A bill proposed by two Democratic State Representatives in New Hampshire would effectively ban the sale of all e-cigarettes, vaping products, and “any electronic smoking device composed of a mouthpiece, a heating element, a battery, and electronic circuits that may or may not contain nicotine.” The bill would criminalize the sale of the single most effective means of quitting cigarettes and shaking nicotine addiction. In their haste to ban, regulate, tax, or criminalize everything in existence, these two politicians proposed a terrible bill.Image by Sarah Johnson / Balck Note E-cigarette Liquid
House Bill 1624 was likely proposed in response to the ridiculous reaction around the US by politicians in localities, states, and the federal government in regards to vaping. Over the past few months, it was discovered that there may have been six people who died in the US who also may have used flavored vitamin E oil in their vapes. Of course, anyone with a brain could tell you that inhaling heated oils with or without tobacco is probably not healthy. Indeed, our lungs were designed to handle only three substances – all of which are coincidentally found in the Earth’s air: Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, and Oxygen. Putting any other substance into your lungs is likely a bad idea. And bad ideas should not be criminalized by politicians.
Last year, the Liberty Block published an article in response to HB680. That Democratic bill sought to expand the 65% tobacco tax to include vaping, which would make vaping much more expensive. The article explained explained the benefits of vaping to the millions of smokers who want to quit the terribly dangerous habit, a habit which is considered by many doctors to be the single worst habit in existence.
Of course, even casual observers of politics understand that the reason politicians are attacking the vaping industry while letting the much more harmful tobacco industry slide has to do with the humongous amount of lobbying big tobacco does. Vaping, on the other hand, is such a new industry that they do not yet have an organized lobbying infrastructure and the money that big tobacco has. This will change once the vaping producers grow and/or when large tobacco companies expand into the vaping industry. As we are seeing with the legalization of cannabis, politicians will happily legalize products and substances when it benefits them.
The bill, which will be heard by the House Commerce Committee in the coming weeks, reads as follows: (bold for emphasis)
There shall be a moratorium on the sale of e-cigarettes until the commissioner of the department of health and human services determines that they are not a cause of illness or death as certified by the commissioner to the secretary of state and the director of legislative services. For the purposes of this section, “e-cigarette” means any electronic smoking device composed of a mouthpiece, a heating element, a battery, and electronic circuits that may or may not contain nicotine. This term shall include such devices whether they are manufactured as e-cigarettes, e-cigars, or e-pipes, or under any other product name.
Considering how unlikely it is that vaping products could ever definitively be proven to not be a cause of illness, this bill could ban the devices in New Hampshire for eternity.
The Liberty Block strongly advises that people do not smoke or use dangerous drugs. We do not endorse the use of vaping other than for the strict purpose of quitting tobacco. However, we cannot support new laws or new powers for politicians, especially when those laws are terrible ideas for public health and for society, the culture, and the economy.
If you do not want the sale of all vaping products to be permanently prohibited in New Hampshire, contact the two sponsors, the Commerce Committee (HouseCommerceCommittee@leg.state.nh.us), and your legislators today.
