This week, the House Oversight and Reform Committee held two hearings on the recent rise of e-cigarette consumption among teens, particularly targeting the industry leader, Juul. The hearings could not have been titled more provocatively: “Examining Juul’s Role in the Youth the Youth Nicotine Epidemic.” But, the public should keep a skeptical eye on Uncle Sam’s new moral panic.
Like government-hyped “epidemics” of the past (including alcohol, marijuana, and the lyrics of heavy metal music) the so-called e-cigarette crisis is vastly overblown. While it’s true that vaping has become more popular among minors in recent years, it is no worse than many other vices that teens have indulged in for decades. The solution, then, should not be government mandate, but rather a renewed focus on parenting and education to curb these less desirable choices.
First, the facts should be clearly stated: Tobacco use among youth in the U.S. has been on the rise for the past several years. According to a February 2019 study from the Center for Disease Control, the growing popularity of e-cigarettes is to blame:
While those numbers are undoubtedly bad, it’s important to compare them to consumption of other types of drugs to get a clearer picture. Since 1975, the University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” survey has been tracking the “behaviors, attitudes, and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood.” Their 2018 study on lifetime prevalence of drug use is consistent with the CDC’s finding of an uptick among the youth, from 11% in 2017 to 20.9% in 2018 among 12th graders. However, other vices in both the past and present were much worse.
First, consumption of traditional cigarettes used to be much worse than vaping today. According to the study, cigarette consumption peaked in 1997, when a whopping 36.5% of 12th graders reported to have smoked in the past 30 days. That’s close to double what the CDC numbers for vaping are today.
Moving to the present, the prevalence of vaping among teens is still not as bad as alcohol, with 30.2% of 12th graders saying they’ve imbibed in the past 30 days. Marijuana usage is also still higher than vaping, at 22.2% of 12th graders. Where’s the government outrage for these substances?
Public pressure on alcohol, smoking, and marijuana, while still a reality, is not nearly as pronounced as vaping has been recently for one historical accident: e-cigarettes are the new kid on the block. Booze, tobacco, and marijuana have been around for too long that the busybody bureaucrats have begrudgingly accepted that they are here to stay.
The same attitude should prevail for e-cigarettes. While the uptick in teen consumption is concerning, there is no need to regulate the industry too heavily or, worse, ban e-cigarettes completely as former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottleib repeatedly threatened.
Politicians must remember that there are other alternatives than government force. Cigarette and other drug use decreased over the past few decades because of education, not the nanny state. Non-profits, schools, and public service announcements made a major push to teach Americans about the long-term effects of smoking. Such a focus could be renewed again for vaping, teaching kids to make smart choices and parents to take responsibility for their child’s actions.
Government cannot regulate away teenage rebellion. Only educated citizens can curb its less desirable effects.
Casey Given (@CaseyJGiven) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the executive director of Young Voices.
