Potential Vape Ban in Albany Sparks Debate

Published on April 25, 2019

Keep vaping away from kids by restricting access, direct marketing

Just because a kid can potentially gain access to something intended for adults doesn’t mean you ban that item from being sold to everyone.

That goes for cigarettes. It goes for alcohol. And now, it seems, it goes for flavored vaping products.

The Albany County Legislature is among those government entities, including the New York State Legislature, considering trying to ban flavored vaping.

The argument supporters of the ban make is commendable — that too many kids are lured to vaping and its potential harmful effects by the fanciful flavor names like moo coffee milk, circus cookie, dinner lady mango tart and unicorn poop.

They say getting rid of the flavors will discourage kids from picking up the habit.

Vaping has been associated with its own direct health problems, as well as with enticing kids into other harmful habits like smoking.

But while vaping might be bad for kids, it’s proven to be a godsend for cigarette smokers trying to kick the habit.

Smoking is a notoriously difficult habit to break. Vaping products, which either contain no nicotine or very small amounts, has proven to be an effective tool in helping many smokers to quit — more for them than nicotine patches, nicotine gum and quitting cold-turkey.

Vaping gives many smokers the sensation of smoking and fulfills the habitual allure without pumping their lungs full of cancer-causing smoke and chemicals.

Flavors help draw them away from their cigarettes to a less harmful habit. So while a ban on flavored vaping products might discourage kids from picking up vaping, it also may very well deprive some long-time smokers of an effective quitting tool.

The answer isn’t to ban the flavors; it’s to put more restrictions on access to kids.