Governor Charles Baker
Massachusetts State House
24 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02133
Your Honor,
While I can appreciate your desire to help the people of Massachusetts lead healthier lives, I must protest that your decision to ban the sale of vaping products isn’t just misinformed, it both exacerbates the problem you are trying to fix, and is an affront to our civil liberties.
We do not yet know if the nine total deaths from vaping last year across the entire United States were from legal products, black market products, or both, though there is strong suspicion that black market products are to blame. Banning the legal sale of vaping products at this time ensures that only black market products will be sold in the Commonwealth, meaning this ban will surely increase the number of people who are hurt by vaping moving forward. From a public health standpoint, the worst thing you can do is ban the lawful sale of vaping products. From an economic standpoint, ruining the lives of thousands of owners and employees of legal vaping goods shops as we’re about to enter the holiday season is downright cruel.
More importantly, however, I find this executive order myopic, if not wholly and disgustingly political in nature. You are going to ban vaping products after nine people died across the United States last year – less than half the number of people who died from lightning strikes. Are you going to ban lightning next? For every person who died from vaping last year, almost ten thousand died from abusing alcohol, thirty-three thousand died from obesity, and over fifty-three thousand died from cigarette use. Yet you’re perfectly okay that people can buy alcohol every day of the week, and cigarettes twenty-four hours a day? Where is your ban on Cheez-Its, Governor? If vaping is a public health crisis, what is the sale of fatty foods? A public massacre?
Most importantly, this decision of yours is an attack on our freedoms. It is not your job to decide what private citizens choose to eat, drink, or do, as long as they’re not harming anyone else – like, say, smoking in public and poisoning those around them, which is perfectly legal and okay by you. If someone wants to huff Lemon Pledge while watching The Real Housewives of Swampscott, that’s their right to do, not yours to infringe. There are literally millions of pages of free information available to the public, both online and through local libraries, that warn about what foods, drinks, and products are unhealthy to consume and use. Surely the drug addicts nodding off on the lawn of the Thomas Crane Public Library here in Quincy aren’t under the misconception that heroin builds strong bones and teeth.
Once this door attacking our civil liberties is opened, what comes next? Are you going to ban Catholic mass because people drink unhealthy wine? Will state health inspectors be allowed to march into my home without a warrant and examine the contents of my cupboard? Which civil liberty will you take next in an ineffective attempt to legislate my life? This latest, foolish government prohibition comes from a state with a long history of enacting incompetent and impotent restrictions upon its citizens. It has been illegal in Massachusetts since 1975 for a citizen to own a zoobow. Has there been a marked decrease in zoobow attacks over the last forty-four years? Did driveby zoobowings decrease noticebly after this legislation?
Please reverse this decision to ban vaping products before you hurt more people.
Sincerely,
Kevin Glennon
Quincy, MA
P.S. – Would you please find out tell me what the hell a zoobow is? None of the police officers or martial arts experts I asked seem to know. Since the all-knowledgeable politicians of Massachusetts seem to be the only people aware of this dangerous implement, you may be the only person who can tell us what this fictional weapon is in order to protect us from harming ourselves with one.
I am a 63 year old responsible honest and lawful person. For 2 months now, after smoking tobacco for 40 years, I have discovered that the “disposable e-cig” (one that can’t be altered in any way) was my ticket to freedom from smoking. I do not believe Mr. Baker understands the difference between the disposable sealed e-cig and the more prominent vapers. This has truly rattled my chains and I feel I have been victimized by 1 persons personal opinion. Shame on you Mr. Baker. This whole situation has brought me to the point of saying “what the hell, I’ll go back to smoking.” You blew my respect for you as you truly jumped to a conclusion that was not thought out clearly as you failed to educate yourself on the difference between vaping and e-cigs to help stop tobacco smoking.
How many lives are ruined due to this knee-jerk reaction? How many jobs lost? How many children who now have a parent who lost their livelihood? This is a failed attempt to save a few lives, whilst destroying thousands of other lives. This is silly. Not to mention I can still by a damn cigarette.
Totally agree with you. I have called and emailed the governor too. This is ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous, if he’s so concerned about public safety then ban cigs booze weed and guns. I feel like so many people got whipped into a frenzy and just jumped to conclusions. It’s like the Iraq war, backwards premise that all the lemmings nod their heads to .Except now it’s a war on vapes SMH
I was under the impression that this was still America.
Doctors can’t proscribe medication because it may be sold by criminals ,
Now people can’t choose an alternative to tobacco products because there may be a risk.
People may be hit by a car crossing the road.
My question to Mr. Baker is,
Are we going to stop crossing the street, or ban driving automobiles ?
My uncle choked on a steak once.
Where’s the ban on beef ?
Thank you for this article. I suffer from severe debilitating depression, anxiety and degenerative disc disease. I have turned to medical marijuana at the ripe old age of 66. I can’t smoke it so I vaped. I purchased my vapes from a legal medical marijuana dispensary. I obtained such relief and had finally found the right combination of vapes. My right. Thank you dear governor for taking this away without any study. I’m angry. And in pain!!
I agree 100% as an adult who smoked cigarettes for almost 20 years, to finally find a product that successfully got me to quit, was a miracle! I have not smoked a cigarette in over a year, but by January I guarantee the tobacco industry will have me smoking again. Just as Kevin said, our government is run by money and Big Tobacco is loosing too much, so I guess that means we lose our civil liberties…