San Francisco is now a champion in backward thinking after banning the sales of flavoured e-liquids last year. Now, the news is that legislators now have their eyes on putting a blanket ban on the sales of all vaping equipment until there is a green light from FDA stating that vaping is safe and then set up new regulations towards that effect.
Shamann Walton, the San Francisco supervisor publicly declared the intentions of San Francisco legislator as touching the issue of vaping and vaping equipment. They announced that they want them in their city.
When Herrera was detailing the ban on e-cigarettes, he made it known that it is not an outright ban. Dr. Grant Colfax, the Director of Public Health, said that the industry is getting a whole new generation of youths addicted to nicotine, and so the proposed legislation is to prevent that gateway from e-cig addiction to the use of tobacco and hence, to tobacco addiction. He concluded that the move would save hundreds of lives, if not thousands.
A tobacco researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, Pam Ling added “I Take on this is that it’s absolutely reasonable to wait for FDA approval before allowing the sales of e-cigarettes in the city. They need to declare that it is safe and benefit public health before lifting the ban. I believe some common problems we are facing now, especially with products Juul, is that the product was allowed to be sold on the market before testing and approval. This, therefore, has led to smokers and some other people paying to be used by the company as guinea pigs.”
However, Juul spokesperson has responded to this and said “we enjoined the city of San Francisco to completely youth accessing vaping equipment but should do so in such a way that encourages the opportunity to put an end to the use of combustible cigarettes. Now, the question that requires an urgent answer is ‘why will San Francisco be comfortable with seeing combustible cigarettes sitting on shelves when we are all aware that they kill more than 480,000 Americans each year’?”
The American Vaping Association president, Gregory Conley told USA today that no youth should be allowed to vape. Also, no politician should also try to force any modern-day prohibition either. He said that the proposal and the rhetoric surrounding it is completely insane.
“what they are doing is trying to shut down a business that is running peacefully in their city. Meanwhile, walking through the streets of the city, you will either step in human excrement, or find people with different needles hanging down their arms. The truth is that San Francisco has greater priorities to attend to.”
According to the prediction of many people, by the end of 2018, the environment surrounding tobacco harm reduction and vaping in the USA would surely get worse. The proposal forwarded by Dennis Herrera in all ways defies simple logic. Prohibition on alcohol failed; restricting access to reduced harm will surely not work, but several lives will be lost until legislators come to their right senses.