I would say look past the letter on their jersey but look a little farther. It is all about $$$. Follow the money interests and see who is donating to which politicians and I have a feeling that will pretty much tell you how they are likely to vote on any given issue. You can look up these things on opensecrets.org or opencongress.org and also check to see who the pharmaceutical and tobacco PACs are courting.
I wouldn't discount the fact that some of these pols are just looking for votes (as opposed to campaign contributions from well-heeled interests. (Of those, some may be well-meaning ignoramuses.)
If they all were merely venal robots who were for sale to the highest bidder,, every jurisdiction in the country would have banned vaping by now. BP's wallet is comparable only to Big Finance (banks, etc.) and Big Defense (including national security, etc.).
By comparison BT's purse contains only chump change, let alone that of the rest of the PV industry.
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All that said, I do believe that a small bit of regulation needs to be done as far as underage consumption/possession but then again that opens the door enough for them to gain a foothold.
Your point seems to be that minor sales bans - once passed into law - will be extended into more.
Actually I think vapers are safer once the "ink is dry" on a minor sales ban:
1) There will always be the risk that a proposed minor sales ban will "morph" into
vaping = smoking (this is hardly theoretical, it's happened before). And then, as Clean Air Acts are extended to public parks, parking lots, roadways (even for vehicle occupants), sidewalks, and multi-unit buildings ... vapers will get sucked into the vortex. That's exactly what the ANTZ want: their short-term tactical objective is to maximize tobacco burning at the expense of vaping. The bigger your demon's horns are, the more torches and pitchforks you can mobilize.
2) Without minor sales bans, there's always a risk that the public will get terrified and demand either an outright ban or
vaping = smoking legislation. This is why some ANTZ orgs may try to stop minor sales bans, even if they get nothing else in a legislative session. They know that the issue will always come back, and they'll get another shot at more than a minor sales ban.