Rhode Island Democrats To Put Money Before Lives, Tax Anti-Cigarette Devices

By Neil Stevens | 3:45 PM on April 05, 2018

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FILE - In this April 23, 2014 file photo, a man smokes an electronic cigarette in Chicago. San Francisco has approved a bill that bans the sale of flavored nicotine-laced liquid used in electronic cigarettes and flavored tobacco products. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the ban on Tuesday, June 20, 2017. Supervisors say that nicotine masked in cotton candy, banana cream, mint and other flavors entices kids into a lifetime of addiction. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Smoking cigarettes kills smokers and the people around them. So why is Rhode Island set to place an 80% punitive tax on anti-cigarette devices?

FILE – In this April 23, 2014 file photo, a man smokes an electronic cigarette in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Quitting smoking is hard. Very hard. That’s why “vaping” is one of the greatest inventions in recent years. Vaping gives people a way to taper off of nicotine in a way that avoids the tar and other dirty, carcinogenic substances found in cigarettes. Vaping saves lives.

And yet Rhode Island Democrats want to apply an 80% tax on vaping. The biggest effect of putting that kind of tax on a good, is to discourage more people from trying it.

So Rhode Island, in a greedy impulse to make more money short term, is set to cause more people to get cancer long term. That’s not just smokers, but the people around them, who would otherwise be helped by vaping.

Shame on the Rhode Island Democrats for putting money before people.