H.P. Lovecraft once said that fear is the most powerful human emotion, and that fear of the unknown is the most potent variety of fear.
He's right.
Although I'm a relative newbie to vaping, I've essentially quit analog ciggies (yeah, I'll have a puff every now and then - just to remind myself why I stopped!). But before I dived in, I spent a lot of time Googling major news outlets' articles, reading posts on forums like this, and watching the zillions of YouTube vids on vaping. (Which didn't stop me from making the dumb mistake of buying the JoyeTech 510T unit - *sigh*.)
What I've noticed is that a lot of newbie vapers (along w/ plenty of experienced ones) seem to think that we should have the right to vape indoors in public spaces. Many still do, where it's legal.
In theory, that might be a
scientifically reasonable point of view (especially with 0% e-juice). But I don't think it's a battle worth fighting right now - for two reasons.
1) We have too many other fish to fry. For example, the right to vape
outdoors in public parks, college campuses (etc.), the right to buy e-juice and supplies interstate, not to mention the
right to vape, period. (In fact, the more evidence that arises about the relative harmlessness of vaping, the louder the hue and cry becomes to ban vaping - in order to protect minors and/or because vaping is allegedly a "gateway" to tobacco burning.)
Do you want to be turned down for a job (or fired) because you vape? That's already happening - employers who refuse to hire analog smokers are also refusing to hire vapers. How about paying the same health insurance rates as analog smokers (that's also already the case).
You can probably forget about your fun flavors like custard or blueberry - these will likely go the way of flavored analog cigarettes. (Banned to protect children.)
Even worse: look out for the massive Federal, state, and local taxes that are going to clobber us in a few years, once more and more people like me are no longer paying taxes on analog ciggies. Imagine paying the same amount
of taxes per ml. of e-juice as an analog smoker pays on a pack! (Once more people like me stop smoking analog ciggies, that missing revenue is going to have to come from
somewhere, right?) And by the way, once states start taxing e-liquid, you won't be able to buy it off the internet any more (same thing happened with analog cigarettes).
Are all of these things less important as any supposed "right" to vape indoors? (Not in my book.)
2) At the end of the day, the U.S.
is a democracy in the sense that that the majority usually gets what it wants. And it's a whole lot harder for non-smoker/non-vapers to become enlightened, than it is for them to cheer on the ignorant journalists, politicians, and health professionals who are going to continue to make vapers' lives miserable in every way that they possibly can (through taxation, regulation, biased studies, and just plain old fear-mongering).
They say "honesty is the best policy," but most folks in a position of shaping public opinion would rather advance their careers by taking the easy way out.
Fear beats facts, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, and a lie gets all the way around the world while the truth is still putting on its boots. (Just ask any Muslim who lived in the US shortly after 9/11. Or ask any gay schoolteacher who has been teaching for more than a couple of decades.)
So please -
don't vape indoors in a public space (even if it's legal where you live). And
don't vape indoors in a private area (even if it's your own home and you have non-smoking/non-vaping guests, or you have non-smoking/non-vaping passengers in your own car).
For every person whom you educate, you're going to scare the daylights out of two more, thus increasing public support for even more horrendous anti-vaping rhetoric, journalism, taxation, regulation, and legislation.
Happy vapin'
--roger
