Why someone who purports to 'care' for children would prohibit a 14 year old smoker of having the benefits of ecigarettes for at least 4 years in which continuing to smoke could cause great harm, is why I said in my first post - "Their 'caring' only goes so far.
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Unfortunately that seems to fit you to a 'T'. You want to make sure everyone knows how much you care, by spouting the politically correct maxim, but where it may really count - where a child has taken up cigarettes and would have a chance to break the smoking habit, you could care less, and would implement a policy that would virtually ensure he or she doesn't have the same opportunity as you and I have. The only 'caring' that implies is what you think others may think of you, and like the FDA, CDC, and most of gov't - where children are only a PR ploy used to implement control over adults.
AMEN!
I keep seeing this... "if their parents won't allow it, then they can just wait till they're 18 and buy their own." But what about the damage that's done to their neurotransmitters in the meantime? People don't take brain physiology into much account, because you can't SEE it -- until the person is suicidal, at which point a lot of the same people would say something truly ignorant like "snap out of it!"
A *LOT* of damage can be done to the brain's neurochemistry between the ages of 13 and 18, or even between 15 and 18, or even between 16 and 18! Adolescence is when that neurochemistry is really developing, and if you insert some foreign agent that influences those neurotransmitters, such that this person can no longer function normally WITHOUT that neurotransmitter-influencing foreign agent, then permanent brain damage has already occurred, and starting to vape when they're 18 won't fix it. They'll be like me, and need WTA in their vape, just to be able to stick with smoking cessation without becoming suicidal.
I agree that Harm Reduction is valuable at ANY age, but how much better if that brain damage could be averted completely? As I mentioned, kids might choose to vape rather than smoke for ridiculous reasons like "it's cool and doesn't stink" -- but who cares WHY they choose it! The long-term consequence of being unable to make that choice, for WHATEVER reason, is a lifetime of emotional dysfunction, up to and including suicidal depression -- for which some ignoramus will likely tell them, "snap out of it!"
This politically-correct, arbitrary-rule thing is a huge steaming load of horse manure, and only serves to make sure that kids who want to vape will instead choose to smoke, and give themselves a lifetime of heartache. Vaping *IS* cooler than smoking, for so many reasons beyond the "cool factor" that influences kids... so why not allow them the opportunity to choose the cooler option?
Andria
