[xanthopan]

Last I checked, nicotine isn't carcinogenic. It's the tobacco that kills you. Or, at least, there isn't enough research yet to say that nicotine alone is harmful enough.

So I may be playing devil's advocate here, but isn't this a net improvement over the last few decades? Kids getting hooked on something that's significantly less deadly? It's not ideal, sure, but it's better than a slew of cancer epidemics.

What is the FDA trying to achieve?

[chimeracoder]

> Kids getting hooked on something that's significantly less deadly? It's not ideal, sure, but it's better than a slew of cancer epidemics.

The whole point is that these are kids who wouldn't be using nicotine products at all. Smoking rates have declined in the US over the last 40 years, and yet there's been an uptick in youth nicotine usage since the introduction of e-cigarettes.

So when talking about youth usage, no, this is clearly not an improvement, by any measure.

[falcolas]

If we don't block the consumption of caffeine in youths, why should we block the consumption of nicotine - a compound with similar effects?

i.e. Why is nicotine so much worse than THC, alcohol, caffeine, guarana, or any number of other stimulants/depressants?

[chimeracoder]

> If we don't block the consumption of caffeine in youths, why should we block the consumption of nicotine - a compound with similar effects? i.e. Why is nicotine so much worse than THC, alcohol, caffeine, guarana, or any number of other stimulants/depressants?

Alcohol and THC are both already restricted to adults. Caffeine is restricted as well, in that many places won't sell caffeine pills to people under 18.

Nobody is talking about preventing kids from buying tomatoes. But when we're talking about concentrated and extracted forms of a stimulant... those are already heavily restricted.

[hndamien]

Caffeine in Coca-cola or other energy drinks is not a restricted substance/ quantity based on age.

[orangecat]

The actual numbers matter. Suppose vaping is 20% as harmful as smoking, and out of every 100 children, the availability of e-cigarettes causes 5 to switch from smoking to vaping and 5 others to start vaping who wouldn't have started smoking. That would be a substantial improvement.

[magissima]

Those aren't actual numbers though, nor is "percentage of harmfulness" directly quantifiable.