Taking a swipe at low-hanging tobacco

The Chula Vista City Council this week is taking a swipe at Big FlaVa.

For those of you unfamiliar with massive and secretive entities intent on world domination according to a conspiracy theory I just made up, that’s shorthand for the Big Flavored Vaping industry, a subsidiary of Big Tobacco.

At the urging of the Healthy Chula Vista Advisory Commission, the city council endorsed the idea of banning the sale of flavored tobacco products within city limits.

The idea is that the ban will prevent minors from becoming addicted to nicotine by not being able to purchase, for example, berry flavored products that serve as a gateway to tobacco use.

In other words it’s “for the children,” a phrase that if tacked on to almost any cause can make the speaker seem pious and caring rather than a nitwit.

The council’s gesture is—meh.

Taking a stance against tobacco use among minors is audible. It certainly can’t hurt anyone running for public office to point at that piece of legislation and forcefully say “I took a stand.”

Well, sure you did. You took a stand to take a swipe at low hanging fruit. So low in fact that you had to stoop over to knock it down—and have your picture taken at the same time.

Big Vape. Big Whoop.

We’re still selling sugar soaked candy bars in gas stations, convenience stores, and supermarkets, aren’t we? (In Halloween we have a quasi-holiday built around buying and passing out candy bars!)

A kid can walk into a 7-11 and buy himself 64 ounces of caffeine and sugar in the form of super sized soda with a canned energy drink chaser, right?

The precious little darlings can still walk into a coffeehouse order a caramel laden pumpkin hot cocoa with extra syrup and then have lunch at a greasy and delicious taco shop or burger joint, last I heard.

I also hear that diabetes and obesity are still among the top health threats facing youngsters and adults alike.

And yet, we’re not proposing any sales bans of those products and industries. Nor should we be.

Instead we should rely on educating people to make healthy decisions. You know, treating kids like the adults we want them to be.