Reconsidering Vape Ban
There is a trending subjective concern about the banning of vape products across the United States, especially among college-aged students. People of my age group have been reintroduced to nicotine in recent years through vape that has lead to the banning of it because of its possibly deadly effects. Depending on the product, vape contains a variety of harmful chemicals that include the main ingredient of nicotine, the highly addictive chemical, which has led to several severe medical problems in college and high school students today raising a major concern. If vape is getting banned nationwide, why not cigarettes or alcohol as well? Aren’t they also drugs that anybody can get addicted to with the combination of more harmful effects? I think the nuance of vape factors into why it is getting banned as similar to the prohibition of alcohol.
Vape and alcohol have negative effects on the human mind and body. The nicotine in vape spikes adrenaline and increases the heart rate leading to an increased likelihood of a heart attack. The sudden lack of accessibility to vape might lead someone to reach for a cigarette since it contains the same chemical. On the other hand, alcohol also affects the human body and mind negatively. The effects are a range of health problems such as liver damage, cancer and brain damage to name a few. For the mind, the consumption of it changes the chemistry of your brain. It decreases the amount of serotonin in your brain which is a key one in depression meaning that it disrupts the balance of chemicals and processes that include neurotransmitters to alert the body of different thoughts and feelings.
The banning of vape products in the United States reminds me of the prohibition of alcohol where the transportation, importation, production, and the sale of it was banned nationwide. This constitutional ban was a “noble experiment” to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, and reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, a provision of housing for the needy, according to an article from the CATO Institute titled “Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure.” Ultimately, it was constituted in order to improve health and hygiene in the United States as I would assume is the same reason for the banning of vape products. As we all know, prohibition did eventually end with the opposite result of increased crime and unregulated production and possession.
I believe a similar outcome will result from vape products being banned in totality. People would replace e-cigarettes with real ones which is exactly what we don’t need more of. This brings me to ask the question, why hasn’t there been a prohibition of cigarettes in the United States? Why not now? In my opinion, the reason why is because of money. Businesses sell these deadly products for a profit from their customers and it relates to America’s economy because they have more financial resources to conduct research and develop new goods to offer a variety of job opportunities, greater job stability, and higher wages. If these products were to be banned, it would be detrimental not only to them, but to the economy. So why did they once ban alcohol knowing it’s industry was a major part of America’s economy? Because of the experimental aspect of it. They thought that banishing it would improve the United States socially and eventually economically to only find out that it doesn’t.
In conclusion, I think that vape products should not be banned nationwide. The reason why is because of its deficits such as replacing the drug with other drugs and criminal activity increasing in America possibly as it similarly happened with the banning of alcohol. If the idea of history always seeming to repeat itself is true, alcohol, vape products, and cigarettes should be left legalized and government regulated.
