Here's the way I see it, the government doesn't like change...especially with their revenue streams and vaping is causing a considerable shift in the revenue streams as more people switch from tobacco products and big pharma cessation products to vaping. Plus, Antz are people that always need to raise a flag for the sake of raising a flag about something because they don't know when to leave something the hell alone....that may be a harsh statement but it's true....even Joan of Arc even bit her fate the hard way when she got it wrong...sue me for being blunt.
That's the whole reason vaping is so under the microscope...it's new, it's a huge industry, and the government hasn't capitalized it to replace faulting revenue streams so of course they're going to put us under the microscope and make us miserable. I just don't under stand why we can't unite as vapors and push back...why do we have to walk on eggshells? Don't get me wrong, I don't want my vaping rights taken away more than anyone but I think we should be heard equally with the Antz and other powers that be.
To the OP, I think you did the right thing and I would do the same in your position. In my state Minors aren't allowed in smoke and head shops period for any reason and vape shops are taking the same stance to protect themselves and are just as if not more strict about it. You did what you had to do to protect yourself and your fellow vapors and I commend you for it. My problem is with the state of Texas's backwards ass control laws for different things. Where I lived in Texas (and I know it was like this at the time in Louisiana as well, I don't know if it still is,) that minors, even young children, were allowed in bars and taverns at the descression of the establishment. I lived in a more "redneck" country area and many people brought their teens and kids to the bar on friday and saturday nights. Everyone knew everyone. They weren't allowed to be served, but some parents even slid their kids drinks. Most of them brought their teens with them so they would have designated drivers and not get DUI's....and this was perfectly legal and ok...but heaven forbid they take their kids into the smoke shop when they got a carton of Camels...
I've never seen a child proof cap on a bottle of Vodka. I've never seen a "childproof" pack of analogs. But we have to take all these precautions to protect our freedom to vape because it's new and a few people who go out of our way to make an unnessicary fuss about it ruin it for the rest of us that for the most part have regulated ourselves before it was a "mainstream" activity just fine. It's no secret I've had other problems with things resulting from injuries and what not and the meds I was given going to far. I was in a methadone program for years with several minors. Do I believe that minors should be able to buy vape products in a store on their own?
No, no I don't. If you can't buy tobacco products than you shouldn't be able to buy vaping products. I do agree with that and stand by that completely. However, if the minor is already smoking and addicted to tobacco like I was as a young teenager ( I started when I was 11, every day smoker by 14 and wish I never had, by 28 I had given up on quitting and thought it was hopeless, at 29 tried cig-a-likes and hated them. As an early 30th birthday present my mother gave me an e-Go kit that literally saved my life.) And my parents were able to give me a vape back then I would have jumped for joy...but I wouldn't have vaped in everyone's face like an idiot.
I liked greatly the one post about "info" is free. I think instead of screaming for just blanket vaping bans and "what about the children"...if the antz really cared they would be screaming for educating them like with smoking and sex and everything else instead of just trying to make it go away...the only thing they have to fear is change itself and apparently they don't like change any more than the government.
That being said, I think the only liquid minors should be able to be given and have if their parents or gardians choose to let them vape is 0 nic...underage means no tobacco, no nicotine...if we're letting them vape to get them off cigs than have them do it for just that...when they're old enough then they can choose to vape how they wish. Till then, you vape nic free to be smoke free or not at all. The kids in the program with me weren't there to use it as a gateway to hard drugs but to escape the same hell I was, if vaping can do the same than I am for it...but within reason.
The bottom line of my rant...the OP did right and I would do the same and I commend him for it. But the parents should have the right to choose if it's a legitimate way to stop them from going further smoking than they already have. Minors should only be allowed to be 0 nic IHMO. If we can openly educate them in schools about the dangers of sex an drugs and alcohol, if we can blanket anti-smoking adds and make information about the dangers of these activities I believe honest, un biased and non propaganda type educational materal that we can do our best to make as neutral and informative as possible available about vaping right along side everything else instead of continuing to let the loudest few go on shunning it. If we can give minors the pill, methadone, and rehab than I believe we can give them a nicotine free alternative to get them off tobacco products that wasn't available to us generations before...
But the key is not just education and awareness but implementation of it. Parents have to take responsibility for it. If they can't stop their kids from doing what they're going to do that doesn't mean that they should give up. Mine didn't, even as an adult. However, taking a kid to a vape shop isn't the right way of going about it. Not yet, maybe one day, but not yet.
Ok...I'm done ranting...I know I ranted a lot and got a bit off topic...but there's so much grey in the country on Tobacco and Alcohol control laws as they're set by each state...the only federal law is you must be 21 to purchase alcohol and the states are responsible for going about enforcing it more the most part and the ATF just oversees things, just like each state makes it's own tobacco laws....Vaping is a whole new mess of grey that I have a feeling will take several more years to work out....it's not like the golden age of smoking where a kid could get his parents cigarettes from the store for them because they didn't want to go themselves. And as for the whole "flavors" debate....There's flavored tobacco's, flavored alcohols...sure I've heard a little fuss about that being a target for kids, but not nearly as much....turns out grown ups like flavors too. Who'd a thunk it? It just makes me sad and makes my brain hurt.