A Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes, but Flavored Alcohol is Universally Accepted?

The flavored e-cigarette debate continues, but when will we bring up flavored alcohol into the mix?

As the argument that “children flavored” e-cigarettes are being targeted to young adults and adolescents, there’s another addiction that also does the same thing. Alcohol. 

Spiked whipped cream, alcohol infused chocolates, ice cream with alcohol, alcohol infused candies, and there’s still plenty more out there. There are drinks named Jolly Rancher, Mudslide, Skittles Vodka, Magic Ball, Gummy Bear Sangria, Peanut Butter Cup Martini, and so many more.

Under the CDC about underage drinking, it’s “the most commonly used substance among young people in the U.S. The 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that among high school students, during the past 30 days

• 29% drank alcohol.
• 14% binge drank.
• 5% of drivers drove after drinking alcohol.
• 17% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.”

And yet nothing is truly being done to stop alcohol from being sold because of a landmark time in the US, The Prohibition. So what does that really mean?

It was a time when alcohol/intoxicating liquors were prohibited to be manufactured, sold and transported. People were making homemade moonshine and gin. Alcohol was being labeled as “medicine”. Those with wealth bought out liquor stores to keep alcohol reserves to themselves.

Thousands died from tainted liquor. With everything under the radar because of the country-wide ban, there were no regulations or checks. Bootlegging because an organized crime and a black market for liquor spread cross the country.

In the end the Prohibition was deemed a failure. Despite activists who claimed that it would solve crime, tax, financial burden, and alcohol consumption that plagued the nation.

A policy analysis by Cato delves that, “The lessons of Prohibition remain important today. They apply not only to the debate over the war on drugs but also to the mounting efforts to drastically reduce access to alcohol and tobacco and to such issues as censorship and bans on insider trading, abortion, and gambling.”

So from a time when alcohol was prohibited from selling, what does that spell for our flavored e-cigarette market that is coming under? Many across the board know all too well that a similar situation might arise.

The hypocrisy is clear.

Adults can have flavored alcohol, but what difference does flavored e-cigarettes do? If they are both substances that can get into the hands of young adults, then why are vapes the one that are being banned?

Is the ban for e-cigarettes justified? Or will a prohibition of flavored vapes uprise and a black market come about?

Write your comments below on how you feel.