How to Quit Vaping

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Millions of Americans use e-cigarettes. There’s little research into how to help them stop.

By his junior year of college, Zach Arledge had already tried to quit vaping about half a dozen times. But with each attempt, he found himself reflexively reaching for his Juul within a day.

So when he decided to try again, Mr. Arledge wanted to be prepared. He waited until winter break, when he’d have more free time, and took a week off work. He bought sugary cereals to help kick his cravings, and melatonin in case he had trouble sleeping.

He drew 72 squares onto paper, each one representing an hour of his first three days without nicotine. He marked them off as the hours ticked by, checking off a chunk when he woke up. Those first days, Mr. Arledge felt detached from his body, unable to focus on anything. He chewed on chopsticks and stayed in front of the TV, trying to distract himself.

The nicotine in vapes can be highly addictive, and can raise blood sugar, heart rate and blood pressure, among other health risks. And while some people turn to vaping to stop smoking cigarettes, e-cigarettes can contain substances that also pose health risks.

Despite the popularity of vapes — more than 8 million Americans were current e-cigarette users in 2018, according to federal health data — there is little established guidance to help people like Mr. Arledge quit. Many of the recommendations that do exist come from tobacco cessation efforts, not research into vaping specifically. » | Dani Blum | Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Some Thoughts on Vaping

I recently wrote a short essay on smoking and drinking. In it, I pointed out that I had been smoke-free for a full year and a half. I also pointed out that I disagreed with vaping being touted as a healthier alternative to smoking, pointing out that we know far too little about the habit yet to be able to tell.

This sad article on the BBC website today about a young 12-year old girl with lung damage helps prove my point.

In my experience as a person qualified in education, I would say that it is irresponsible to encourage this habit, especially among the young. Our young have been encouraged to take up the vaping habit because of the unrelenting war on smoking, cigarettes and tobacco. I stand by my words: vaping should not be encouraged, at least not at this time and at least not until we have many more years of experience with it. Originally, vaping was put forward as a way to help smokers to quit. And for that purpose, vapes should have been made available only on prescription. But vaping is no longer simply a means of giving up smoking; it is now an alternative to smoking, a habit to which young people have quickly been drawn.

It goes without saying that smoking is an unhealthy habit. Therefore, I have no problem with our government or the medical profession educating people on the dangers of habit. But that is as far as it should go. Cigarettes should not be made so expensive that they become unaffordable for anyone except for the superrich. In doing that, it makes the pleasurable habit affordable only for the privileged few. Ironically, it also make the habit more attractive! After all, if everyone could drive a Bentley, they would soon lose their appeal.

Whenever governments get involved, they screw things up. Governments should adopt a hands-off approach, being satisfied that they are doing all they can to inform people of the dangers. It is precisely because governments have been meddling that we now face the huge problem of so many of our young people being addicted to e-cigarettes and vaping! Do-gooders rarely do good; usually, they achieve the opposite.

© Mark Alexander

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Philip Morris lobbying to stop WHO ‘attack’ on vapes and similar products: Exclusive: Leaked email shows firm behind Marlboro cigarettes critical of global ‘prohibitionist’ agenda »

Smoking Is Back in Candy-coloured Disguise - and a Whole New Generation Is Addicted

THE GUARDIAN: Tobacco companies are pouring money into e-cigarettes and making them attractive to teens. Why is nobody stopping them?

Elf Bar disposable e-cigarette products in a shop display in the US. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
The modern sweet shop has long removed from its window the screw-top glass jars full of gobstoppers and lemon sherbets that used to tempt kids to spend their pocket money on the way home from school. Instead, there is an array of slim boxes in a rainbow of bright colours. “Banana ice”, “pink lemonade”, “blueberry sour raspberry”, “cotton candy ice”, they are labelled.

The jewelled boxes contain Elf bars: disposable e-cigarettes. The rules say they are for adults only. Under-18s are not allowed to buy them, even if they wander in to look at the confectionery that is also for sale in some of these shops. But everyone knows the pretty toys also end up in the hands of children, who may even have learned how to use them from influencers on TikTok.

It’s hugely alarming for the parents of teenage kids who catch a whiff of strawberry in the bedroom. They might in the past not have known that their child was experimenting with a scrounged fag behind the bike sheds after school. Smoking was once so widespread that it would be a rare child who didn’t take a puff at some point, hopefully choking on the fumes and never touching a cigarette again. » | Sarah Boseley | Thursday, November 10, 2022

The Guradian wants to hear from you if you have taken up new vices after turning 60. Click here for more info.

This is what you get when you interfere with the market and when you engage in social engineering.

I would say that it would be far, far better for people to enjoy smoking regular cigarettes (in moderation) than encouraging people to switch to e-cigarettes with all manner of weird and wonderful flavours (which appeal to children) or relaxing laws on cannabis. These killjoys are not very smart, are they? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you introduce e-cigarettes onto the market with apricot, peach, strawberry, blackberry, blackcurrant and all sorts of other appealing flavours which mask the nicotine, you are going to introduce a whole new generation of children to the joys of inhalation and exhalation. Smoking in another form, essentially. From vaping, when a little older, many will graduate to the smoking of real cigarettes.

I have no sympathy with these meddlesome killjoys. They have created a whole new generation of smokers-in-the-making. Sometimes, it is better just to leave things alone. Furthermore, by bringing down the number of people who smoke, the authorities have not improved the health of the nation. Not at all! People simply die of other causes. Now, instead of tobacco-related illnesses, people are dying of obesity and sugar-related illnesses such as diabetes. How stupid these politicians are! Don’t these interfering politicians understand that people will get their kicks somehow, one way or another? If they can’t get their kicks from smoking real cigarettes, they’ll get them from other unhealthy habits instead, like weed, sugary drinks, or sugary donuts. Furthermore, we do not yet know the long-term consequences of vaping. They try to say that it is healthier. But is it really? Only time will tell. I despair. – © Mark Alexander

Vape Haze – The Thriving Black Market of Vaping | Four Corners | ABC News

Jun 28, 2022 | Vaping was hailed as a new way to quit smoking. But now there are serious concerns it’s hooking a new generation on nicotine. An investigation by Four Corners has found there is a thriving black market, fueled by rising demand among young people and a failure to police the rules. We delve into the fierce battle about the harms of vaping, in what’s become a multi-billion-dollar global industry. Vaping advocates claim any harms caused by e-cigarettes pale in comparison to the dangers of smoking - and that vaping can be an effective quit tool. But public health experts say there’s limited evidence they help to quit smoking, and warn that vaping poses a significant long-term public health risk.
What a surprise! Vaping has become a problem in Australia, especially for young people. Well I never!

Politicians of every stripe, but particularly left-wing politicians, are engaged in social engineering; they are trying to change people’s preferences and habits, and in so doing are causing distortions in the marketplace and are engaging in social engineering. Sometimes things are better left alone. the vowel of your choice—leave things alone?

First of all, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a conventional cigarette as long as one’s smoking is kept within limits and it is done in moderation. I have smoked for most of my adult life; though I have given up now. (With ease, I hasten to add.) Smoking is not an addiction; rather, it is a habit.

They try and say that nicotine is “the most addictive substance known to man”. TOSH! POPPYCOCK! NONSENSE! Nicotine is hardly addictive at all! It is only addictive if you let it be so. I smoked twenty cigarettes a day for most of my adult life and when I gave up, I suffered no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. Not one! Nor have I had any cravings since giving up. (It will be three months on July 10th since giving up.)

Smoking has become the bête noire of our day; but it is actually a very pleasurable habit. The secret is not letting it control you. Many things can become addictive if you allow them to become so: chocolate, alcohol, sugary foods, gambling, and many other things besides. Self-control and self-discipline are called for.

Governments have been pushing vaping as an alternative to smoking for several years. I find this totally and utterly irresponsible, because we do not know the long-term effects of the habit. Fact is, too, they are very appealing to young people, because they are often high-tech, and because they can be purchased in all sorts of weird and wonderful flavours. So these young people are becoming dependent on them and they are convincing themselves that they are addicted to nicotine. Young people are young are often impressionable, weak-willed, and lacking in discipline.

What needs to be done is for governments to put pressure on the cigarette manufacturers to take the crap out of real cigarettes. Make them take out all those nasty chemicals, make them manufacture safer real cigarettes; and governments should bring the price of real cigarettes right down by taking all that excessive tax off them.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for bringing down the incidence of smoking; but it should be done by education and gentle persuasion. Social engineering is not only wrong; it is also very dangerous. Because people will get their kicks in life, one way or another. Take one pleasure away from them and they will find another pleasure to replace the one taken away. Moreover, that pleasure denied to people may well turn out in the long-run to be far less injurious to health than the new-fangled habit used to replace it.

Further, while we are on the subjects of smoking and vaping. Smoking a cigarette can look extremely sexy when done by an attractive person. That’s why they have been used to good effect in movies/films over the decades to make handsome actors and beautiful actresses look sexy. Vaping will never be used to replace cigarettes for this purpose. It just doesn’t have that allure. There is hardly anything about vaping which increases one’s sex appeal. Forget it! When I have seen people vaping, cloud-chasing, they look as though there’s a locomotive ahead! Furthermore, putting a hard piece of plastic onto one’s lips is hardly a sensual experience. – © Mark Alexander

The Thriving Black Market of Vaping | Four Corners

Jun 27, 2022 • Vaping was hailed as a new way to quit smoking. But now there are serious concerns it’s hooking a new generation on nicotine.

An investigation by Four Corners has found there is a thriving black market, fueled by rising demand among young people and a failure to police the rules.

We delve into the fierce battle about the harms of vaping, in what’s become a multi-billion-dollar global industry.

Vaping advocates claim any harms caused by e-cigarettes pale in comparison to the dangers of smoking - and that vaping can be an effective quit tool.

But public health experts say there’s limited evidence they help to quit smoking, and warn that vaping poses a significant long-term public health risk.


This is total and utter MADNESS! Why don’t these meddlesome politicians–idiots all!–leave things alone?

Smoking rates were coming down anyway. These e-cigarettes are unproven. We know not the long-term consequences of vaping, because people haven’t been vaping for long enough yet; so, we have incomplete data on the habit/addiction.

One thing I know for sure: Vaping has been made to look cool to young people, especially to techy types. But the fact of the matter is that this habit is bound to appeal to very young people, because they can get their fix of nicotine with all manner of flavours, such as apricot, peach, strawberry, raspberry and all types of other attractive flavours to young people. So, do you think that these would not appeal to school kids? For sure they will: they will be far more appealing to young people than normal cigarettes would be, because in order to start smoking normal cigarettes, one must acquire a taste for them, which often times, nay usually, is most unappealing at the start of one’s smoking ‘career’. In other words, in order to become a smoker, one has to persevere. This is surely not the case with e-cigarettes.

My own opinion is that it is HIGHLY IRRESPONSIBLE of politicians to push vaping as a substitute for smoking. No Health Secretary worth his salt would promote these damn things. I know that if I had children, I would be devastated if they took up this habit with unknown consequences.

They have demonized smokers now to such an extent that smokers are not wanted anywhere, leading to loneliness. The fact is there is NOTHING WRONG with the enjoyment of a cigarette as long as one’s smoking is kept in moderation. Everything is bad for one’s health if consumed in high quantities: eating, alcohol, smoking, sugar, etc. Moderation is key.

I have been a lifelong smoker. And how I enjoyed it! For people of my generation, smoking was the normal thing to do for REAL MEN. As a Swiss man stated in a Swiss documentary I have watched on YouTube: Back in the day, he said, if a man didn’t smoke, he was considered to be ein Sonderling, a crank or an eccentric! How times have changed!

They have put the price of cigarettes up so much in this damn country now that the price of a packet—Marlboro Reds were £12.50 when I gave up in early April—is totally out of sync with the pleasure derived from them. (Almost all of that price is tax.) Moreover, one can go nowhere to enjoy a cigarette anymore. People have become absolutely paranoid about second-hand smoke, which I believe is largely nonsense.

On top of that, one cannot go to a café, bar, or restaurant and enjoy a smoke, either. The concept of joie de vivre has been totally lost.

Nowadays, people recognise the dangers in everything, but recognise the pleasures in nothing. – Mark Alexander, May 27, 2022

As I say, I have smoked for most of my adult life. Never out of addiction; only ever out of pleasure. Smoking, in my experience is not an addiction, unless one allows it to be one. Further, I can honestly say that even though I smoked for years, I have never suffered from coughs or phlegm or anything like that. If one looks at a packet of cigarettes these days, one's hair and teeth will surely fall out because of tobacco. To say nothing of one suffering from impotence, cancer, etc. Is there actually a disease known to man that cannot be attributed to the nasty habit of enjoying a puff?

People these days have bees in their bonnets about so many things that are sources of pleasure. Even eating meat or dairy has become a political, rebellious act. Good God! What an age to be living in! Even the government isn’t willing to allow people a few pleasures. The British government, a right-wing government which is supposed to guarantee people maximum freedom to choose their own path in life, has declared that it wants to make Britain smoke-free by 2030. First of all, have they asked the people if they want this to happen? I don’t want it to happen for starters. What? Smoke-free to replace proper cigarettes with crap as seen in this documentary? What a sick joke! Secondly, I know from my life’s experience that should they be able to achieve this goal, it will be replaced with something else far, far worse. (We can see this above in this documentary.) Not to forget that now they're after smokers; soon they'll be after people who enjoy a drop of alcohol. Rest assured: These sick puritans won't rest until they have denied us all the pleasures of life. Think of the late German theologian, Martin Niemöller!

The way forward is for government to encourage people to quit smoking whilst at the same time encouraging the tobacco manufacturers to manufacture higher quality cigarettes, preferably eliminating as many of the harmful chemicals from cigarettes as possible. It can be done. It should be done. Indeed, it must be done.

Governments have talked about employing ‘Loneliness Czars’ to try and combat loneliness. What an idiotic idea that is! Loneliness in society is caused by many factors. Death of a loved one (which I know something about). But also by not being able to go out and mix with people as we were always able to do. Remember the English pub? These days, they resemble kindergartens rather than pubs. You can eat in them as much as you like and you can have a drink. But don't, for God's sake, expect to be able to smoke a cigarette in one! Das Rauchen ist strengstens verboten!

I could go on and on about this sort of thing. There is so much wrong with this damn country now that one has to ask oneself if it is indeed fixable.

Meddlesome politicians please go away. Come back another day. Let people live their lives their way. Live their lives as they see fit. – © Mark Alexander

US Bans All Products from Leading Vaping Company Juul - BBC News

Jun 24, 2022 • The US is banning the sale of all products sold by Juul, one of the country's top e-cigarette companies.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it did not have enough data to be sure that marketing the firm's products was "appropriate for the protection of public health".

Juul said it would challenge the move, which comes after other recent anti-smoking efforts by the FDA, including plans to reduce the amount of addictive nicotine allowed in cigarettes.


Bring the price of real cigarettes down. Most of the price is tax anyway. Make sure the quality of the cigarettes is much improved (especially by banning dangerous chemicals put in them unnecessarily) and let people smoke in moderation. Stop being so meddlesome.

I am very much against the war on smoking, and I am also against my government promoting vaping when they don't know the long-term consequences of the new habit.

Everything is bad for health when done to excess: eating, drinking, smoking, etc. But it is ironic that at the very time the authorities are turning the screws on smokers, they are relaxing laws on soft drugs like marijuana and cannabis.

Let people have a little fun and pleasure. They will anyway, whether the authorities like it or not. If smoking were banned tomorrow, people would find other ways of getting their kicks; and those ways might well turn out to be more injurious to health than smoking ever has been. We shall never live in Utopia; Utopia is unachievable.

Please note that I write this as an ex-smoker. – © Mark Alexander

E-cigarettes : Welcome Back, Big Tobacco - The Fifth Estate

Oct 22, 2016 • Big Tobacco is trying clean up its image, moving into the booming e-cigarette business which continuing to peddle the deadly tobacco products. This has left public health officials in Canada, the U.K. and the US.

Five million Canadians still smoke. Could e-cigarettes help wean them over to a safer nicotine delivery device? Many ex-smokers say 'yes.' E-cigarettes are their salvation.

Health Canada is on the cusp of deciding how e-cigarettes should be regulated. Mark Kelly heads to England -- a country that has taken bold steps in embracing the e-cigarette as a safer alternative. Will Canada? And what will this mean for our e-cigarette industry?

Until now, e-cigarettes with nicotine have not been endorsed by Health Canada. And that's kept Big Tobacco out of the Canadian market. Will new regulations open the doors for a tarred industry to join in the e-cigarette revolution?


Government of Canada: Vaping product regulations »

Juul Says Its Focus Was Smokers, but It Targeted Young Nonsmokers

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The company planted the seeds of a public health crisis by marketing to a generation with low smoking rates, and it ignored evidence that teenagers were using its products.

SAN FRANCISCO — In the face of mounting investigations, subpoenas and lawsuits, Juul Labs has insisted that it never marketed or knowingly sold its trendy e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pods to teenagers.

As youth vaping soared and “juuling” became a high school craze, the company’s top executives have stood firm in their assertion that Juul’s mission has always been to give adult smokers a saferalternative to cigarettes, which play a role in the deaths of 480,000 people in the United States each year.

“We never wanted any non-nicotine user and certainly nobody underage to ever use Juul products,” James Monsees, a co-founder of the company, testified at a congressional hearing in July.

But in reality, the company was never just about helping adult smokers, according to interviews with former executives, employees and investors, along with reviews of legal filings and social media archives. » | Julie Creswell and Sheila Kaplan | Saturday, November 23, 2019

Burning Desire: The Seduction Of Smoking

Les buralistes «choqués» par les mesures antitabac de Marisol Touraine

Pascal Montredon est le président de la Confédération des buralistes.

LE FIGARO: «Un gouvernement aux abonnés absents» qui «fait vraiment n'importe quoi». La réaction des buralistes ne s'est pas fait attendre après l'annonce des mesures antitabac de la ministre de la Santé, Marisol Touraine qui seront présentées le 17 juin prochain.

Après la loi Évin de 1991 interdisant la publicité pour les cigarettes et le décret sur l'interdiction de fumer dans les lieux publics en 2007, voici un nouveau coup dur pour les buralistes, qui reste toutefois à confirmer. Le ministère de la Santé a en effet déclaré qu'il réfléchissait également à d'autres pistes. Le coup dur est signé Marisol Touraine, la ministre de la Santé, qui présentera le 17 juin prochain ses nouvelles mesures antitabac. Le projet de loi relatif à la politique de santé prévoit trois mesures chocs: la mise en place de paquets neutres, la possibilité de faire des actions de groupe à la manière des class actions américaines et l'interdiction de la cigarette électronique dans les lieux publics. » | Par Charlotte Peyronnet | vendredi 30 mai 2014


Tabac, famille, malbouffe : arrêtez de nous dire comment vivre ! »

Related »

France Moves to Ban e-Cigarettes from Public Places

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Health ministry due to unveil tough anti-smoking rules that could ban e-cigarettes and impose 'neutral' packets without logos

France could ban e-cigarettes in public places and force tobacco companies to remove logos and colours from packaging under tough new legislation due to be unveiled in June.

The measures are reportedly among several being considered by Marisol Touraine, the French health minister, and which will be outlined on June 17.

They could see all company branding and colour banned from cigarette packs dubbed “neutral”, in legislation similar to a landmark 2012 Australian rule.

A maximum of 65 percent of the package could be covered with written or visual anti-smoking messages, which would be a 25 percent increase over the current 40 percent limit, French daily Le Figaro reported.

It is hoped that by removing recognisable symbols, such as the bright red of Malboro packages, younger people will find the whole idea of smoking less appealing. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Friday, May 30, 2014

New York relève à 21 ans l'âge pour acheter des cigarettes

LA PRESSE: «Vous avez une pièce d'identité?»: le buraliste scanne la carte de sa jeune cliente et vérifie son âge avant de lui tendre un paquet de cigarettes. Depuis dimanche à New York, il faut avoir 21 ans pour acheter du tabac.

«En dessous de 21 ans, pas de tabac», prévient un petit panneau à l'entrée du magasin Bouverie Iconic Magazine, qui vend tabac, journaux, bonbons, café et pâtisseries, dans le quartier de Nolita. Et pas question de tricher. La carte d'identité est passée au scanneur, et sans pièce d'identité, pas de cigarettes.

La mesure est sans précédent dans une grande ville américaine. Elle relève l'âge légal de 18 à 21 ans pour acheter cigarettes, tabac ou cigarettes électroniques. Signée le 19 novembre par l'ancien maire Michael Bloomberg, elle a pris effet six mois plus tard. » | Brigitte Dusseau | Agence France-Presse | New York | dimanche 18 mai 2014

European Union Approves Tough Rules on Electronic Cigarettes

The European Parliament adopted rules requiring electronic
cigarettes to carry health warnings and be childproof.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The European Parliament on Wednesday approved rules that will for the first time regulate Europe’s fast-growing market for electronic cigarettes.

Beginning in mid-2016, advertising for e-cigarettes is to be banned in the 28 nations of the European Union, as it already is for ordinary tobacco products. E-cigarettes will be required to carry health warnings, and must be childproof. The amount of nicotine will be limited to 20 milligrams per milliliter, similar to ordinary cigarettes. » | David Jolly | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Packets of ten cigarettes and menthol flavours banned under new EU rules: EU ministers have voted for a raft of tough new rules on tobacco sales in an effort to reduce the number of smokers by 2.4 million. » | Keith Perry | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

New York City Puts e-Cigarettes under Smoking Ban

THE GUARDIAN: Measure means 'vaping' will be prohibited anywhere that smoking conventional tobacco products is banned

The New York City council has voted to add electronic cigarettes to the city's strict smoking ban, in what could be the latest of many anti-tobacco measures put in place by the outgoing mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Only weeks after New York became the first major city to raise the legal age for buying tobacco to 21, the city council voted 43-8 to add electronic cigarettes to the city's Smoke-Free Air Act.

Bloomberg's other initiatives have included bans on trans fats and attempting to limit the sale of large sugary drinks. If the mayor signs the bill as expected, smoking e-cigarettes - or "vaping" - would be prohibited at public and private venues such as beaches, parks, restaurants and office buildings after 120 days.

The council speaker, Christine Quinn, who sponsored the bill, said at a press conference that the public use of e-cigarettes threatened to undermine enforcement of anti-smoking laws because their appearance was similar to traditional cigarettes and could "renormalise smoking in public places." » | Reuters in New York | Friday, December 20, 2013

EU Seeks 'Ban On All Currently Available E-cigarettes'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: EU wants all electronic cigarettes removed from shop shelves because they 'normalise the action of smoking'

All electronic cigarettes that are currently on sale in Britain would be banned and removed from the shop shelves under new European Union proposals.

A confidential negotiating document drafted by the European Commission seeks to overturn a vote by MEPs that rejected outlawing them in their present form. Brussels officials fear that there is a “risk that electronic cigarettes can develop into a gateway to normal cigarettes”, according to the paper, and want to include the smoke-free alternative under a new EU “tobacco products directive” — despite the fact that they contain no tobacco.

The bid to ban e-cigarettes drew anger from suppliers in Britain, where some 1.3 million of the current 10 million smokers have switched to the electronic devices.

Fraser Cropper, the chief executive officer of Totally Wicked, an e-cigarette supplier based in Lancashire, accused EU officials of wanting to introduce a ban by the back door in defiance of the European Parliament.

“Behind closed doors in Brussels, unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats are drafting proposals that will deny millions of existing and former smokers access to a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes,” he said. » | Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels and Henry Samuel in Paris, Brussels | Thursday, November 28, 2013

New York City Bans Sale of Cigarettes to Under 21s

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: No one under 21 will be able to purchase tobacco products in New York City

New York City has voted to ban the sale of cigarettes, e-cigarettes and tobacco to anyone under the age of 21, raising the previous threshold of 18.

New York is the first large city in the US to raise the age limit so high, a resolution that follows years of increasingly stringent laws on tobacco.

The federal age requirement for buying cigarettes is 18, which some states previously raised to 19.

A spokeswoman for New York City council said the proposal was approved by 35 votes to 10.

New York was the pioneer of a ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and public places - initially criticised - but since adopted in cities across the West. » | AFP | Edited by Bonnie Malkin | Wednesday, October 30, 2013

My comment:

New York used to be a wonderful city to visit. Now, I give it a very wide berth. I am a moderate smoker, so I have no desire to visit a city that makes it so difficult for me to enjoy myself.

This latest measure, banning people from buying cigarettes under the age of 21, is stupid beyond belief. So correct me if I am wrong. Now, a New Yorker can die for his country, he can own firearms, he can father a child, he can marry, he can buy a home, he can pay his federal and state taxes, but he cannot buy a pack of cigarettes. The person who thought this law up has sawdust for brains, as do the people who voted for it.

I would have thought that New Yorkers have far, far more important things to worry about. No wonder the US is in the dire state it is in. – © Mark

This comment appears here too.

E-cigarette Sales on the Rise

French Opt For E-cigarettes But Health Risk Remains
Almost half a million people in France have turned to the e-cigarette but studies show it may also be harmful to health.