Earlier this month President Trump proposed a ban on all flavored vaping products. The next week, Governor Cuomo announced an executive order to ban the sale of flavored vaping products and promised to ramp up law enforcement efforts against retailers selling to minors.

The bans are aimed at stemming the massive increase in teen use of vape and e-cigarette products — products that were originally intended to help people quit smoking, but are now a teenage trend.

Vaping among teenagers constitutes a legitimate public health concern. Although banning flavored vapes doesn’t solve the problem, it’s a step in the right direction.

This issue deals with two separate circles of people: Typically cigarette smokers more than 30 years old who are trying to quit, and teenagers who use e-cigarettes recreationally without any experience with cigarettes.

“Vaping is meant for adults who are addicted to tobacco, it’s not meant for those who have not started,” said Ignatius Ijere, an associate professor in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. Ijere specializes in addiction studies.

Cigarette smoking is hitting all-time lows, and just as one problem is on its way out, vaping has exposed millions of teens who have never smoked to nicotine.

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There are now far more young people with serious nicotine addictions, addictions that as time passes will make them more and more susceptible to picking up smoking, a habit that they otherwise never would have been at risk for.

Vaping has become more than just a way for tobacco smokers to deal with their addictions, it’s become a hobby. E-cigarette companies market to adolescents, branding their products like skateboards, not tools for easing addiction.

Vape shops are like low-rent Wonka chocolate factories, where teenagers carefully weigh the merits of whether to spend their parent’s money on “Candy King Bubblegum Pink Lemonade” or “Sad Boy Salts Pumpkin Cookie.”

Flavored vaping products have nothing to do with vaping’s purpose. E-cigarette manufacturers have used our fixation on consumer products and personalization to market easily swayed teens headfirst into an epidemic.

Flavored vaping products should be banned, but the bans won’t solve this problem alone.

The enforceability of a law like this is dubious, and a black market will surely exist and operate without much interference from law enforcement.

To seriously impact the number of teens who vape recreationally, action needs to be taken beyond what the government can do.

“The government can’t do it without the people; the community, the government and families all have to work together to make change,” said Ijere.

More research needs to be done on the exact damage vaping does to peoples’ bodies, so families and consumers can better understand the problem.

This generation deals with addictions to what are at first glance harmless trinkets and diversions.

We’re running out of meaningful rebellions. Our grandparents had Kent State and psychedelics and the dignity of being cool and dangerous. We’ve landed on repurposing addiction tools by slapping Batman stickers on them and filling them with pineapple flavoring.

Michael Furnari is a junior broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at mpfurnar@syr.edu. He can be followed on Twitter at @FurnariMichael.

Published on September 16, 2019 at 2:10 am