I think the majority of the article is BS, but not all. I live in SoCal and have attended many local vape shows and cloud contests. I don't participate on the cloud contests, but find them entertaining and fun. But I have been to quite a few where there were children present. I mean anywhere from 2yo to 16yo kids at the event where it was so foggy it was hard to see. I had a really hard time not going a bit ballistic until I remembered there is nothing legally wrong with that. Let me repeat... nothing legally wrong with having children at a cloud competition or in a vape shop. So I just left and didn't say anything, but was sorely disappointed in the shop that allowed this.
So this brings up a greater point. Can the vape industry self regulate? I have to say based on what I have seen, no. Unfortunately, that is the sad truth. I have seen way too many instances where this just isn't the case. And I also don't see any fruitful efforts at regulation except by the FDA, which of course is way over the top with the deeming regs. There are so many common sense regs that need to be implemented like the under 18 rule for vape shops and vaping, child proof caps for eliquid, maximum nic levels for eliquid, minimum cleanliness standards for making ejuice, etc. But so far we have no regs and little control over common sense issues. It really makes me think that the vaping community doesn't care near as much as many would have us think they do. This industry is incapable of self regulation in my opinion. Yes, there are a large number of vape businesses that do enforce their own idea of safety and propriety in vaping, but it's not nearly enough and there's no way to enforce simple common sense practices.
I kind of wonder why we are not more proactive and entities like CASAA and others aren't sponsoring bills to enact things like prohibiting underage age vaping and allowed entry into vape shops and events. Or required child safety caps on eliquid. I really think we need advocates that take a more proactive approach to reining in the obvious abuses that exist in the vape community today and propose legislation that make the vaping community safer and shows we do care about these issues. If we say we can self regulate, we need to self regulate. I think we, as an entire community, are spending so much time fighting what we perceive as the enemy (FDA) that we are forgetting we have a duty to promote safe vaping and force busnisses into compliance with regs that most of us would consider prudent. Perhaps we are our own worst enemies.
So this brings up a greater point. Can the vape industry self regulate? I have to say based on what I have seen, no. Unfortunately, that is the sad truth. I have seen way too many instances where this just isn't the case. And I also don't see any fruitful efforts at regulation except by the FDA, which of course is way over the top with the deeming regs. There are so many common sense regs that need to be implemented like the under 18 rule for vape shops and vaping, child proof caps for eliquid, maximum nic levels for eliquid, minimum cleanliness standards for making ejuice, etc. But so far we have no regs and little control over common sense issues. It really makes me think that the vaping community doesn't care near as much as many would have us think they do. This industry is incapable of self regulation in my opinion. Yes, there are a large number of vape businesses that do enforce their own idea of safety and propriety in vaping, but it's not nearly enough and there's no way to enforce simple common sense practices.
I kind of wonder why we are not more proactive and entities like CASAA and others aren't sponsoring bills to enact things like prohibiting underage age vaping and allowed entry into vape shops and events. Or required child safety caps on eliquid. I really think we need advocates that take a more proactive approach to reining in the obvious abuses that exist in the vape community today and propose legislation that make the vaping community safer and shows we do care about these issues. If we say we can self regulate, we need to self regulate. I think we, as an entire community, are spending so much time fighting what we perceive as the enemy (FDA) that we are forgetting we have a duty to promote safe vaping and force busnisses into compliance with regs that most of us would consider prudent. Perhaps we are our own worst enemies.
