 Welcome to Teens on Topic. I'm your host, Emma Arnston, and today we're talking about something interesting that I think a lot of teenagers have a lot to say about, but before we get to that, let's see what the adults around Davis have to say about it. Do you think they should regulate vaping more? Probably not. I'm pretty hesitant to allow anybody to regulate anything. I kind of don't want everybody to just leave me alone. Yeah, I do. Yeah, because it's very addictive and it can be very detrimental to the health, and I feel like a lot of people don't know that. Just because you know it's like the new thing, the cool thing. But yeah, I do think there should be regulation because it's obviously dangerous. Yes, there should be more regulation on vaping. Yeah, actually, I think too many kids are addicted to vaping these days. Nicotine, it's like, you know, we're like, kick cigarettes, but now everyone's addicted to jewel pods and stuff like that. So, like, cussed. That's all right. No, less. Why do you feel this way? Survival of the fittest. What do you mean by survival of the fittest? People should be able to do vape tricks wherever, you know what I mean? And if you're good at vape tricks, then you're usually going to survive longer, and if there's crappy vape juice, then you just die quicker. All right. You were stupid in the first place to even try vape tricks with vape. Do you feel that, like, fruity flavors with, like, jewels and stuff are actually, like, introducing teenagers and kids to vaping? I really don't think so. I mean, I think the difference is negligible. If you have, like, an addiction or you're interested in it, I don't really think it matters how it tastes. I think the more it's, like, candy, the better. So, like, more strawberries, more berries in general. I think berries is the way to go. So you think that vaping has, like, no harmful side effects? I think it's probably just as bad for your lungs. I don't know what that glycerin does to your respiratory system, but, you know, I think you're smoking, basically. So you don't get yourself into berry-flavored vape clouds as the future. So users beware, you know, it's just as bad as cigarettes, in your opinion, or... Bro, just put a warning label on it. Just warning, may cause glycerin sneeze. Interesting. Okay, thank you. Awesome. Oh yeah, man, you know, I don't really want, like, kids to just be addicted to vaping based on, like, fruit tubes and, like, all this other stuff, you know? Are they not already regulated, like, cigarettes? Yeah, so they're working on regulations, like, to jewels, which are regulating, like, flavors like mango and stuff, but many people are wondering if it's not enough to just, like, regulate these flavors and they should do more to, like, regulate the flavors. Yeah, I think until we know, you know, the extended consequences of it, it should definitely be regulated. Thank you. Awesome. Yeah, I think so because they still have a good amount of nicotine in it, so I think anything with a good amount of nicotine in it is going to be addictive and so it's detrimental to your health, so yeah, just like any other drug, like, cigarettes and stuff, it should be taken more seriously. Thank you so much. Awesome. I definitely think that appeals to people. I think if they were, you know, not so vibrant and appealing to people than less people would, you know, it's like trying a new ice cream flavor. Oh, yeah, let's try unicorn poop, you know? Like, so yeah, I agree with that. For sure. Thank you, man. Awesome. Well, there was a lot of different answers that they brought up, so what do you guys think about what they had to say? Unicorn poop. I'm absolutely in favor of pretty much any regulation on behavior that is bad for people, especially when it's targeted at people who are under 18 who just their brains are generally considered by the scientific community to be less able to make good decisions, you know? And even if it's not legal for them to do that, things that enable that are, it's functionally making it legal, you know? So I think pretty much the more restrictions the better. You mentioned people under 18. What about people over 18? Because in California and a couple other states, the legal age to vape and smoke cigarettes is 18. But here, excuse me, California is 21, but in other states it's 18. What do you think about that distinction of ages? Should it be 18 or 21? I'd say make it 70 years old. Why? I think if it is something that is that obviously a bad decision, I think more regulation of it is good. I don't think there's really anything positive that it brings, and the fact that it's something that's new and is not really as ingrained in American culture means I don't think the public would have so much of a problem with that that it would cause some sort of citizen's revolt, like taking away all gunswood or something. Yeah, I think that that's definitely a good point. I know a lot of adults who struggled with addiction to cigarettes and so then transitioning to e-cigarettes was a really good option for them, but I think then the negative side of that is we were raised and we were taught growing up that cigarettes are awful and they smell terrible and they're horrible for you. I would never smoke them. I know I would never smoke a cigarette in my life and probably a lot of people who they've been stuff would also say the same thing, but because it's flavoring and because it's new and different and because we don't really have all the information to see the long-term effects, I think that's one of the reasons people are doing it a lot more. And the campaigns to make it look not cool have clearly not worked. Yeah, but I think that a lot of cigarette, like tobacco cigarettes, ads were like that for a long time until they started kind of working for our generation, I felt like, and then people switched back over and started vaping again. I think I want to go back to what Adam was saying, is that this is a bad decision on the part of people who use vapes and I think in the most part that's right. I just don't think that I trust the government to tell me what a bad decision is. I mean, if we're going to start from saying that you can't vape, then where are we going to go from there, right? You can't pray this way. You can't do this. I don't think that it's up to the government to tell me what a bad decision is as long as I'm not hurting anybody else and you're not hurting anybody by vaping except for yourself. Well, I feel like we shouldn't just look at it on the micro level. You know, my name's Andy and I feel like if you look at it on such a tiny micro level, is it just hurting you? Then sure, there's maybe less of a justification for banning it, but when you allow something to be used by more people, it becomes more part of the culture. It becomes more normalized and that's why you see tons of teens vaping all the time, right? There were very, very few people who were our age who were addicted to nicotine, say five years ago, right? And it's something about being normalized in the culture, I think. That is very true. I see it in Mexico and I know in other countries such as India, you know, smoking is extremely prominent and there, you know, kids begin to see their parents smoking at the age of eight years old and they take it up when they're 14 years old and they become smokers for life and then, you know, they have health complications later on in life. So, yeah, it does become ingrained in the culture. And there are plenty of regulations on, you know, things like, say, alcohol and I don't think any of those have translated into regulations on religion. I mean, you're allowed to pray when you're under the age of 21 still despite that you can't drink until you're 21. I don't really see- What's the distinction between alcohol regulation and vaping regulations as of now? Right? Because adults can drink alcohol and adults can vape. I think there's much less regulations, though, like, on vaping. Like, and that's, and there was- I mean, you still need a license to sell, you still need to be old enough to buy. Yeah, but like- Right? It's- Sorry, you go ahead. Yeah, I don't, like, think that that's, like, necessarily true because, like, if you get a vape, you can, like, refill it. It's much easier to refill it. Like, when you, if you're buying alcohol, you go and buy alcohol. I mean, if you buy a big bottle of vodka, you can drink it. Oh, no, we're gonna end it. Yeah. You don't see a lot of kids drinking alcohol in high school, though. You do. Not in high school. Not on campus. Not on campus. No one says who put toilets in the alcohol rooms. Toilets and jewels, right? Yeah. And so there's, there's also the aspect of it being more easy to carry around. Do on campus. Yeah, and a lot of teachers, like, didn't know, like, what jewels were. Like, there was a story about, like, a kid plugging in a jewel to his teacher's computer because he found him was a USB. Like, and so it's a lot about, like, transitioning and, like, and, like, learning. Yeah, I mean, like, my younger brother got, like, a pamphlet home that was, like, this is why vaping is bad. Like, look at all the flavors they can have. And it's, like, I don't know, I think we're gonna have a big push back on it. I don't think that, like, it's gonna get that much better right now. Like, I think there's a lot of, like, people struggling with addiction and that's just, like, part of, like, life, I guess. I don't know, it's kind of, like, sometimes, like, it's just new. Like, it's just the same thing we've been seeing, but now it's just this new, like, form of it. Yeah, and like you said, it's rather new. I'm not particularly, I don't know the exact date of when vaping was invented, but I imagine it was way before cigarettes. And cigarettes have been in a lot, or smoking tobacco has been around for a long time. We know the effects of it. Do we know the long-term effects of vaping? No, we don't. And it's not regulated by any department. I mean, there are major effects that we know of. I mean, there are things like popcorn lung that we already know that you can get that are, I think, unique problems of vaping, right? I've heard of that. Yeah, and I mean, I feel like the fact that it's been around for such a short time and that there are these, like, noticeable long-term effects that come with long usage kind of is a reason that, I mean, I agree with you, that it should be regulated more unless I'm mischaracterizing your position. No, it's not. Yeah, but I think one of the things that's important that I kind of want to get you guys' opinion on is, what do you think about it for people, like, transitioning from an addiction to cigarettes? Well, in that case, maybe it should be regulated just like a cigarette, right? Because if you're trying to transition from a cigarette to an e-cigarette, you would expect the same sort of... Are they not the same? Do they vary? They're basically the same. It's just cigarette regulations are more established. They're a lot older. I mean, you know, there's the question of kind of weighing the impact of that versus weighing the impact of teens. Maybe it's increased presence in the community of teenagers. So, I mean, maybe you could come up with some kind of alternative that's more in the middle, like, you know, back probably, I think, what, five years ago, before Jules were around, right, it would take up a lot of space, right, and fit up your whole hand. And you saw a lot fewer people vaping in high schools then because it's a lot bulkier. It's harder to carry around conveniently to fit in your pocket to pretend that it's a USB. So maybe, you know, if it's less concealable, that might leave it still around as an alternative for people who are trying to quit smoking while at the same time making it harder for teens to use them in school. Yeah, I think it also has a lot to do with, like, the advertising and, like, it was, like, this, like, sleek kind of looking thing and, like, much less bulky and... With, like, Apple billboards. Yeah, exactly. And, like, the name, like, Jules, like... But I think that that has a lot to do with it and how they're advertised to kids. I mean, like, yeah, there's, like, different names for them and they, like, use different things. Like, I went on a trip across the country recently and they all had, like, different slang and, like, lingo. And so it's not just a problem at, like, one place, it's not just a problem in Davis. It's a problem, like, around the country. And so I think that there should definitely be, like, regulations placed on that. And then also, like, there needs to be... They need to start working the same way they were working with, like, anti-tobacco anti-cigarettes smoking ads to prevent teens from, like, getting worse and worse nicotine addictions. I believe they are working with some ads. I've seen them around the city and, you know, on the television. But they don't have enough evidence to prove that it's as bad as smoking, which is why a lot of people are incentivized to... or younger generations are incentivized to begin vaping. Yeah. And I think another thing about it is, like, for a long time, like, we were told, like, smoking e-cigarettes is better than smoking cigarettes. And so then people took it as, like, smoking e-cigarettes is okay. Right. And it's kind of like the thing, the campaign with cigarettes, I think in, like, the 40s, right? Like, we have 60% less tar than the next best guy, you know, and you were allowed to say, okay, so our cigarettes are healthy now. I think it's kind of a similar thing that happened with e-cigarettes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I was just gonna say, I know that a lot of, like, anti-vaping ads are just, like, well, this can lead to smoking cigarettes, like, that this addiction will get even more severe that people start picking up cigarettes. So I think a lot of people have a disillusion that vaping is not necessarily healthy, but it's not unhealthy that there are adverse effects to it. There's also, you know, you can find a thousand people who were, like, you know, 60 years old and still addicted to nicotine, still addicted to cigarettes, saying, like, man, I really, really wish I'd never taken that first cigarette. I think the fact that vaping is more new and is also just generally seen through the lens of being an alternative, you don't have a lot of people saying, like, I really wish I'd never taken that first vape, which may, you know, it's less ingrained in the hearts of kids, like, don't take that first vape, kid. Don't let that fat rip, man, not even once. I get the argument, and it's quite common that this is something new, and I think that's been a real focus of the FDA under Donald Trump, and that they've really been warring against jewel, specifically. And all that's leading to is lesser manufacturers causing these vapes. It's all over the news that people are buying lower quality vapes that are exploding, all those kinds of things. And I don't think that this entire, I mean, you said something about making vapes less concealable. I think that's not something that's, it's just not a real solution. I mean, the government telling companies that they can make their vapes as ridiculous. Just do the opposite of what the TSA does. Be like, if the jewel can't fit, if the jewel can fit in this box, then you can't produce it. Yeah. I mean, I just think we're kind of, we're thinking that these are just made for teens in schools, and they're not. They're made for adults to use on their own choice. How can you say who it's made for? I mean, obviously, jewel isn't going to say, hey, we are making our product for 16-year-olds, but if they're making it more convenient for 16-year-olds, then obviously, they're not making it more convenient for 16-year-olds, they're making it convenient for everybody. As a manufacturer, that's their duty to make something more convenient so they can sell more. Sure, and that's obviously what they're going to try to do, but if a side effect of that is that, like, more 16-year-olds are vaping, they are making it more convenient for 16-year-olds, and that's a bad thing, whether or not they're also doing that for everyone else. I don't think that they should just stop because teenagers are more... By improving their product, you mean making it so they can make more profit of it, making it more convenient for people to use. I don't see why it's better, the seeking of profit by these companies as compared. Why is the seeking of profit of these companies more important than preventing people from getting lung cancer? I don't think that's the consideration that is on the table. I just... If there are government regulations placed on them and they're heavily like, like, size regulations or like that, is that going to disincentivize those companies from coming up with a better solution that is able to get people that is able to move people away from an addiction that is harmful and ingesting harmful chemicals if they're allowed to compete against each other and not be brought down by regulations or the fear of it's going to go the other way and it's just going to become way, way worse or using harmful chemicals just to make more of a profit. Don't fake. Good advice. To all the teens out there, do not fake. Never take that first risk. Never take that first risk. Well, thank you all for joining us. It was a very fun episode today. So join us next week.