Many of us have recently heard of the “vape epidemic.” There is a lot of mystery surrounding this phrase and lots of uninformed blame from general citizens. What we do know is hundreds of cases of severe lung injury and a few cases of death have been linked to vaping. I find it interesting that this “epidemic” has suddenly risen to the forefront over the last few months when vaping has been a trend for several years now. There is an obvious connection, however, between state laws and these cases. On August 30th, CNBC published an article about this “mysterious lung disease.” According to the article, more than half of vaping-related illnesses have come from users who reported smoking THC from vape devices. No products have been narrowed down as the cause of this illness. However, we’re seeing major tobacco companies like Marlboro and JUUL take blame for these cases. I don’t believe this is fair for several reasons. Of course, I personally can’t say any use of tobacco is beneficial, but these companies didn’t decide to switch up their chemicals one day and cause the deaths and hospitalization of many users. What is happening is simple, many states over the last 3 years have raised the legal age of tobacco purchasing to 21, starting with Hawaii in 2016. Right now, 19 states have followed suit in raising the legal age. This is a problem. Teens and young adults who were previously buying their tobacco products from stores and are now addicted have been forced to the streets to illegally fulfill their habit. With doing so, there is an unregulated black market that includes products which may be contaminated, laced, or in some way tampered with, leading to this mysterious disease. For example, Utah teen, Maddie Nelson, 18, was hospitalized after contracting a lung disease linked to vaping. With little investigation, I believe she is from the Salt Lake City area, where one must be at least 19 years old to purchase these products. Therefore, Maddie was illegally using products, and with a 1.5-hour drive to the nearest state border where she could legally buy these products, it is safe to assume she was getting her products from the streets. Many other cases follow the same pattern, some even involving the use of vaporized THC. With all these cases, it is unfair to blame the tobacco companies, and it may be time to rethink the benefits of raising the legal age for tobacco use to 21. In fact, according to tobaccofreekids.org, 46% of adult smokers become daily smokers by the age of 18. It is very important that we clear up this confusion.
Sources:
https://people.com/health/teen-vaping-nearly-died-severe-lung-illness/
https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/what-we-do/us/sale-age-21
Abram Bauer
Thumbnail URL: https://nypost.com/2019/09/10/alabama-probes-5-cases-of-lung-disease-tied-to-vaping/
THE RAMBLER 