Ohio to ban sale of e-cigarettes to minors, but what about the money?
From: OhioWatchdog.org
The Ohio Legislature has voted to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, but how the products are classified is still a concern — and money is the issue.
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While a separate designation for e-cigarettes might result in fewer tax collections, could it be a good thing for people trying to quit smoking?
Jeff Stier, a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, thinks so.
“Nicotine,” he told a New York City Council Health Committee in December, “is addictive, but not particularly harmful, especially at the levels consumed by smokers or users of e-cigarettes.”
Stier said nicotine “is about as dangerous as the caffeine in soda” and that “e-cigarettes provide the nicotine and the habitual activity of smoking, without the danger of burning tobacco.”
“Here is a product created by private-sector innovation that is doing what many hundreds of millions of dollars of government spending, costly litigation, addictive excise taxes, warning labels and punitive regulation have been unable to do: help cigarette smokers quit happily,” he said.
