VapersCanadaBy Mike Ford – redstate.com repost
Yesterday, American Spectator Online published a great article on vaping and the harm to human health, the knee jerk regulation of it will foster. Personal disclosure—I use commercial vape products moderately, as my continued off-ramp from smoking regular cigarettes.
Using commercially available e-cigarettes is a hugely safer alternative to smoking. That’s just science. As a now 7-years cancer-free patient, I’m getting more than a little angry at these nanny state meddlers who are taking a relatively safe product and demonizing it…to the potential harm of millions of people.
The lede to the Spectator article says it all
Despite evidence tying vaping-related epidemic to black-market THC vape products, health nannies want to ban legal products and thus give black markets a bigger boost.
After a serious outbreak of vape-related illnesses, a few of which resulted in death, lawmakers and their commercial enablers in the background (more on this later) immediately sprang into action and began to “solve the problem.”
Once again using the tried and true “It’s for the children” model, the nanny staters began a series of “emergency” actions to ban the sale of “flavored” vaping products and in some areas began initiatives to prohibit the sale of vape products to anyone under 21. Once again those who want to control every aspect of our lives, totally ignore the first step in the problem-solving process—Identify the Problem. As the article states, the products killing young folks aren’t commercially produced, flavored e-cigs.
In fact, the culprit appears to be black-market vaping products used to inhale THC-containing substances. THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that provides cannabis with its sought-after high.
“U.S. and state health officials have traced the illness to vaping, mostly THC, and so far have identified vitamin E oil as a likely culprit,” according to a CNBC report. Vitamin E acetate is an additive used in those oils. CNBC quoted one pulmonologist saying, “It may turn out there are only two kinds of people who get this disease: those who vape THC and those who won’t admit it.”
Got that? The only people dying from this, are THC vapers using bootleg/homemade products. So what do we do? The article explains further.
None of this has any apparent connection to legally available nicotine vaping products. Yet that hasn’t stopped the health nannies. “The recent lung illness outbreak has alarmed physicians and the broader health community and shined a light on the fact that we have very little evidence about the short- and long-term health consequences of e-cigarettes and vaping products,” said Dr. Patrice Harris, president of the influential American Medical Association, in an official statement released this week — even after CDC released its latest information.
The group called for a federal ban on all vaping products that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a tobacco-cessation product. Given that the bureaucratic FDA has yet to approve any such devices, that would essentially mean a nationwide ban on vaping. That’s bad for public health, given the opportunities that e-cigarettes offer for smokers who are trying to kick their unhealthy habit. But it’s also likely to increase the kind of black-market-related illnesses we’re now seeing for some fairly obvious reasons.
If the government bans commercial vaping products, then more people will turn to the black market or homemade concoctions. And, remember, that awful lung disease appears tied to black-market products. “As more states, cities and even the federal government consider banning flavored nicotine, thousands of do-it-yourself vapers … are flocking to social media groups and websites to learn how to make e-liquids at home,” according to a CNN Health report this month. If the thought of the growing incidence of teen vaping upsets health officials, then what about the thought of vaping among those who make their own potions based on an internet recipe? Even I find that a bit scary.
Full article: here