By Craig Majors, Liquid Vapor Lounge
For a brief moment last year, a divided Congress put aside its differences to help prevent underage vaping by raising the smoking age to 21. It was a step in the right direction, but now some in Congress want to go further and pass an adult prohibition on flavored tobacco and vaping products.
We learned in school that the 1920s Prohibition backfired, creating the foundations of organized crime in America and opening new black markets. But modern criminal enterprises are much more sophisticated—so a new prohibition would make the original look like child’s play.
Five U.S. agencies, spanning from State Department to Homeland Security, have declared illicit tobacco trade to be a threat to national security. With a prohibition that criminalizes flavored traditional tobacco products, smugglers from abroad will create and flood a new black market, in which products may be mixed with dangerous narcotics and chemicals. America will become a top destination for the world’s tobacco smugglers—and they will commit other related crimes, like murder and trafficking, within our borders. This real concern is why President Obama’s administration and Democrats in Congress specifically chose not to ban menthol cigarettes when they passed the Tobacco Control Act in 2009.
Law enforcement, for their part, are already stretched thin, so a sweeping prohibition on flavored tobacco and vaping products will be tough for officers to enforce. In particular, local police departments may not afford the resources needed to carry out a prohibition after their states’ lose a major source of tax revenue.
A flavored tobacco ban is being promoted as a way to reverse the trend in youth vaping, but youth use of traditional tobacco products has been on a steady decline and is at record lows; vaping products are a tobacco harm reduction aide, and should not be considered.
Not only is a flavor ban on tobacco products a solution in search of a problem, it is hypocritical that many who are pushing for this proposal have come out in favor of recreational marijuana and remain completely silent on flavored alcoholic beverages.
Instead of an adult prohibition on flavored tobacco, members of Congress like Representative Kendra Horn should focus on real solutions to protect teens. Congress could instead enforce existing laws, create positive youth development programs, impose larger fines for retailers that sell to underage minors, and introduce better age-verification requirements for online sales.
