarettes. You’re doing a serious disservice to those who are trying to get off of regular cigarettes. After all, I’m sure our crafty legislators will find something else to tax in order to shake-down U.S. Citizens to protect their wasteful spending and bloated budgets.
