Teens these days are under the wrong perception that smoking e-cigarettes is less harmful and cooler than smoking regular cigarettes. What they don’t know is, that e-cigarettes have chemicals and nicotine in them that are both toxic, can raise your blood pressure and spike your adrenaline. That can increase your heart rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack. The flavors that are used in these electronic devices do not only contain harmful chemicals but also leave behind a strange odor that doesn’t go away even after hours of vaping. Congress has lately been discussing new legislation that would ban e-cigarette flavors on a national level. Since teens these days are more inclined towards vaping, banning the e juice flavors may result in producing a favorable outcome.
What would be the immediate effects?
The first and foremost thing that is going to happen after a flavor ban will be a rise in the prices of the available stock. The sellers in the black market will keep stocking flavors and start selling them at high prices, like with anything that gets banned. The same thing happened with shisha flavors a few years ago. Since teens do not usually have that many sources of income, it will be quite hard for them to purchase e-cigarette flavors at a higher price. Another possible outcome is the illegal manufacturing of substandard and cheap flavors. Since teens won’t have any other option – they might have to opt for these cheap and substandard flavors resulting in serious health problems.
How will Teens react?
Since the teens of today have immense exposure to almost everything (through their iPhones and such), it might be impossible to stop them from vaping. Until then, they might start stealing money from their friends and parents in order to purchase flavors on the black market.
Whether it’s drugs, alcohol or any other harmful substance that has a strong demand, no matter how many times you ban it, it will always manage to circulate across the market. Since nicotine is an addictive substance, a large number of teens might suffer from stress and discomfort. Not all teens will have the resources or connections to get e-cigarette flavors in the black market, and they might shift to regular smoking or even shisha smoking, which is much worse.
What will be the overall result?
The overall ban on vape flavors will definitely affect a large number of teens (as well as adults), since they won’t have the resources to acquire these flavors. Some teens might completely stop vaping and may make themselves busy with other less harmful activities. The others, however, are likely to shift towards other types of smoking such as regular cigarettes or shisha smoking.
When a teen is exposed to smoking and nicotine, he will most probably find a way to quench his thirst. Majority of teens these days are indulged in vaping just for the sake of fun, so a flavor ban might definitely shift them towards the use of other smoking-related substances. Putting a complete stop to this (bad) habit is not such an easy decision…
