Meanwhile the LPC oppose the bill while the CPC would work to amend it.
Protect the children, they cry, while permitting flavoured tobacco or something else as terrible
Tobacco is the health hazard to children and adults alike, not the flavours added to it. But that’s another moral panic.
Flavored tobacco was literally marketed to children, to get them addicted to cigarettes from an early age. The “protect the children” arguments are often used to ban things that made no impact or even positive impact in children’s lives (DnD, sexual equality). Or it’s used to justify surveillance and overreach (porn bans and she verification laws)
These aren’t equivalent.
If anyone’s claiming that any of these things is equivalent to another it isn’t me, but marketing campaigns aimed at children (for tobacco and in general) are also something we’d be better off without.
Flavoured tobacco (and nicotine pens/juice) is more appealing to young people, especially those who aren’t educated on the risks and haven’t developed self control.
It’s more appealing to everyone, irrespective of age. Wikipedia suggests that it’s been popular since the 19th century at latest. It was flavoured cigarillos that were the first tobacco products that tempted me, at a young age but not a child. Later, when I was much old, if pleasingly-flavoured vapes had been unavailable I would’ve had a much more difficult time quitting the nicotine.
But anyway, it’s the misguided notion that enjoying things which taste good is childish that I find offensive. Advocate for banning all tobacco and I can’t really say you’re wrong to suggest it, but don’t fall for that nonsense.
