Katharine Silbaugh, a Boston University law professor and one of the leading petitioners of Brookline’s bylaw, argued that nicotine and tobacco shouldn’t be regulated like alcohol or cannabis, which “whether we’re right or not, we believe at some age, they are safe enough to use.”
“It doesn’t make sense to have an age restriction that seems to indicate that you have become old enough to smoke,” she said. “You’re never old enough to smoke.”
It is almost a cliché to say that prohibition doesn't work but it bears repeating. Take Australia, where nicotine vapes have always been illegal. For the last few years it has even been illegal to import them for your own use. Figures published last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show how well the ban has worked: 14.4% of Australian adults have used an e-cigarette. In the UK, where nicotine vapes have always been legal and public health agencies have actively encouraged smokers to switch to them, the figure happens to be exactly the same: 14.4% of British adults have used an e-cigarette.
The figures for young people are even more striking. Among Australians aged 18-24, 38% have ever used an e-cigarette. In the UK, 22% of 16-24 year olds have ever used an e-cigarette. The figures are not directly comparable because the UK figures include 16 and 17 year olds, but it is clear from the data that more young adults have tried vaping in Australia than they have in Britain.
There is nothing wrong with that, but it is a pretty remarkable fail for a country that not only prohibits the sale of nicotine vapes but whose government, media and public health establishment is hysterically opposed to them.
If the prohibitionists want a crumb of comfort, the rate of current use
is slightly lower in Australia (4%) than in Britain (5.2%). So, er, well done.
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