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A recent piece in Long Beach, California’s Press-Telegram looks more like what we’re used to than the decidedly pro-e-cig piece recently run in the New York Times. In this piece, Donald Bucklin, a regional medical director from Arizona for U.S. Health Works, uses the same shaky CDC numbers and a near total lack of understanding of a smoker’s experience to land on the conclusion The real purpose is getting 16-year-olds to start [smoking].

Bucklin’s voice in this matter is not far from that of other medical professionals — particularly those that don’t focus explicitly on smoking and the difficulties involved with smoking cessation both on an individual and public health level. He parrots the CDC numbers that found e-cig use double in teens from 2011 to 2012 and even uses some interesting phrasing that suggests he might know just how questionable those results were (more on that here).

You can read the op-ed here.

It’s even a little surprising some of the information Bucklin imparts to readers. He even says that e-cigs lack much of the crap that exists in cigarette smoke.

“There’s no tar, no carbon monoxide, and no 400-plus chemicals released from burning tobacco. You won’t burn the house down, and there is only one thing to worry about — nicotine! That’s a pretty impressive list of positives.”

He leaves out any mention of research into the health effects or smoking cessation qualities of e-cigs though. Perhaps this is a way to sound like he’s being balanced even when he isn’t. Sure they’re safer, he suggests, but we don’t “know” they help people quit and we can assume that they ensnare kids in smoking.

His actual arguments even lack what this writer would consider some of the easier targets like advertising and the 40-some attorneys general letter to the FDA urging strong response to the “dangerous” and “unregulated” products (though it is mentioned in the image caption).

Although this is still decidedly slanted against electronic cigarettes, it does offer some sense to progress when even otherwise anti-e-cig folks are forced to admit that the products are safer than tobacco cigarettes. Whether they work for cessation or are attractive to kids is a decidedly harder fight to win.

But it’s still hard to swallow when a piece ends on such a note as this one.

“Let’s not fool ourselves that these cute “personal vaporizers” are out there to get 60-year-old smokers to quit,” says Bucklin. “The real purpose is getting 16-year-olds to start.”