The Department of Transportation is proposing a ban on electronic cigarettes as part of a rule published in the Federal Register, a move USA today calls “the first step in government regulation”. This overreach by the Obama administration is another in a long list of freedom-limiting attempts to control behavior under the guise of public protection. While e-cigarettes do contain nicotine, they are not “smoked” and they do not produce smoke, only vapor. The vapor consists of elements found in lotions and other products regularly used by consumers. This attempt to ban electronic cigarettes is mystifying. There is speculation the move is being promoted by competitors of the e-cigarette, such as producers of regular cigarettes, nicotine patches, and nicotine gum. To freedom-loving Americans, however, the proposed ban is something more sinister.
It is ironic that many of the proponents of marijuana for alleged health conditions would oppose a person’s decision to use an electronic cigarette. This seems like a contradiction. So, it’s ok to smoke pot, not ok to use an e-cigarette? I am not saying health conditions don’t exist for which marijuana is a legitimate treatment, but I do suspect some pot smokers exaggerate their health concerns as a ruse to obtain medical marijuana. However, the issue here is not smoking of one kind or another. The issue is freedom. Some people simply dislike smoking of anything for any reason, and they are not satisfied to merely disapprove. They want to take it a step further and regulate behavior they don’t like. Why does the DOT care if people use e-cigarettes? Why would nonsmokers care?
What’s next? Can we soon expect to have donuts and salt shakers torn from our hands by government bureaucrats because they have determined we can’t make our own choices? And what about the things that bother me? I don’t like being around people with body odor. Can I look forward to a government official running around, lifting people’s arms, and applying deodorant so that the rest of us don’t have to suffer from one individual’s poor personal hygiene choices? Will the DOT ban odoriferous people from flying? Will they ban noisy crying children? Will they ban passengers wearing loud clothes that other travelers find distracting? How far will this nanny attitude go? If we ban e-cigarettes, should we also ban products that contain the same components, such as lotions? Already we are told which light bulbs, toilets and shower-heads to use. Already proposals are on the table to interfere with individual farming and gardening, and sport fishing. Already we are encouraged, in a very soviet-like manner, to report our neighbors if they complain about Obama and this administration. (see flag @whitehouse.gov program, Attack Watch)
I suggest the DOT concentrate on preventing bombs and terrorists on airplanes, and let ordinary citizens make their own personal choices.
Perhaps information will be forthcoming that will shed light on the DOT’s attempt to ban e-cigarettes. Maybe there is corruption at the heart of it. Then again, maybe it’s just another way to control the behavior of the American population. In any case, it is yet another assault on our liberties. It’s a repressive foot in the door. So many precious freedoms are lost under a totalitarian ruler’s guise of implementing regulations “for our own good”.