A ban on flying will send smokers back into the pack

But if detractors of e-cigarettes have seized recent tragedies to demand new regulatory restrictions, policymakers should question whether their efforts to crush legitimate manufacturers of e-cigarettes have allowed counterfeiters and black market vendors. According to the first reports, most vaping-related illnesses appear to be related to unregulated artisanal beverages and concoctions of e-liquids on the street.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, and state and local health departments investigating recent deaths report that many people with the disease admit to using products containing marijuana extracts such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD). Online videos showing consumers how to make their own spray cartridges with infused marijuana oil, which can be prepared at home or purchased at marijuana dispensaries, have been viewed millions of times.

Last week in New York, 34 people reportedly suffered from vaping-related respiratory illnesses, but investigators found vitamin E acetate in the vast majority of the samples analyzed. This substance is often used as a thickening agent for THC infused extracts added to vape cartridges. None of these cases involved a nicotine product subject to the FDA's new ban.

In fact, most, if not all, of the recent wave of hospitalizations in the country due to a vaping has been associated with marijuana oil. We are not aware of any cases in the country associated with nicotine-only electronic cigarettes, let alone products containing flavored nicotine.

Since federal and federal regulators have made it more difficult for legitimate manufacturers to market their products, some users of e-cigarettes are turning to counterfeits. High taxes and aroma restrictions have created a potentially dangerous black market.

Since the FDA began pressuring Juul Labs, the largest manufacturer of electronic cigarettes in the United States, to stop selling flavored e-liquids, counterfeits containing unknown ingredients and unknown quality standards have proliferated . It has been discovered that black market-modified e-cigarette products contain harmful contaminants and non-compliant ingredients. Some companies have even been caught selling electronic cigarette cartridges containing drugs for weight loss and the treatment of erectile dysfunction. As with prescription drugs, counterfeits can kill.

The draconian regulatory approach to e-cigarettes can also discourage fuel-smokers from switching to e-cigarettes. It will cost lives too.

According to the CDC, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. Nicotine electronic cigarettes can be up to 95% safer than combustible cigarettes, and research shows more and more that vaping can be an effective way to make smokers quit – almost twice as effective as nicotine replacement treatments approved by the FDA, a recent study. Of course, although vaping is safer than smoking ordinary cigarettes, inhaling something other than air can never be completely safe and should not be treated as if it were.

Nevertheless, there are signs that e-cigarettes on the internet have saved lives by providing a safer alternative to smoking. With the rising popularity of vaping over the last five years, the smoking rate has dropped to historic lows. In 1997, 36.4% of American high school students said they had already tried cigarettes. In 2017, the high school smoking rate dropped to 7.6%.

Policy makers missed opportunities to use e-cigarettes to mitigate tobacco-related harm. In recent months, San Francisco has voted a total ban on electronic cigarettes, Michigan has banned the sale of flavored electronic liquids and Maine has more than doubled its tobacco tax, which applies to vaping products , cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco – 43% of 20%.

On Wednesday at the White House, President Trump cited the popularity of teenage vaping as one of the main reasons for banning flavored electronic cigarette products. He is right to be concerned. US manufacturers have set the minimum age for buying electronic cigarettes at 21, and it is absolutely necessary to enforce the rules, including unannounced controls. Stores that continue to market and sell electronic cigarettes and other vaping products to their underage customers should be heavily fined or closed.

There are other ways to combat teenage vaping. A manufacturer is currently selling a Bluetooth device in Canada and the UK that would allow parents to turn off a vape pen, thus ensuring that it could not be used by children at home. Unfortunately, it may take seven to ten years for the FDA to approve this device for the US market.

Public health officials must thoroughly investigate the roots of the ongoing lung disease epidemic. But before blaming the legitimate manufacturers of electronic cigarettes – and before banning their products – legislators should consider how their brutal approach contributes to this "new problem".

Messrs. Sigaud and Pociask write for the American Consumer Institute.