As bewildered chronological adults wring their hands and scratch their heads on how to best fight the teen vaping "epidemic", a recent article came out in Utah that actually asked teens themselves how to do it. The answer was simple: tax the hell out of it to make it more expensive. Gee, who woulda thunk it?
Notice they did not say anything about raising the age limit, by the way. America's experience with combustible cigarettes has shown that raising the price, via taxes or otherwise, seems to be the most effective and cost-effective way to do it. And while it works for all ages, the effect size is larger for young people since they are more price-sensitive overall.
Of course, if vape taxes are raised, care must be taken to also raise combustible tobacco taxes so as not to inadvertently steer young people back to smoking. And as long as vaping remains an available alternative, cigarette taxes can go much higher than they are now (except New York) without creating too much of a black market. Thus vape taxes should go up, and cigarette taxes should be even higher still. And only nicotine-containing vape juices and pods should be taxed significantly, ideally proportional to nicotine content. (Hardware devices themselves should only be taxed modestly, if at all.)
Other effective measures we have noted include capping and reducing the nicotine content of vape products down to European and Israeli levels (JUUL, we're looking at YOU), strictly enforcing the 18 age limit on vendors for all tobacco and nicotine products, and perhaps also removing kid-friendly fruity flavors of nicotine-containing vapes from the market. But raising the age limit any higher than 18 should quite frankly not even be considered. Too bad Utah is now the latest state to NOT heed that last bit of advice.
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Increasing taxes on vaping products is an idea that works. In wealthy metropolitan areas, higher taxes probably wouldn't work as much to reduce vaping by young people since those young people are less price sensitive. I doubt that JUUL will ever remove its kid friendly flavors. JUUL is a company of hypocrisy since it markets vaping products to young people while also supporting a smoking and vaping age of 21. It's a company that should be defunct. The governor of Virginia, where Iive, has signed a bill which will raise the smoking and vaping age to 21. The law will take effect on July 1.
ReplyDeleteJUUL is a quisling company without a country who supports an age limit of 21, and they also sold out to Altria (Philip Morris), whose name is synonymous with Big Tobacco. We all know what they say about karma, and they will soon get theirs big time. Fie upon them! They can eat a nice bowl of Pasta FONGOOL!
ReplyDeleteThat sucks about Virginia. Now my home state of New York is doing it too. When will it ever end?
I think that in the 2020s decade, a federal bill will be passed which will raise the smoking and vaping age to 21. In 2015, such a bill was introduced in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
DeleteMost likely yes. Unlike with the drinking age, which applies to both drinkers and sellers alike and required the workaround involving federal highway funding coercion, the federal tobacco sale age only applies to sellers, and since 2009 Congress assumed the authority to set a federal age limit of 18, and delegated it to the FDA who now officially controls tobacco (and now vape products as well since 2016). Only Congress can set the age limit higher than 18, but they can and will raise it to 21 within a few years or sooner unless we the People are able to stop them.
DeleteThat said, while the states' rights argument is likely void in this case now, I still can't see how setting any age limit higher than the age of majority (18 in 46 states) jibes with the Constitution, especially the substantive due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
DeleteNote to readers: Please DO NOT advertise or spam anything on this blog. And certainly DO NOT advertise anything illegal or questionable. I just deleted a whole bunch of such spamming in this comments section.
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