The outlook is hazy

Free-for-all vaping industry drawing new customers

The wild, wild west known as “vaping” needs some taming. Again, the forces that make money from addicting new generations to nicotine have outsmarted 40 years of a “just say no” culture. Between 2005 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the portion of the American popula- tion actively smoking dropped from nearly 21 percent to 14 percent.

The federal agency reports the portion of Arkansas population smoking in 2017 nonetheless still ranked high at more than 20 percent. It remains in the top states in terms of people engaging in the habit.

So one would think Arkansas might be ecstatic about development of a device and related products that are less poisonous to people’s bodies than cigarettes, but that satisfy the cravings. A whole, hardly regulated industry has grown up around these vaping devices, and for a long time, almost everyone could buy the argument that they were safer than cigarettes. Nobody said safe, just safer.

If someone told you running across a snake in the woods was safer than coming across a bear, would meeting up with a snake feel safe?

Still, it makes sense that it’s desirable that those who can’t just quit might do less damage to themselves.

Naturally, it didn’t end there. Now, vaping is everywhere, the act itself and the shops that support its spread. Flavored nicotine has become all the rage, particularly among the young — and by young, we’re not excluding the very young, the people who have no business inhaling real cigarettes or their electronic replacements.

Now, we’re deep into the birth of a new industry/habit, and the health impacts are becoming all too real. Whether it’s through the delivery of nicotine or other materials — such as THC — the devices are transitioning from a method to quit smoking into a new addiction, then into a health scare.

In Arkansas, the talk is drifting toward legislative action, although to what degree is up for interpretation. Senate leader Jim Hendren of Sulphur Springs has proposed legislation to raise taxes on electronic cigarettes and to bar their use in places where traditional cigarettes are prohibited.

“The potential harm to our children’s health makes it imperative that we act with urgency,” Hendren said last week. “The Health Department reports that vaping among teenagers is at epidemic levels, and minors who use e-cigarettes are at risk for contracting severe lung disease.”

The Arkansas General Assembly isn’t scheduled to gather again until next spring and even then it would take extraordinary measures to allow the legislative body to consider legal changes on vaping in what is supposed to be a session dedicated to financial matters.

Some hope enough of a consensus can be built around a special session. But there are plenty of details, details, details to be worked out. There are some lawmakers who say the state’s not ready to act, that more research and study is needed.

In short, the future is hazy.

But it shouldn’t be. Arkansas lawmakers would be doing the state a service by taking steps to get the marketing and sales of electronic cigarettes to young people under tighter control. When kids are being harmed, the legislative machinery ought to develop a stop-gap measure to rein in the damaging effects. Especially when it comes to the health of Arkansans, there should be little patience.

Act now, before more young people get hooked on substances of questionable content and quality. Ban flavors that make the nicotine attractive to wide swaths of people.

Arkansas lawmakers can ill afford to ignore this health threat to its population, especially to the state’s younger citizens.

The nicotine industry has found a way back into the lives of people, many of whom had seen the errors of their ways when it came to cigarettes. That’s unfortunate, but adults are free to make their own decisions. And yet there is so little information people can rely on about e-cigarettes and vaping that nobody can make an informed decision. Arkansas lawmakers should try to change that, before large swaths of a new generation become a real-time experiment. We suspect nobody will ultimately like the outcome.