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An article from Jacob Sullum, a contributor over at Forbes.com, completely nails why flavor bans for the sake of teens should be a non-starter in regulatory politics. Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine and a regular contributor for Forbes. His topic of choice: the ridiculousness of the war on drugs and political posturing through misleading anti-drug campaigns.

His most recent piece can be read right here.

In it, Sullum tackles the idea that flavored electronic cigarette bans (most recently proposed in New York City) and marijuana edibles bans (proposed out in Colorado) are necessary to protect kids from these products. According to Sullum, “This argument, although couched in the language of moderate and sensible regulation, should be a non-starter in a free society, because it reduces adults to the level of children.”

A more cynical observer might think that these proposals have nothing to do with protecting kids and everything to do with helping the interests of certain companies. After all, larger operations (particularly tobacco companies) benefit most from making it harder for smaller businesses to compete. There is almost no better way to do that than to take away product variety.

Sullum has long been a defender of free choice in the world of drug politics — as evidenced by his book Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use. Supporting legal use of recreational drugs and products (including alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and marijuana) improves the quality of what’s available, makes contraband networks less powerful, affords the ability to tax the product, and more. But more than anything, it is a necessary part of living in a free society where — provide you aren’t hurting anyone — what you do is your own business.

This is not the first time Sullum has tackled this issue. One of the most telling tidbits he throws in this time is that when tobacco cigarette flavors were banned in 2009, a single exception was made — Menthol. This was due in large part to lobbying by Philip Morris. Menthol is the underage smoking flavor of choice. Cloves, strawberry bidis, and the like only ever made up 0.1% of the underage market at the time.

Any ban on electronic cigarette flavors makes a similar exception for Menthol. Yet again, a cynical observer might think these bans have nothing to do with kids.