E Cigarettes and Minors
E cigarettes were designed to help smokers get the cigarette monkey off of their backs and live a healthier lifestyle. Reports show that 90% of smokers started smoking as teenagers. The e cigarette industry has become a world wide sensation, giving smokers their nicotine fix without cancer causing chemicals. With millions of smokers hopping on the vape train, teenagers are taking notice.
Although, e cigarettes are regulated as a tobacco product, they do not contain the traditional harmful chemicals like cigarettes do. Experts worry that if they start using e cigarettes as teenagers, they will smoke regular cigarettes as adults. It is illegal for anyone under 18 years old depending on what state you are in. Over 25 states now ban the sale of e cigarettes to minors.
However, true to teenager form, minors are finding ways around the law to acquire electronic cigarettes by purchasing them over the internet. Lawmakers and parents fear that e cigarettes will become a gateway towards actual cigarettes for their teens.
Certain distributors have suggested that minors be allowed to purchase e-cigarette equipment with liquid that contains no nicotine. As of this date, no law has been written that would allow teens to buy electronic cigarettes without nicotine. All the laws written have banned the sale of all electronic cigarettes to minors.
E Cigarettes and Teenagers
Furthermore, e cigarettes are meant as an alternate device to kick the smoking habit, concerns are rising that they might have the opposite affect in minors. E cigarette liquid comes in hundreds of different flavors including fruit, drink, candy, and dessert flavors leading experts to believe this will entice minors to smoke electronic cigarettes and lead them to real cigarettes. Teens that are addicted to nicotine might automatically not care about the taste and start smoking tobacco burning cigarettes. Smoking would be on the rise with adults who tried electronic cigarettes as teenagers, and e-cigarettes wouldn’t help them quit since that’s what helped them start. If that happened, in a few years we would have more smokers than we do now.
Food and Drug Administration are following lawmakers and parents footsteps by cracking down on selling e-cigarettes to minors. As of now, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco are the only products under the FDA’s administrative jurisdiction. The FDA is currently circling around the electronic cigarette industry to enforce strict regulations and prevent the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.
