San Francisco is coming for Big Vape, y’all. The City by The Bay just voted to kick e-cigarette products out of the establishments that sell them. The push to rid the city of vaping devices comes after the number of teens vaping skyrocketed. The new bill specifies that it will ban any device that has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which means all of them because the FDA has not approved any to date.
San Francisco legislatures voted unanimously to ban the sale of e-cigarettes, becoming the first major U.S. city to do so as teenage vaping has reached “an epidemic proportion.”
The city’s Board of Supervisors approved the ordinance on Tuesday, which the mayor is expected to sign into law. The bill will stop the sales of e-cigarettes that have not been approved by federal regulators — at this point, none have.
“We’ve worked for decades to decrease tobacco usage and try to end nicotine addiction,” said Shamann Walton, a member of the board of supervisors and a co-author of the bill, according to the New York Times. “Now you have this device loaded with nicotine and chemicals that’s drawing people to addiction. We need to keep it out of the hands of young people.”
For those who don’t know, an e-cigarette heats nicotine that can be inhaled and exhaled like a regular cigarette. For years they were pushed as more healthy than regular cigarettes and used as a smoking cessation device. Although vaping is still believed to be healthier than tobacco, it is by no means healthy. There are less toxins in vaping but the products still have some toxins, many of which the medical community knows little about. As mentioned, the effort behind this bill is to get the teen vaping numbers down. Like tobacco products, you must be 18 to purchase e-cigarettes but, like regular cigarettes, where there’s a will there’s a way and every teen seems to have one. And, in addition to pushing the, hey look kids, healthy smoking! line, companies sell juices that taste like things like cotton candy and banana splits. So the only thing that sucked about smoking as a teen – the taste – was eliminated.
What makes this even more fun is the number one e-cigarette manufacturer, Juul, is headquartered in SF. So they’re ticked. Juul issued the following statement on the ban:
This full prohibition will drive former adult smokers who successfully switched to vapor products back to deadly cigarettes, deny the opportunity to switch for current adult smokers, and create a thriving black market instead of addressing the actual causes of underage access and use.
OMG – back alley smoking and black market Juuls! I’m not buying it.Manufacturers were ordered to get their products out of the hands of teens and they all dragged their feet so spare me the ‘we’re only trying to save people’ bs. This is pretty extreme for a city to do but SF is a pretty extreme city. I don’t know if this will be effective. Personally I think the anti-tobacco education has been the most effective in getting kids to stop, or rather never start, smoking. Make it uncool or gross, best way to turn a kid off.
Photo credit: Thorn Yang, Isabella Mendes, Edgar Martínez, and Nathan Salt from Pexels
Fully support my city on this. My daughter says all her high school friends vape, hopefully this will change that culture. My best friend’s kid went from vaping candy flavors to vaping pot down a spiral that put him in the criminal justice system and now rehab and he’s only 14.
That’s very sad for that child, but I do feel the need to intervene here. I’m 24, so vaping was not in during my teen years. Smoking was gross. But weed, was and always will be, in.
Weed was branded a gateway drug to heroin and all the awful things that would ruin your life. It’s not. Let’s stop pushing that false narrative.
Kids with addictive personalities will always find ways for something worse. But vaping and weed are not suddenly putting you on the path of crime.
This all day. It’s the same reason some people can have a glass of wine with dinner and others have to down a bottle of vodka.
I know countless people who smoked marijuana recreationally and never did anything harder. I know one person who graduated to heroin. Now he’s clean and drinks like 8 Red Bulls and 5 cups of coffee a day. He’s always abusing something and probably always will because his issue is his addictive personality. He’s just found something more socially acceptable to abuse.
@Holly & Kebbie: I remember watching a segment on PBS (perhaps it was the Newshour) on addiction transfer – I don’t quite recall the exact term – but it focused on how people kick one addiction: smoking, gambling, drugs/drinking, only to pick up another one. Usually the new addiction flies under the radar, like shopping or hoarding.
As a teen, smoking led to Weed led me to LSD which led to x which led to heroin. I’m an arrested 12yo in a 50 something body. Yes. Let’s absolutely get real w the struggle! I finally finished college at at 45.
Thank you. And as someone who uses electric cigarette (not the vape kind, the newer kind they claim is safer: it just heats, but doesn’t burn tobacco)-thanks to them, I stopped smoking cigarettes, after 15 years!-I think we shouldn’t forget that they were designed to help people stop smoking, or at least minimize the health risks-and on both fronts, by my experience (I live in a country with one of the highest number of smokers in EU), it works on both fronts.
My gastritis disappeared, my lungs are better, and at least half of smokers I know, started using them instead of cigarettes-which is immediate + on the health care front. I know so me will say: but they are not healthy, they cause damage and we don’t know how much…yes, but they cause less damage than a cigarette, so it’s a win for a smoker.
Of course, they should be used for what they were made for, not for nefarious purposes. But young people sniff glue for the last 30 years, and I haven’t heard of glue being banned.
I’m glad more proof is being made available about the dangers of vaping. 4 years ago I was standing in line for coffee in Vegas, and the man behind me was vaping up a storm. I was inhaling his sh!t and we were INDOORS. I asked him to please stop and he told me that vaping was allowed even indoors and I was so mad at his response I actually left. The smoke I was inhaling was literally warm and I was already coughing. He didn’t care cause “it’s not a cigarette and it smells like chocolate” UGH
There’s nothing worse than inhaling cigarette/vape smoke straight from someone else’s lungs!!! It’s absolutely revolting! In hot weather, getting smoke into your car – makes me want to ram the smoker’s car.
Also, they are trying to market vaping as something cool and futuristic, I think it’s Juul that has the ad with sort of Black Mirror music, that similar “zzzapp” sound.
I think vaping looks like you’re smoking crack. I can’t stand cigarettes, but vaping looks like you’re drugging yourself.
I’m in Ohio where it’s illegal to smoke anywhere but outside or on your own private property (or a private party, etc). When my husband and I went to Vegas a year and a half ago, I was blown away by all the smoking. It’s legal and totally allowed to smoke inside ANYWHERE. I have sarcoidosis so I had my inhaler on me all the time. I did notice that some casinos (looking at you Bellagio) wreaked of smoke while other newer ones had better ventilation systems.
My daughter is in high school and so many of her friends vape, it’s sickening. At a football game last year, you could see a huge cloud above the student section of the opposing team. Another mom and I were perplexed- because we’re naive I guess- when someone told us it’s all the vape pens.
I’m glad they’re doing this. Every teen I know either Juuls or wants to, and it’s not helped when influencers like Bella Hadid post video of themselves Juuling, as she did a few months ago. The harder for kids to get this, the better.
Good for them! I hate these things. The smell of these god awful cherry or cinnamon or whatever the hell flavour just makes me wanna wretch when I walk through a waft of it behind someone on the way to work in London.
I prefer any of this to actual cigarette smoke. Smoking in public is very common in Germany and walking to work is a real pain because you’re always stuck behind some smoker. Blah.
Me too. Vape doesn’t bother me but I don’t want my kid doing it.
Yeah, I don’t get it. Smoking is awful, I can see how vaping can be irritating, but I prefer vape smoke instead of cigarette one. At least it isn’t passive smoking when you inhale it…and in the end, if it’s not endangering others, why should it be banned? I mean, I don’t like some perfumes people douse themselves with, but I don’t expect them to be banned. I know it’s a silly comparison, but it does boil down to that: if vaping smoke isn’t dangerous for others, what’s the ground for ban?
(Of course, I agree that you have to be adult to use it.)
I mean, is alcohol also banned? We know the dangers of alcohol on a person’s health-and on society (domestic violence, car accidents), yet consuming it is totally socially acceptable.
I have a co-worker who smokes the strawberry stuff. Ugh.
I used vaping to quit smoking. Nothing else worked. You can choose how much nicotine you want in them, so you can slowly cut down until you don’t need it anymore. Just another perspective. I would still be smoking if it wasn’t for that.
That’s is how I quit my nicotine habit – I switched from real cigarettes (“analogs”) to vaping and then over the next year and a half, gradually reducing the level of nicotine that I was vaping down to zero. I then vaped zero nicotine for about 4 months until I broke myself of that habit. I have to say, the big plumes you see a lot vapers exhaling look a bit douchey so that was another motivator for me to kick it to the curb.
I don’t live in California, but I bet NY will be next. It’s already underway. I’m well over the age of 21 (the age to smoke in most counties in NYS) and I used to smoke 2-2.5 packs of cigarettes a DAY. I got turned onto vaping, was able to decrease my nicotine level gradually (from 6 mg to 3 mg to 0) while still satisfying my “need” to go through the motions of smoking (and yes I realize it’s all in my head). Three years later I occasionally vape, nowhere near what I used to smoke. (I don’t vape with Juul btw, I have a mod and e-juice)
The fact that I could get it in flavors like banana splits or grapefruit helped make the transition from traditional cigarettes because it doesn’t taste or smell anything like a cigarette (when I smoked, people would move away because I reeked of cigarette smoke, now when I vape, some people actually move closer especially when I vape fruit flavors because they like the light scent of it). It helped dissociate my mind from being triggered by the mere smell of cigarettes to want one.
Some people like to vape to vape. Others use it as a tool (like I did). Sometimes the “traditional” methods of quitting or cutting down smoking don’t work: Chantix gave me night terrors, I’m allergic to adhesive used in patches and the gum was just ineffective. Cold turkey never stood a chance with me and my addiction.
Underage kids will always find products they are not supposed to have. Cigarettes. Alcohol. Juul. Marijuana. Hustler magazine.
But hey if California and NY really want me to go back to smoking nearly 3 packs a day, I’ll just buy it on a reservation.
TL;DR: This is stupid and makes it harder for of age people to get what they are allowed to have.
I’m glad it worked for you. But it is so unregulated, the level of nicotine is often no where near the package label and can vary within the same package much higher/ lower. The FDA should have an approved device (tested for safety, ex. are you inhaling the plastics as well?), but more important quality control on the actual vaping nicotine products. You should buy what you’re sold, not a surprise.
I’m learning to make my own e-juice now, for fear that I won’t be able to buy it in an actual store like my alcoholic neighbor can buy cases of beer at the grocery store. The PG/VG part of the juice is federally regulated.
Sorry, but just because it inconveniences you doesn’t mean it isn’t valid. You’re an adult who used vaping to quit an extremely unhealthy habit, which is great. That doesn’t change the fact that a.) many underaged kids are vaping, who obviously have developing brains and bodies, and b.) the long term effects of vaping are not known. Vaping isn’t healthy, it just doesn’t have the exact same effects as smoking (as far as we know).
For every one adult using e cigs to get off Marlboro reds unfiltered, there are millions of teens lured into the rebellion of nic addiction.
Do you think the same about alcohol? Shouldn’t we all stop consummating it to prevent underage drinking? For every wine drinker that drinks responsibly, there is one who doesn’t.
Sorry you are having such a hard time quitting. Smoking is the most difficult addiction there is… I work in a school and the majority of people using these things are not adults trying to quit smoking. I say make the JUUL a prescription. I get you not wanting a gross smell when you are quitting. However, at my high school 99.9% of users are under 18. One is an adult trying to quit smoking after two heart attacks. It’s a terrible addiction. I watched my father try to quit for years and and he finally did. Then had to watch him die from colon cancer. Big tobacco needs to stop making money off kids lives…IMAO
I don’t use the Juul. I use a mod with e juice.
The argument is false. Kids have been smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and liquor as long as there have been teenagers, cigarettes, beer and liquor. So yes I have a problem with being inconvenienced for a blanket policy that won’t work.
I agree with HMC. Thank god I live in Europe.
See my issue isn’t the marketing. It’s the fact that so many kids are getting access to it. Sell it online, request ID, make them use ID to pick it up as well. There’s no point in kids freaking vaping.
That said – there were plenty of them smoking cigarettes when I was growing up, so at least vape (depending on the type) is less harmful.
I’ve been googling for sucralose free ejuice (without nicotene) because I bought a hybrid vape recently (thanks Canada) and was going to pick up some oil and wanted to try a flavor additive as a treat. I found a few companies, but it was HARD to find them without artificial sweeteners (I have a sucralose allergy).
In my country, you can’t buy it without an ID and an hour with the approved seller who will show you how to use it. And it isn’t sold in stores.
I think San Francisco is pushing the limits with their activist legislation. I dislike Vapes and plastic and puppy mills but how much control does a city government have over the citizens? Is nobody worried about that? Just because they are left leaning does not automatically make it ok.
San Fran is a cesspool now. Bay Area born and raised here.
SF is full of limousine liberals. They act so righteous and liberal but don’t even take care of their homeless and mentally ill who fill their streets.
@stacey Agreed. I’ve been living in SF for almost 4 years now. We recently found out we’re pregnant so we’ve decided to move back to the east coast. The thought of walking these streets with a baby in tow is just dangerous and disgusting.
I disagree that it’s a cesspool. There’s a homeless problem but it’s not just in SF (don’t call it San Fran yuck) or just California. It’s an amazingly vibrant city, I am an openly gay Mexican guy who works in immigration law and I fell in love with this city since I moved here 6 years ago.
I’m w/ DiegoInSF. I love this city – esp. this weekend! I work as a nurse in community health and many of our patients are homeless – given one way tickets after being released from custody in So Cal and Nevada (there may be other locations, but I’ve only heard about those two). Agree that our City could do much better with this problem. Just bear in mind that this we are put upon by other cities because we have homeless services. As good as our services are, we are absolutely overloaded.
Michael: Agreed!!! SF is getting fanatical w/ its politics. I lived there 15 years ago, and on a visit back to the city last summer I was appalled at the number of homeless people living in it, in camping tents, bright and faded, semi spherical shapes that looked a little like half deflated parachutes crashed onto concrete. They were ubiquitous almost everywhere I went, in many central business areas and a few tourist spots and peripheral areas all around the city. I saw human waste on the streets, and needles, and teenaged and older faces peering out from the farthest backs of their tents like animals cowering in caves, or ostriches who bury their eyes underground, as to concealing themselves from their own vision could hide them from being glimpsed from the outside. And then all those other campers who have understood the contract they must sign for to own the most fundamentals of survival :to forgo shame, privacy, the shock and contempt of others, and hold their hands or hats out empty and hurl them into strangers’ gazes, one of every ten of whom might fill them and look away at the same time.Some panhandlers accept that, if it could be done, they would be interned under the cement, deeply entrenched, like the dead are plunged into mass graves, invisibility being, by now, the one thing wanted of them by the living. The fact that they keep rising towards the same sun, in their similar human and flesh forms, makes them more and more frightful, to others, so that most of the homeless merge into some massive blind spot of almost every person passing by them. (I can’t ignore them, as this was how my close friend once lived for a year all across the Pacific Coast before his suicide, and I see him in all such forsaken people, who have also been buried alive.) It has been recently legal, even encouraged, in S.F. to shoot up drugs like heroin, in specific, specified places , where anyone can happen to glimpse them. Instead of building Assisted Living (for the substantial percentage of mentally ill among the homeless) and drug programs for the addicts (of course, many suffer from both mental illness and addiction, dual diagnosis) SF persistently raises the cost of its homes, like a factory churning out more and more displaced and homeless. I used to love the landscape of S.F., the Golden Gate Bridge, the huge piers, and above all the professed air of welcome to all citizens. Now I see it with nostalgic, almost homesick eyes:. I see just how sincere its welcome and willed awareness of its own poor actually is—not to mention its thoughtfulness to its home shielded, working citizens who are daily almost inevitably pushed into overlooking what too much of what San Francisco has become: a ghost town, a city of half dead who are scarcely balanced above the indentations, cracks, and fault lines of its pavement.
I get keeping it out of the hands of teenagers but what happened to letting adults make their own decisions? It’s kinda nuts. Why is the SF government trying to be my mother? I’m an adult woman, for crying out loud. This is some nanny state bs.
This is great news. Vaping is huge in high school and even middle school. I was appalled to see an e cigarette commercial on TV the other day. I know they banned cigarette commercials years ago. They need to do the same for e cigarettes. My daughter says kids reach into their backpacks during class to take a puff. The anti tobacco campaign against i Garret’s was so effective the government needs to step up against vaping. From what I understand, it’s very addictive.
I don’t think it will help. If they’re addicted to nicotine they’ll just pay the kid down the street with a convincing ID to buy them a pack of cigarettes instead. Like I did. Which led to me smoking for 20 years.
Then again, capitalism? When I turned 18 I was still in high school (the age to buy cigarettes then in NY was 18). I made a MINT off my brother’s friends, buying them cigarettes at a marked up price (then a pack of Newports was about 5 USD. I charged them 8-10, never giving change, and promised quick delivery).
Let them smoke cigarettes then. They’re grosser and more expensive, so they come with in-built disincentives.
@Canber – YES! I smoked in the last two years of high school and throughout college and eventually gave it up because (1) I had to go outside to smoke at a bar and none of my college friends smoked, and (2) the smoke bothered my friends if I was smoking near them and I felt like an a-hole. Well and (3) the health reasons of course. But if all my friends did it or if my friends didn’t MIND if I smoked around them b/c it smelled good or I could surreptitiously do it indoors, I definitely would have kept it up longer.
I know this sounds bad but I hope it doesn’t happen in my city because vaping has significantly helped my mother cut down on smoking actual cigarettes. I know a danger of e-cigarettes is that the users will become addicted to nicotine. Well, my mom is, and she’s been smoking for over 30 years. I do not condone it in the least. But I do think it’s better for her to not inhale all of those cigarette chemicals, even if Juuls aren’t 100% safe. For someone who doesn’t plan on quitting smoking – not saying that is recommended or good or that I approve – it seems like an okay compromise.
There’s no OK compromise with cancer. It can be triggered by a few cigarettes a day or by two packs. I’m a former chain smoker by the way.
I hate vaping even more than cigarettes because it seems to generate far more smoke and people think as its not a real cigarette they can smoke it anywhere. Here in the UK smoking indoors is illegal (and that includes vapes) but it doesn’t stop people from trying their luck – about a month ago i was evacuated from my 6 floor office all because some twit decided to vape in a small telephone booth DIRECTLY underneath the smoke alarm. Idiot apparently thought he could vape indoors as its not ‘a cigarette’.
To be fair – it’s more vapour than smoke. Having a REALLY humid day can trigger a fire alarm too because it’s not smoke alone triggering them- but clearly the person you mentioned happens to also be an idiot. It’s more like heating water on a stove or using a humidifier than it would be compared to actual smoke. Now they’re still releasing nicotine in the vapor – but it’s not creating all the new compounds like smoke does.
Vapour would be the same as the ejuice just in a different state- Propylene Glycol, food grade flavoring, Vegetable Glycerin, and Nicotine. Nicotine is considered safe by the fda for human consumption. Now that’s not to say that some companies don’t add more to their products or that they’re without issues. But vapour dissipates in minutes, while smoke tends to cling to everything.
Cigarettes on the other hand – because of the burning tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 different chemicals with over 70 that cause cancer.
One, nicotine causes strokes and heart attacks. Just because it’s not a cigarette doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
Two, FDA approval is not the guarantee we’d prefer to think it is. They have well documented issues with approving things they shouldn’t: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/05/09/527575055/one-third-of-new-drugs-had-safety-problems-after-fda-approval
My one question:
So are they gonna ban cigarettes too?
Heroin is illegal.
Methamphetamine is illegal.
Cocaine and crack cocaine are illegal.
That sure made a difference didn’t it?
yeah, no one uses heroine, cocaine or metamph. 😉
How many alcoholics are in the US? When will they ban alcohol? It turned out so well the last time! /s/
Governments make a lot of money on tobacco sales. 15.7% of the US smokes, 17% of Canada. Canada sells $330mill in smokes each year, the states $8 billion. They are not going to willingly give up all those lovely tax dollars.
Seriously, I do it get this. It’s like banning beer but not liquor to prevent people from getting drunk.
My e-juice has six ingredients, the majority of which are vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol. I much prefer it to the pack-a-day habit I kept for 20 years. Banning something like this outright isn’t often successful in solving the problems. Perhaps better oversight is order, in fact almost certainly is in order. But this decision I find pretty rash. People will just black market them if they can’t drive to the next town over.
Isn’t this a state where pot is legal?
I should specify that my aversion to e-cigarette is because I am so addicted to nicotine. I smoked for 20 years as well and technically quit 15 years ago, but I think about smoking every minute of every hour. I am incredibly tempted by e-cigarettes so I have to remind myself I can’t be trusted with nicotine. I have no issue with adults using them, however. Congratulations on kicking the tobacco habit. That’s hard to do.
But it was really hard to buy cigs when I was under 18. Like, my only option was to steal my parents. I kind of agree, though – I don’t think the ban will work and I doubt it’s even enforceable.
Do you really think about smoking every minute? That would suck so bad. I quit 5.5 years ago by going cold turkey after a 33 year habit. I was afraid it would be like that for me too, but so far I’ve gotten very lucky. I’m at the point where I want one about once a month or every once in a while I will watch someone take a drag off theirs, and the urge is almost overwhelming. Someone threw a burning butt into the street right in front of me once, and I stopped dead to watch it burn. I wanted a puff so bad, it was all I could do to walk away. I’ve been tempted to try a few times, its been over 5 years after all, but I am far too afraid to try. I know I would be hooked all over again. It would be like having my friend back.
I think about smoking almost every day and consider buying a pack at least 3-4 times a year. I fall off the wagon all the time as well, especially around my kids’ godfather who smokes (fortunately he lives in Europe). I’ve been really stressed out with our move and I linger near the cigarette case every time I pass it in the grocery store.
And yes to the friend comment. I miss cigarettes as if they are a companion I’m no longer allowed to see.
Re: still wanting to smoke a cigarette: me too, all day. Yes I vape but I found it easier to not buy a pack of cigarettes when my boyfriend switched to vaping. I no longer had the smell of cigarettes around me to tempt me. Logically we all know it smells disgusting. But that part of our addicted brain smells it and screams I want it too!
Vaping doesn’t smell like cigarettes. Thank god.
I smoked for years while underage. I would just ask someone smoking nearby to buy me a pack. It was easy peasy.
My husband also went from smoking one pack a day for over ten years to vaping liquids that contains almost no nicotine, mostly none at all. He has not touched a cigarette in two years. We have the same rules as with cigarettes though: no vaping inside the house. It works for him and and seems to work for a lot of other adults, too. I also prefer the smell of vapes over this disgusting cigarette stank.
I see the problem with kids, though. They should not be able to buy things like this and also should be educated on the dangers of legal drugs & discouraged to try them.
How about they do something about the people taking dumps in the street instead? I hate going to the city these days 🤢
Is Juul the one with the nicotine content so high (and super addictive) that they cannot sell their US-formula product in Europe?
In which case, f*** their faux concern.
Vaping is helpful to generations who were genuinely addicted to tobacco.
That said, it irritates me like no other to see every young person sucking on a usb because they think it’s cool. Such a turnoff.
I live here, and this is hella dumb. I was a social smoker as a teen, quit in my 20s, and now in my 30s I vape occasionally when I’m working on deadlines and focusing. Yeah I use Juul. They already banned the flavor I like in SF so I just drive 10 minutes out of town and get it.
San Francisco needs to make and enforce legislation that addressed our real and numerous problems.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Gov should be well-versed regarding this type of legislation. It’s absurd and will cause more problems than it’s aimed at preventing. Teens will damn well get whatever the hell their weakness is, and this scoots em back over to ‘camels.’ This city is having a major brain fart. Targeted marketing, informative psa’s, age requirements, taxes, whatever…but you offer a blanket no and you’ve lost.
At least camels can’t be smoked in a classroom like the one commenter above said! I’m worried that with e-cigs new smokers can convince themselves it’s healthy-ish and “not as bad” as smoking and without the disincentives of actual cigarette smoking (smelling gross, having to do it outside, being easily identified when you are smoking) the only reason not to do it is because your parents say not to and you could get cancer one day (not very high barriers to entry for many teens).
Youtube still has the July ’18 story about High/Middle School educators dealing with the problems of kids vaping in class and the worry of unknown effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFr72rCeBw4
The proposed SF ban is mentioned at the end.
Once I watched that segment, it was hard not to side-eye Juul with the expanding options of flavors – it reminded me of the breakfast cereals that are marketed to kids. I wouldn’t be shocked to find a Capt’n Crunch flavor.
i live in SF and i can tell you this absurd new law has not been at ALL effective. most of the stores still sell vapes they just keel them behind the counter. the stupid law also made menthol cigs illegal to sell, so now those too are just kept behind the counter out of site.
SF is a small enough city that it won’t take much for kids to go out of city limits to purchase their vapes.
Don’t know if this will actually cut down the number of teens vaping here. I’ve lived in SF for more than 20 years, am raising my kids here, and the vaping at my teenager’s high school has been so ubiquitous that he calls the boys’ bathrooms “the vape lounge”.
You have to be 21 to purchase tobacco products in California now, not 18.
I don’t really see the point. Lots of things are appealing to kids and if they really want them they can get them. Did making weed illegal stop teens from getting that, or making alcohol illegal for teens to drink stop them, or making buying normal cigarettes illegal for minors stop them? They already couldn’t legally buy the products. What’s the point of this ban? I also don’t get the idea that because something appeals to minors it’s the company’s job to fix that. Four lokos appeal to kids and so do mad dog 20/20s. Guess what though? They also appeal to adults and restricting their access to something because parents can’t control their kids seems like misdirected anger.
Totally agree. I don’t want a nanny state. The government isn’t my mother. This honestly seems ridiculous.
What confuses me is the push to legalize pot, which is often smoked, while banning vaping. Teenagers are smoking pot like crazy, but no one seems to worry. But god-forbid if they are vaping??? It just doesn’t make sense.
Smoking anything is bad for your lungs and body!
I work with teenagers in high schools, they rarely smoke pot, they eat edibles.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Why can’t parents just say they’ve lost all control here? We’re really at a point where we want the government to start banning things because children aren’t allowed to have them? Vapes are set up like cigarettes. If your child has one they got it illegally. I mean, schools could make it against policy to vape on campus (like cigarettes are), there could be efforts made to make it more difficult for minors instead of a blanket ban. Incredibly strange.
Call it whatever you want. The second you or your child vape or smoke in my vicinity, you’re actively harming me.
Kids aren’t doing this in a vacuum. They see adults do it, and adults are every bit as irresponsible as the teens are. There is no right to smoke or vape in public.
I struggle with a lung/blood disease that compromises my life daily.
Breathing in cigarette smoke or vapours hurts my lungs, and sends me into a spiral of coughing, gasping, gagging, and shuddering for hours.
Asking vapers to stop gets you a lecture on their “rights”. Their “rights” stop at my nose, literally.
There is no right to vape and send someone else to the hospital, to their inhaler, to their oxygen tank, or to the pulmonologist.
That “right” does not exist.
So you can’t walk on the sidewalk I’m assuming due to car fumes? That’s horrible but how does this law protect you?
Bunny:
Thank you. Very well said. I too have a lung condition and get severe reactions from smoke and vape.
What exactly causes harm for you in vape smoke? Please don’t be mad at me, I’m seriously curious? Nicotine is deemed safe if not burned, and it’s not burned while vaping. Glycerol? Oil?
Or is it just the humidity of the smoke? But then that means you also can’t be in heavily trafficked area? How do you deal with air pollution(I don’t know how it’s called in English but I know the smog (higher concentration of polluted air) is harmful for people with lung disease)? Can you be in industrial areas?
vaping is gross. people look stupid doing it. It’s soooooo not sexy or cute.