Michigan bans flavored vapes
September 18, 2019
On September 4, 2019, Michigan became the first state to ban flavored vapes, e-cigs, and other vaping products.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement, “I believe that E-cigarettes are dangerous and should not be sold widely. However, there are versions of it that are used to help people quit, but they often help people start. As for flavored vape juice, its should definitely be banned because it proves to be marketing targeted towards adolescents and teenagers. Back when cigars and cigarettes were popular tobacco companies produced flavored products to entice younger smokers making them customers for life. So whether it be candy or vape to a child it is about the same.”
Portage Northern students generally seem to be in support of the ban. “I believe that the new law is great because of all the teens who are addicted due to the vapes being flavored. Cracking down on this situation has been a must for the past few years that vaping has come up. It is easily accessible for everyone adult or not and it needs to be stopped,” said junior Damien Gunn.
Freshman Mercedes Mills agreed. “I believe that e-cigarettes are dangerous and should not be sold widely. There are versions of it that are used to help people quit, but they often help people start. As for flavored vape juice, its should definitely be banned because it proves to be marketing targeted towards adolescents and teenagers. Back when cigars and cigarettes were popular tobacco companies produced flavored products to entice younger smokers making them customers for life,” they said.
Freshman James Asher said, “I support both Governor Whitmer and President Trump’s crackdown on the Vaping Crisis. While it is a safer alternative to tobacco products we need to do as much as possible to increase focus on mental health, so people don’t have to lean on tobacco and vaping.”
Tyler Freeman • Sep 26, 2019 at 9:03 am
Great article but I will have to disagree with what Michigan and the president are doing. I’ve plenty of people in the school vaping and it does need to stop. But when it comes to banning flavored vapes, that makes no sense. The reason people are getting sick is because of the unreliable places like the black market. If flavored vaping is so bad for someone’s health, then why aren’t flavored cigarettes not band yet?
Lilly • Sep 25, 2019 at 1:33 pm
I am very glad that this was addressed. When I read this article it made me sad for the people that think vaping can’t harm them. That they are untouchable. This is not the case. Unfortunately, kids today don’t think that bad things can happen to them. Bad things can happen to anyone and this topic needs to be addressed and these laws need to be much more enforced. I would hate for anyone to get hurt by the heavy diseases and sicknesses that can be caused by vaping.
Gavin Hebner • Sep 25, 2019 at 1:14 pm
the ban on flavored juices is a great idea for the governor to do. For one this is a good idea because the the nicotine addiction rate skyrocketed ever since vapes were introduced into the main stream. the ban can also help kids break their addiction and possibly entice other states to follow in our tracks. Also as more and more kids are scumming to severe health problems it is a perfect time to ban such items. however i believe cigarettes should have been banned before vapes even if the FDA hasn’t had conclusive studies o n vapes . to add onto this if the individuals are addicted to the point of no return they will do anything for another hit including leaving the state just for pods or juice.
Trintin Wallace • Sep 25, 2019 at 11:11 am
I think that all of this artical is great and i agree with it all 100%,but what about cigarettes?In the world people have just started getting into vapes and e-ciggs but what about cigarettes,lots of people in the world mainly in the U.S have been and still are smoking cigarettes and its been killing people for way to long.We all know that vapes and e-ciggs are killing people and trying to stop it but why don’t we include cigarettes because they have been killing people for years and we just tell them to stop and not band them like we do with vapes.
MAME SECK • Sep 25, 2019 at 9:54 am
I believe that banning flavored vapes is kind of stupid and doesn’t make sense for many reasons. First of all, why not banned cigarettes, everyone knows that they are worst than vapes. Secondly, why is it that they aren’t even banning the other bad drugs that are Michigan instead of going with the most unnecessary one or the less harmful ones. Lastly, why are they just banning the flavored vapes, why didn’t they just banned every other kind or the original. Iknow that any kind of drug isn’t good for you but it’s not like just because they banned it, it doesn’t mean that people are going to stop using it.
brayden andrews • Sep 25, 2019 at 9:41 am
Vaping has been a big topic lately in Michigan. When they banned flavored vaping in Michigan I was just like the people who wrote this. I totally agree, vaping is suppose to stop people from smoking but it just gets kids and adults addicted using the flavors. Like they said in the article it should not be sold widely. Its very unhealthy and can lead to many concerns later in life for young teenagers.Vaping is just a result of addiction there is no really good reason to do it they just use excuses to do it
Alex Kominek • Sep 24, 2019 at 11:22 pm
What a topic this is. Vaping in high schools has been a hot topic for about the past year and needs a solution. Not a band aid thrown on a flesh wound but an actual solution to fix it. I am sure many people have ideas that they think will work, but we won’t know until we try. The fact that Michigan put a ban on flavored E-cigs is a step in the right direction. Not necessarily the correct solution but the fact is that we are trying something and that is what’s really and truly important with an issue like this.
Adam Brouwer • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:49 pm
The vaping at our school is a scary thing. I’m glad for the ban having students getting addicted nicotine, and causing irreversible damage to them selves for some candy flavor or being trendy.
Its a great thing that the substances we’re banned for minors as they are not old enough to decide what will be good for them in the long term as their minds haven’t fully developed. Which is another reason why these should be banned, the nicotine inside some will alter their brain chemistry permanently. What Whitmer said is also very important, these companies are trying to get kids hooked for life, like parasites.
Aliya Pena • Sep 24, 2019 at 7:22 pm
I agree with this completely. Vaping has taken over minds of young adults. Banning e-cigarettes was a wise choice especially since it’s getting to the point of putting people in hospitals. It’s bad enough that younger people are the ones getting put into the hospital but that some are already addicted and don’t even know it. Our school is in support with this ban and have put posters up of why there shouldn’t be any vaping.
Emma Partee • Sep 24, 2019 at 6:38 pm
vaping has become a big epidemic. Even in teens. It is a great thing they are shedding a light on this situation. This is very well written.
Khloe Kempker • Sep 24, 2019 at 5:25 pm
Vaping is a major problem that a large number of teenagers partake in. The epidemic continues to spread and it’s good to know that there is finally a ban taking place. Hopefully, the ban will reduce the number of people who partake in vaping. If the number of people vaping reduces then hopefully the number of people who end up in the hospital because of it decreases too. Very well written and informational article.
Makenzy Ream • Sep 24, 2019 at 4:45 pm
I like how I got to hear the students take on this. I also agree on this because most of the teenagers in the school have gotten addicted with the vapes because of the flavored stuff. I understand what Governor Gretchen Whitmer was talking about. The reason why she did was that some of the kids have died from this stuff, and its terrible.
rachel kelsey • Sep 24, 2019 at 4:21 pm
I agree with this article. Banning flavored vapes will help reduce the amount of people who do vape but what about the people who don’t use flavored vapes? I think that banning all types of vapes is a better idea because then no one can vape at all. I think it will decrease the number of people who vape which is essential for their health. In conclusion, I think that the state should reconsider this law.
Ben Edds • Sep 24, 2019 at 4:15 pm
This article has good qualities and bad qualities. I’ll list the good ones first. First, students were interviewed about the vaping epidemic, and they said they didn’t like the vaping epidemic, and it should be stopped. Second, it was well written. The paragraphs started where they needed to be started, and it was just the right length, so it didn’t bore me. There were a lot of good things about this article, but it wasn’t perfect. One, the article repeats itself halfway through, probably just to make it longer. Second, GRAMMAR!!! I know there was only one mistake, but grammar mistakes are my #1 pet peeve, and reading this made me cringe. “So whether it be candy or vape to a child it is about the same.” This line should read, “So whether it’s candy or vape, to a child, it’s all the same.” This was just an honest mistake, but it still bothers me. Overall, this was a good article, don’t let the negatives outweigh the positives!
Hunter Smith • Sep 24, 2019 at 3:53 pm
This article mentions the banning of flavored vapes and while it is very important, it is also important to consider other factors as to why teens start vaping. One factor is how much stress high school students are facing in school and in their personal lives. In school, many teens are having to remember to do homework, study for tests and quizzes, and finish multiple projects to keep a good grade. Teens also are stressed over their relationships, friends, and maybe their personal lives like family or other issues. Overall, while banning flavored vapes might help the issue of starting teens, all factors must be considered.
My name is Miles Slocum. • Sep 24, 2019 at 2:38 pm
This article was insightful. This is because it had some information that I did not know. For example that Michigan is the first to put this ban into effect. I agree with the ban. This vape crisis has gotten bad.
jackson diggs • Sep 24, 2019 at 2:13 pm
I think vapes are dangerous. Vapes are dangerous they can cause serious problems. The problem with flavored vapes. Is that it attracts teens and kids to vapes. This can hurt people young people especialy.
Jessica Bush • Sep 24, 2019 at 2:02 pm
To me there’s A Lot of importance of this article because, People that I know and used to be close to joined the trend of vaping, and it’s bad. I see them not being able to go five minutes without hitting it and I worry that maybe overtime they could be getting these bad cases of vaping illness. it’s crazy to me that vaping hasn’t been around for that long and now things are getting bad. After reading this article I want to motivate the people that Im close with who do vape to try and slowly quit, this article made me realise sitting around letting friends lungs and addiction get worse will not save them.
Ce'Nedra Harner • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:49 pm
Vaping isn’t a good thing to have in school or even in general. It can cause so many health issues so I’m glad it is banned. If the vape is not hot enough you could be taking in oil which isn’t good for you. With people not buying vapes and e-cigarettes they can save the money for something, or even someone else. People need to stay away from vapes if they want to live longer, of course the same can be said for cigarettes. I am glad they cracked down on vaping and banned it, I believe it should have been done sooner.
Luke • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:42 pm
I think it is a good thing that this law is now in place. Banning certain flavors of vapes and e-cigs seemed very necessary. The fruit flavored vapes tended to attract more kids to the product and after they try it once, then it’s highly addictive. I have firsthand seen the epidemic of vaping all around at school and outside of school with kids my age and even younger. I believe vaping is very dangerous and that there is no good reason for students to be using them.
Kayce Chapman • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:40 pm
I think that it is a good thing that Michigan banned flavored vapes. I think that most people who vaped was just doing it for the action that they are doing. However when flavored vape came along it made it were people wanted to vape for the flavor. This can cause people to get addictive to vaping and can make it were people can’t stop vaping. Also can make it where if the person wants to stop vaping they have a hard time stopping because of the flavored vape.
Gavin Thrasher • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:31 pm
I agree with ban also. They should not be able to entice teens. This should help lessen vaping in general. we should continue making it only for people to be use as a tool to stop. I truly hope this will help people.
Ayden Z • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:26 pm
Im glad they banned vaping. Its killing people.
Destiny Freuer • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:24 pm
With this topic it sort of makes me question. If they banned vapes and things like this. Why don’t they banned cigarettes too? I mean people sit here and try to quit but them quitting leads to the vaping if anything they should banned cigarettes first then in the next couple years banned vapes because there are people that actually pay attention to the law and things and with them slowly going down on the nicotine between the cigarettes and the vapes it’ll just lead them to having to just quit in general. Somewhat clean air am I right?
Justin Harpole • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:23 pm
I have to say banning flavored vapes is a very smart thing, due to the fact that it is pretty much marketed at the hope of kids being addicted to it. Companies that market drugs and cigarettes to children are utterly cruel and in my opinion horrible humans. I agree on everything relating to banning vapes, juuls, cigarettes, and cigars. I think they are horrible for the world and are just marketing scams to kill people and make people addicted. I hope soon that they will ban all smoking products.
Desirae Cavanaugh • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:20 pm
I personally believe this vape juice should not be banded for many reason.One big reason I believe flavor juice should not be banded is because most people are trying to quit smoking cigarette’s. Vaping was first made to help people stop smoking. Why band something that is helping some people? not only does it help you stop smoking but its not as bad as smoking in my opinion. People that are age are obviously able to buy products for these items. However, I do believe you should have to be 18 to purchase anything from the vape shop. But overall you deciding if you want to vape or not should be left up to you.The government is making more money because of so many people wanting to purchase these items and if people should stop vaping or having flavored juice banded then we should band cigarette’s because that can cause lung cancer.
Lucia Smith • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:11 pm
I agree with the decision to ban flavored vapes. Although vaping can sometimes be used to help adults quit, I still think it is more harmful than helpful. Vaping is especially dangerous for a younger audience. I also agree that e cigarettes are dangerous and should not be sold as widely as they are.
Haley Foreman • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:03 pm
I agree with the banning of flavored vape juice. I support vaping for adults for it helps them to quit. For teens to be vaping however is bad for their health. Illness seems to be popular among teen vaping. I agree with the governor.
Jessica Bush • Sep 24, 2019 at 1:03 pm
To me there’s A Lot of importance to this article because, People that I know and used to be close to joined the trend of vaping, and it’s bad. I see them not being able to go five minutes without hitting it and I worry that maybe overtime they could be getting these bad cases of vaping illness. it’s crazy to me that vaping hasn’t been around for that long and now things are getting bad. After reading this article I want to motivate the people that Im close with who do vape to try and slowly quit, this article made me realise sitting around letting friends lungs and addiction get worse will not save them.
Ashley Sheldon • Sep 24, 2019 at 12:04 pm
I think the ban on flavored vapes is a good thing. I know a lot of people who do vape a lot some of whom do it for mental health reasons or simply that they’re really stressed and do it cause it calms them down. So it does show how mental health does play a hand in the teen vaping crises and that mental health should be taken more seriously in our society.
Stormm Byers • Sep 24, 2019 at 11:48 am
I completely understand where the governor and president are coming from, although i don’t entirely agree with their actions. The younger generation is hooked to vaping and i see a good amount of my friends doing it and it just needs to end, but the real reason that people are dying and getting sick is from after market and black market vaping devices. This only started to become a real problem when they took flavored juul pods off the market, it opened a door to the aftermarket community who continues to make pods for a cheaper price coming from a unreliable source. This is why they have found contents such as vitamin E and a oil concentrate found in these after market products. The politicians don’t understand that its not all vapes just killing and hurting these people, they see all vapes as the same. Even though they have been around for 20 plus years and now that they’ve started to ban some things the black market is growing and causing these problems. But if they just ban all flavored vapes, everyone who is still addicted will resort to after market and black market products which will cause way more deaths and cause more illness than vaping has ever before. When all of this started happening i had to do as much research as i could because my Mom has been vaping for a while and is the reason she was able to quit smoking, i needed to make sure she was gonna be okay. But as long as you purchase from a legit and reputable company then you should have close to 0 issues. I say that because there is living proof all over the place of people who have been vaping for 15-20 plus years who regularly get checked out and get x-rays of their lungs but they are all good. Everyone needs to quit vaping, especially those who are not using it as an alternative to quit smoking, but the true way to do it is a process of regulations and how much is allowed to public. There isn’t a quick fix for this just like any other large problem like the politicians seem to think there is.
Hunter Smith • Sep 24, 2019 at 11:36 am
This article does point out that the flavored vape ban is good for Michigan, but like James Asher says, mental health is also something to consider. High School can be very stressful, with things like homework, projects, quizzes, tests, and exams almost every day, many high schoolers are feeling stressed to keep good grades. Not only this, but they are also teenagers going through relationships and other things in their own lives that would cause them to feel stressed. Vaping provides a release to this stress and while I don’t support vaping, many people need some kind of release. My release is playing video games, but other people have different ways of relieving stress, whether it be through safer means or not. Either way, banning flavored vapes won’t just solve the problem on its own, we need to consider every factor that we can.
Jason Koch • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:19 am
This has been a problem for too long. Articles like this call our attention, I like the quotes and points of view, but all in all they’re saying the same thing. Including the Governor was a good idea, and getting the opinions of the student body was good to relate the rest of us. This article could have used some ways to take action so there’s motivation for people to get started. This was enticing, and if the body takes initiative, I feel it’s necessary to join.
Allie Barker • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:07 am
I’m really glad an article was written on this topic. Spreading awareness to the student body of Portage Northern and high school kids in general is very important because this issue is getting out of hand. After what I’ve seen here at Northern the ban was and is necessary to keep our students safe and out of harm. I think adding statistics to this article would be more impact to the students because I don’t think the students are listening to the ban quite yet. I really liked the way you went about this article and the information added.
Colin Carroll • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:04 am
This article is very insightful to the details of the vaping ban from the governor as well as the opinions of students in the school. I like that you included a quote from Gretchen Whitmer, as it gives more credibility to your article. I also like that you had quotes from different students that help to support your claim, that most students agree with the ban. Next time I think it would be improve your article if you took an anonymous poll of students on their stance of the ban to get better variety of data. I also think next time you should try giving more statistics on the issue of vaping, which could help prove your case that the vaping ban is actually necessary. Overall, I mostly agree with the ban and your article was a good read.
Claire Flynn • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:04 am
This is a great article topic and I’m glad The Northern Light wrote about it! However, I noticed that there is a quote that is used twice, but claimed to be said by two different people? Who actually said the quote? The Governor or the freshman? This makes the whole article incredible! Next time, please try to use different and exact quotes if you’re interviewing two different people!
Caiden S Price • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:02 am
I agree with this ban of the flavored vapes. It is a very dangerous habit to pick up and many teens around the school are participating. I believe this new ban will help not only our school but the rest of the state become healthier as a whole. In conclusion, the governors choice is a very good decision and should help with this nationwide problem.
Claire Flynn • Sep 24, 2019 at 9:00 am
This ban is really important and I’m glad the Northern Light expanded upon it! However, I noticed that the same quote is used twice, but said by the same person? I can’t tell who actually said that, the Governor or the freshman. This decreases the credibility of the entire article! Next time, definitely use different and exact quotes and make that clear to the reader!
Cristian Hernandez • Sep 24, 2019 at 8:59 am
This is a great article. It really gave me insight into the problem at hand. I like how you included quotes showing different viewpoints of people in Michigan and at this school. I think something that would really improve this article would be some stats about kids and flavored vapes.
Emily V. • Sep 24, 2019 at 8:53 am
This article has importance in our community for one because vaping is a very prominent activity within my generation. Lots of students in school use vaping as a coping mechanism with stress. But it is as well used to appear cool in circumstances. Students become addicted to the nicotine as well as enjoying the flavor of the vapes. I think the law will prevent interest, but there are still ways to access the materials to enjoy the activity, creating the action more “rebellious,” enticing teenagers more.
Gavin Garner • Sep 24, 2019 at 8:52 am
I feel like this article gives insight into the problems with vapes. This article shows the reasons why vapes should be banned. It makes everything better overall with the fact that vapes are worse for you than cigarettes. If kids stop using vapes, everything will be better. The vapes are a problem for others as well because the second hand “smoke” they produce is worse for others than actual second hand smoke.
Senator James Asher • Sep 19, 2019 at 9:41 am
This is a great article. If you need comments on any topic, let me know!