This is a tactic that makes no sense to me. If we ban all but the nastiest flavors then the teens won’t want to vape? Are adults only leaving the grocery store with bread and water? Is salt and pepper the only spice on the shelves at the grocery store? Has science determined that taste buds die between 18 and 21 years old? Did I miss the memo???
Flavors attract PEOPLE of all ages. Kitchens ( yes, even the anti-vape kitchens ) have tons of spices for flavors and variations so we don’t eat and drink the same boring flavor every day. Flavors don’t just attract teens. They are vital to attract all ages. Anyone here paying $7.00 for a water at Starbucks? I doubt it!
Flavors are everywhere and are a key point in advertising anything we humans can taste. The problem is not that there are flavors in vape. The problem is we are not making sensible legislation to prevent teens from getting a hold of products intended for adults and we are not enforcing the few laws that do exist well! Some teens will always find a way to experiment with products intended for adults. That is just a fact. We have to work smart to minimize that. I would love to eliminate it but there are plenty of teens that are smarter than lots of adults. A few teens will always find a way.
We need to find smart ways to make it very difficult for teens to get products like alcohol, cigarettes, and vape. Part of that is enforcing good simple laws like T-21. We might want to spend a little more money on enforcement. Weed out the greedy, bad actors in our industry that will sell to anyone tall enough to put money on the counter. We do have a lot of those. Most are not in vape shops but they do exist even there. Catch them, make the penalties hurt enough that they can’t afford to continue selling age restricted products to minors. I don’t see a war on alcohol! Teens find places and ways to buy alcohol but it is the exception rather than the rule. I think the same applies to vape but we seem to have a war on vape and a different set of standards for vape.
License vape shops similar to the way many states license alcohol sales. Sell to a minor, lose your license to sell. You are out of business. Bad actors start disappearing this way. A majority of your sales need to be directly vape related to be licensed as a vape shop. This would keep most places that kids KNOW to look for (convenience stores, corner drug store, etc.) out of the vape business and make it much more difficult for teens to get a hold of vape products. This very strategy has worked reasonably well for other adult oriented industries.
In my opinion, one of the most important factors of flavors in vape is that I want to QUIT SMOKING cigarettes. The last thing I need is to taste and smell exactly like what I want to get away from!!! One of the simple things that was so nice about vaping over cigarettes is that I don’t reek of the stink of stale tobacco smoke and ash trays. How hard is this to understand?? It is just breaking one of the many links in the chain of a habit.
To think that flavors are a key to attracting teens is like saying water is a key to attracting fish. We all like flavors in everything we taste. Flavors are not for teens. They are for everybody. Can we put this silliness to bed?!?!?!