Loophole lets youths puff away on electronic cigarettes

[BuGlen]

Link: Loophole lets youths puff away on electronic cigarettes | GoUpstate.com

Nothing too controversial, but rather an update to state law that will enforce existing "tobacco possession" laws for minors already on the books.

 

[sonicdsl]

Link: Loophole lets youths puff away on electronic cigarettes | GoUpstate.com

Nothing too controversial, but rather an update to state law that will enforce existing "tobacco possession" laws for minors already on the books.

The usual derogatory information from the Alphabet groups though. Other than that, I agree; I don't mind the laws banning the minors.

 

[Lilkurty]

This is pretty much what we have here with HC, there is no law that can be enforced. In this article the A/T lady says we can't do anything because it is not a tobacco product yet the Supreme Court ruled that the FDA ccn't regulate it as a drug/delivery device. So what we have is:


"We have some ways to go, but I think that will be a very short period of development," he said. "This is not a cigarette we're talking about. This is an application driven, software and hardware interface, coupled with something I consume."

John Cameron , CEO of Safecig , brother of Oscar winning Director James. CNBC Want to Quit Smoking? Big Tobacco Is Ready 1/5/13

F

 

[kristin]

Brannon said he told an e-cigarette lobbyist about the legislation

There is an "e-cigarette lobbyist??" Who is paying for that??

 

[Shy De]

Youth can and will get ahold of a lot worse over the Internet or in their neighborhood than nicotine. It should be classified as a substance not to be consumed by minors. But, lets not spend too much time on it. Lets spend our time keeping them out of illegal drugs and alcohol. At least with liquid nicotine they aren't puffing away and running into a telephone pole or into a ditch.

 

[oplholik]

With all that the kids find to get high on, bath salts ect., ect., nicotine doesn't sound all that bad.

 

[BuGlen]

There is an "e-cigarette lobbyist??" Who is paying for that??

I was wondering about that as well, but then I figured that since BT is getting into the game, it's probably their established lobby group that is representing e-cigs at this time.

 

[kristin]

It's simply not true that youth are using them in any significant numbers and studies are showing the complete opposite is true:

In a newly published article in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Pepper et al. report the results of an online survey of 228 adolescent males, ages 11-19, to assess awareness, willingness to use, and actual use of electronic cigarettes.

It showed that not a single nonsmoking youth could be found, among a sample of 228 male adolescents, who actually uses or has ever even tried an electronic cigarette. And only two smoking youth could be found who have tried the product.

This is a striking finding which puts to bed the contention of many anti-smoking groups and advocates that electronic cigarettes appeal heavily to youths and serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction.

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-study-on-electronic-cigarette-use.html

This is not to suggest that they shouldn't ban sales to minors, as they should with any nicotine or alcohol product, but that they should quit with the unsubstantiated fear mongering that could feasibly result in calls for removing the product's availability even to adult smokers.

 

[Jman8]

IMO, it is a controversial piece. My quotes are from the article.

“Some people use it to cut back on smoking, but they are being misused, obviously, by young people.”

Misused is very interesting choice of words there. It indicates to me that unless you are an ex-smoker using eCigs, you are one that is misusing eCigs.

While e-cigarettes reduce exposure to harmful byproducts of tobacco use, the product features nicotine, the chemical that causes tobacco addiction, Tollison pointed out. According to the American Heart Association, nicotine increases a person’s heart rate and blood pressure, it restricts the size of arteries and reduces the amount of oxygen the blood can carry. Nicotine is thought to be the substance that causes an increased risk of heart attack and blood clots in smokers, according to information on the AHA website. Tollison said she worries the perception of e-cigarettes being “healthier” would lead to increased use in teens. She also worries the e-cigarettes, which contain the nicotine of about two packs of cigarettes, would make it more difficult for users to monitor their intake of the addictive substance.

While this being said as reason for why minors ought not be allowed to vape, it is, or very easily could be, reason why no one ought to be allowed to vape. I think we all get this, and we all have this discussion over and over to make the clear case for why we are okay to vape. At same time, if it is 'misuse' to use eCigs as a non ex-smoker, and we vapers agree to that, we have served the strict regulation of eCig related products up on a silver platter for ANTZ.

Several of the legislators said they already have met with representatives of e-cigarette manufacturers and said the industry encouraged prohibiting access to their product to minors.

I understand the legal battle, and understand, I think, why eCig industry would concede on this point. But in light of my other points, it provides an inroad to strict regulation, IMO. As there is no easy way around this, the reality is the youth will be first to use underground market and eventually some adults, who still choose to vape, will plausibly be using that same underground market.

 

[kristin]

The truth is that THR applies to smokers of all ages. The problem is that no one wants to admit youth smoke by choice (not lured in by slick ads and flavors) and they deserve a low-risk alternative just as adult smokers do. In spite of the fact that they justify all of the restrictions on adult smokers (high taxes, flavor bans, indoor bans) that are supposedly designed to curb youth smoking because most smokers started as a youth. Regardless of this, the only politically correct answer regarding youth smoking is abstinence, not harm reduction. Of course, we all know how well the abstinence demand works on youth for illicit drugs and sex. It's definitely a "head in the sand" policy. But it's political and social suicide for anyone to even suggest youth smokers use a reduced-harm alternative. The lie of the "gateway" effect for youth is being used to justify even more draconian measures, such as recently proposed tax increases to cigarette levels on smoke-free tobacco. Rather than acknowledging the reduced harm for adults and keeping those products more affordable, they are claiming the lower taxes are a "loophole" that needs to be closed to protect children from the gateway. (Ironically, children using the products because they listened to the ANTZ about smoking and now rightly believe that smokeless carries less health risks.)

 

[Vocalek]

Nicotine is thought to be the substance that causes an increased risk of heart attack and blood clots in smokers, according to information on the AHA website.

That's a thought by those who have not kept up with the research.

Meta-analyses showing increased risk of MI and stroke in ST users are heavily weighted by CPS-I and CPS-II, which are older US studies with many methodologic problems. More recent Swedish studies and an NHANES study indicate minimal if any increased risk of CVD with ST.

Dr. Neal Benowitz, presentation to the FDA Workshop on Long-term Use of NRTs. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/NewsEvents/UCM232147.pdf

CVD=Cardiovascular disease (includes heart attacks and strokes)
ST=Smokeless tobacco.

Extrapolating ST Studies to Questions of Nicotine Safety

•No evidence that nicotine causes or promotes cancer
•Nicotine may slightly increase the risk of MI and stroke. If so the risks are far lower than those of cigarette smoking
•Nicotine likely has adverse effects on reproduction, including increasing the risk of pre-eclampsia and preterm birth

If the research on smokeless can be extrapolated to prove the relative safety of NRTs, there is no reason why that same evidence cannot be extrapolated to prove the relative safety of e-cigarettes, which use the same chemical (pharmaceutical grade nicotine.)

 

[Petrodus]

The truth is that THR applies to smokers of all ages. The problem is that no one wants to admit youth smoke by choice (not lured in by slick ads and flavors) and they deserve a low-risk alternative just as adult smokers do. In spite of the fact that they justify all of the restrictions on adult smokers (high taxes, flavor bans, indoor bans) that are supposedly designed to curb youth smoking because most smokers started as a youth. Regardless of this, the only politically correct answer regarding youth smoking is abstinence, not harm reduction. Of course, we all know how well the abstinence demand works on youth for illicit drugs and sex. It's definitely a "head in the sand" policy. But it's political and social suicide for anyone to even suggest youth smokers use a reduced-harm alternative. The lie of the "gateway" effect for youth is being used to justify even more draconian measures, such as recently proposed tax increases to cigarette levels on smoke-free tobacco. Rather than acknowledging the reduced harm for adults and keeping those products more affordable, they are claiming the lower taxes are a "loophole" that needs to be closed to protect children from the gateway. (Ironically, children using the products because they listened to the ANTZ about smoking and now rightly believe that smokeless carries less health risks.)

Excellent point

I started smoking at age 15

 

[Jman8]

I started smoking at age 15

You can't possibly still be alive. Nicotine (not to mention smoking) kills people under the age of 18. The damage it does is irreparable.

It's true. I read about that somewhere online.

 

[Petrodus]

You can't possibly still be alive. Nicotine (not to mention smoking) kills people under the age of 18. The damage it does is irreparable.
It's true. I read about that somewhere online.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Blackwell is not only a liar, but is also totally misguided by scapegoating and trying to turn youth into criminals.

“It's a gateway of tobacco use and the early onset of tobacco use in teens,” Blackwell said. “Some people use it to cut back on smoking, but they are being misused, obviously, by young people.”

Instead of making it a crime for youth to use, possess or purchase e-cigarettes, the SC legislature should just ban the sale of e-cigs to minors.

After I and others began campaigning in the early 1990's to increase enforcement of laws that banned cigarette sales to minors (since they were never enforced before then), the large cigarette companies (led by Reynolds and PM) responded by lobbying all 50 state legislatures to criminalize minors for the use, possession and purchase of tobacco.

The tobacco industry's strategy has long been to turn our child protection message of "cigarettes should NOT be sold to children" into the tobacco industry's promotional message of "children shouldn't smoke cigarettes until they are 18 years old".

The tobacco industry also was trying to repeat the alcohol industry's successful lobbying campaign to coopt MADD and other health/safety organizations to criminalize youth for underage drinking (and to impose huge fines and penalties against youth), while nothing was done to reduce alcohol advertising and sales to minors.

While I led the campaign to expose and oppose legislation and laws that criminalized youth for posssessing, purchasing and using tobacco (and I was featured on a 1999 segment of CBS News 60 Minutes), some cowardly idiots at government health and anti-drug agencies endorsed and even campaigned for these totally useless and counterproductive laws (that made it even more difficult for us to reduce youth tobacco use since nobody ever quit using tobacco because they were arrested for using or possessing the product, and were required to attend a smoking cessation or tobacco eduction class).

Now it seems some folks want to do the same with e-cigarettes.

 

[Petrodus]

The Nanny State has evolved into "Regulation Nation"

 

[Jman8]

I wish we could just ban minors from (adult) society. That would solve all of our problems.

Oh wait, they are us, and we (were) are them.
Hmm, perhaps we could do unto them as we would have "them" do unto us.

 

[kristin]

Blackwell is not only a liar, but is also totally misguided by scapegoating and trying to turn youth into criminals.

It is interesting that they criminalize possession in addition to banning the sale. Maybe it's a revenue generator? I assume they collect a fine from those "caught" youth or their parents.

 

[chrisvapo]

i started smoking analogs at 12.....12......it wasnt hard at all to get cigarettes. I agree that kids should be disallowed to smoke but believe me if they wan to they will, and if they do ecigs are a lesser of 2 evils in my mind. Leave it to the Govt to freak out on something safer than what they already justify selling to us

 

[Erncig]

Id rather my teenage child vape then eat mc donalds, processed foods, and drinks coke and energy drinks....all things a 7 year old can do if they wish.