Massachusetts Bans Vaping Sales and I Couldn’t Be Happier

Massachusetts Governor Charlie has declared vaping to be a public health emergency and has instituted a four-month ban on the sales of all vaping products across the entire state.

As a parent of a 7th grader and a freshman in high school, I say "THANK YOU CHARLIE BAKER!" It physically hurts me to see kids smoking these damn things. I’m sure adult users will be upset, but let’s get more info about what’s going on here. It’s worth it.

While I don't think my kids would ever vape, 1) ALL parents think that, and 2) I'm concerned about all kids, not just mine. Let me tell you, the governor is absolutely right. This vaping stuff is bad news bears.

The teens that I talk to all admit that vaping in and out of schools is a major problem. It's happening in school bathrooms. Athletes, band members, drama club kids, struggling students and honors students are all vaping. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that ALL students are vaping, but vaping is certainly not limited to one or two groups of high school cliques. It is very much mainstream, and that is very much a nightmare for a parent like me.

The main problem lies with the fact that we just don't have enough information to really know what effects vaping will have on the human body over time. There's no one on earth that has that definitive answer.

The little information that we are finding as more and more kids are choosing to vape is that it is destroying the lungs in their bodies. Now that we are several years into these e-cigarettes, there are 18-year-olds that have been vaping for three years. Nine have died, and hundreds have done serious, irreversible damage to their once young, healthy lungs.

Hitting pause on this is the right thing to do. It's the responsible thing. If I enjoyed vaping, I'm sure I would loathe this move, but if the medical community discovers that vaping is essentially poisoning your body, I'm sure that's information I'd want to know. Let's see what they find out.