Speaker 1: Why are cities across America considering bans on e-cigarettes and vaping?
Is it to protect public health?
While that's what you typically hear, I think there's another important explanation.
After all, there are lots of unhealthy products that nobody's trying to ban.
One reason vaping, in particular, is being targeted is due to lobbying from big businesses.
Namely, tobacco companies.
Hold on.
Aren't some of the people pushing for bans on e-cigarettes the same folks who used to
lobby against big tobacco?
Absolutely.
Many anti-tobacco activists have become anti-vaping activists.
Saying that just like regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes could be dangerous for people's
health or that they could send the wrong message to kids.
Now those activists find themselves on the same side as their formal foes since tobacco
company lobbyists are fighting e-cigarettes, too.
They're worried about their bottom line.
Studies show that vaping is twice as effective as other methods in helping people quit smoking.
By pushing for regulations that make e-cigarettes less accessible to consumers they ensure that
more people will keep smoking tobacco.
We've got a classic case of what some scholars call the "Bootleggers and Baptists Phenomena."
Well-intentioned activists end up pushing for the same rules in the interests they actually
oppose.
This helps lend all the lobbying efforts an air of legitimacy.
They can claim it's for public health.
Meanwhile, most of the lobbying money is on the side interests that don't care about health.
They care about getting an unfair advantage over their competitors by using government
regulations to work in their favor.
The tobacco company, RJ Reynolds, has even hedged their bets by starting to make their
own brands of e-cigarettes, while simultaneously lobbying for bans against other types of e-cigarettes.
The kinds they don't make.
Claiming that those kinds are a bigger health risk.
Talk about an unfair advantage.
Unfortunately, situations like this are not uncommon.
In every industry, you'll find businesses that are using their money to lobby the government
to get regulations passed that look like they're in the public interest, but actually benefit
them at the expense of their competitors.
Doesn't it seem wrong that these big businesses get to decide what you do with your body and
your property?
Isn't that for you to decide?
A better approach would be allowing individuals and property owners to decide where e-cigarettes
can be used ... not to enact regulations that make it harder for smokers to quit.