Why are they trying to protect us from…nothing?

Talk about a Nanny State! The control freaks have officially gone wild.

New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and even places like Yakima, Washington are intent on yanking e-cigarettes right out of your hands.

And this has nothing to do with the health issues associated with actually smoking. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

With no real evidence that “vaping,” as it’s called, is a health risk to those who do it and even less that it poses a threat to anyone else, these “behavioral dictators” are just trampling on what’s left of our rights.

As I understand it, people use e-cigarettes for two main reasons: They smoke and aren’t allowed to in certain places. Or they are trying to quit and prefer this experience to the patch or gum.

If you’re not familiar with e-cigs, they simulate smoking by heating a liquid that usually contains nicotine. They don’t “burn” and what the user exhales is a vapor, not smoke.

And since these vapors have not been shown to create any public health hazard like second-hand smoke, officials are grasping at some pretty flimsy straws.

The most ridiculous straw: They must be banned because they look too much like the real thing!

That gem came from no less than New York City’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley.

Dr. Farley admits there’s no evidence e-cig vapor is a risk to anyone, other than the risk of embarrassment. Since bartenders and waiters might (somehow) mistake an e-cig for the real deal, they might ask someone to stop smoking who’s not. And that could cause an awkward moment.

Now, certainly any bar or restaurant is free to ban patrons from using e-cigs on its premises. But that’s not the issue here. It’s more about what Forbes called “making it illegal to impersonate a smoker.”

CDC Director Thomas Frieden says the campaign against e-cigs is simply about “the precautionary principle: better safe than sorry.”

Ummm…sounds good, Mr. Frieden. Could you use that same “principle” when it comes to pushing all those vaccines on us?

Then there’s the idea that the “coolness” of e-cigs will lure kids into using the real thing. That theory pretty much went up in smoke with a CDC study showing that teen smoking has actually gone down as e-cig popularity has gone up.

So what’s really behind this crusade to ban e-cigs?

Well, there are some other players out there besides those city officials who are trying to “keep up appearances.”

These are companies that stand to lose a lot of profits if smokers switch to e-cigs or use them as a tool to stop smoking. Companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, which make drugs like Zyban, Chantix and Nicorette that are sold to help you kick the habit.

Recently revealed emails show just how hard Big Pharma is pushing for tough regulations and red tape for e-cigs. It’s even asked the European Commission to require they be licensed as medicines and their advertising restricted.

Glaxo told Bloomberg News that it’s all about safety, adding that the company supports the smoker’s “right to choose” among different products that may help them quit.

Right. Just as long as those products are drugs with risky side effects and not make-believe cigarettes.

Sources:
“Cities take the lead in regulating electronic cigarettes” Nancy Shute, March 5, 2014, NPR, npr.org

“NYC Health Commissioner says E-cigarettes must be banned because they look like the real thing” Jacob Sullum, December 5, 2013, Forbes, forbes.com