Vape Deniers - Pt. 2 Heroin, Cocaine and Vaping, Oh My!
Representative VD is someone’s bat shit crazy uncle. He’s the guy who warned you that “kids get kidnapped at Spring Break and wake up in a tub of ice...missing a kidney!” Last week we looked at VD’s push to move people away from vaping and back to smoking cigarettes, so that babies and children are "protected." This post will examine VD’s claims that vapers are a step away from trading sex in a dark alley for a couple mils of juice.
VD cites as “Fact” that nicotine infused juice is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. There are two problems with VD’s tin foil hat wearing theory: 1) Vapers generally decrease the amount of nicotine they vape; and, 2) very, very few vapers look, or act, anything like Charlie Sheen in withdrawals when they're out shopping for juice. But crazy old uncle VD isn’t gonna let facts get in the way of his fear mongering. He’ll tell you that if vaping doesn’t cause spontaneous baby abortions right now, then the kid will be this generation's version of a crack baby - juice baby?
Like heroin (horse, skag, chiva, bombita, caballo, dope) and cocaine (coke, snow, nose candy, “C”, yeyo, Yey), vape (juice, e-juice, liquid, e-liquid, PG/VG) has street names and destroys young brains and lives. Seriously, they claim that vaping will cause permanent damage to adolescent minds, so we’re much better off if kids just smoke cigarettes.
Our crazy uncle’s proposed Washington State law (HB 1645 and companion SB 5573) also points out that vaping is a gateway drug that leads to tobacco just like marijuana is a gateway to heroin (horse, skag, chiva, bombita, caballo, dope) and cocaine (coke, snow, nose candy, “C”, yeyo, Yey), and gangster rap. And if that’s not bad enough, “vape smoke” contains embalming fluid and heavy metals and is even more dangerous than cigarettes! Seriously, these are “facts”, recounted like they are true, in these bills.
If all of the above isn’t bad enough, kids can get into that vape liquid stuff and overdose and die and break the hearts of everyone in their family, and, and... Does anyone doubt that there are way, way more dangerous chemicals, drugs and bottles of booze in the average home?
Finally, VD and his disingenuous buddies point out that vaping has all this risk of smoking and no benefits. After all there is “no long term” proof that vaping helps smokers quit. Bulllshit. Sort of. First off, there are plenty of Vapers who no longer smoke. Check out #Improof. Secondly, VD is playing games with words: vaping is relatively new, and there are a number of studies showing vaping is a great alternative to smoking, but being new there cannot be any long term studies. It’s like looking at a beautiful baby and saying “well, there’s no long term proof that she’s gonna amount to anything, and she might turn out dangerous, so we should just get rid of her before she does something bad…”
Don't listen to crazy VD, and don't throw out the baby with the bath water. The kid has potential. Besides, here’s what actual experts at the Palgrave MacMillan Journal of Public Health Policy have to say: “We conclude that electronic cigarettes show tremendous promise in the fight against tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. By dramatically expanding the potential for harm reduction strategies to achieve substantial health gains, they may fundamentally alter the tobacco harm reduction debate.”
~ Jim Oliver is a Partner at Durflinger Oliver & Associates.
