It seems like all the news about local and state governments regulating e-cigarettes, taxing them, and even going out of their way to create anti-vaping propaganda really is all about the money.
ABC reports that jails in more than a dozen states are offering e-cigarettes for sale to inmates in their county jails. Of course they justify it by saying that it helps to reduce the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and therefore improves inmate behavior (which actually helps confirm pro-vaping arguments about them being an effective smoking cessation device), but in reality the only thing that prison officials care about is the revenue that can be generated selling them.
A jail in Texas is selling e-cigs for around 6 dollars a pop, claiming that the revenue generated from the sales is saving taxpayers money. The same prison industry that has cost us millions of dollars by lobbying in support of the War on Drugs now wants to save us money? Highly unlikely. Since the article doesn’t cite any evidence showing that jails have chosen to take less taxpayer money since e-cigarette sales started, I’ll have to call BS on that claim.
While I’m in favor of helping prisoners quit smoking by offering them electronic cigarettes, the hypocrisy of trying to regulate vaping while simultaneously profiting from it is overwhelming.
