E-cigarettes 1
There are some subjects that I inherently want nothing to do with. Electronic cigarettes is one of them.
As an at least halfway politics reporter in Bell County, there are moments where you think you could do better and be more decisive than the people we have currently elected. There are also moments where I really do not envy their place. Some issues are really hard to address and e-cigarettes, to me, is one of them.
I support the rights of adult Americans to do what they want, within reason. I support the rights of small businesses, within reason. But what happens when those rights start infringing on the safety of our children? From where I sit, it’s a really complicated and difficult subject to address.
I went on the KDH News podcast to talk about it Sept. 25.
I am obviously grateful to be invited on there and I do feel like, as difficult of a subject this may be, it is good to at least talk about it.
To give you a reporter’s perspective, usually, when I go to small business events, I figure there is an implied idea that, if this is something you are interested in, you should stop by there and support them. Personally, I am a very big small business supporter and very much in favor of local nonprofits. With smoke stores, I absolutely wish them no harm and will be there to advocate for them, but, at the same time, if you are not a regular customer of smoke stores, I would under no circumstances encourage you to go there or start smoking. The Center for Disease Control says all tobacco consumption, including e-cigarettes, is inherently bad.
Should we be sad these businesses are struggling or glad? It’s a very fine line to walk and, frankly, one I don’t know how to.
I will note, the far and away most controversial aspect of this bill seems to be the restrictions on selling e-cigarettes from China. One person associated with a smoke store indicated that the other restrictions were somewhat confusing. Beyond that, I did not hear any complaints against the other key tenets of the bill, which basically said no advertisements aimed at children and no disguised e-cigarettes.
