M.D. Harmon, in his March 21 column, “Resistance to safer ‘e-cigs’ may reveal more ominous addictions,” is wise to suspect government types and Democrats of being hopelessly addicted to the income generated by tobacco taxes. But he is naive to believe in the good-hearted intentions of e-cigarette manufacturers.

He views these companies as jumping in to help poor nicotine addicts as they struggle to wean themselves from a drug that hooks as strongly as heroin. If such intentions were true, these companies would appeal to addicts by only marketing e-cigs as tasting like cigarettes, like Marlboro Reds or Virginia Slims. E-cigs would come in gradations of nicotine content to aid the recovering addict. And they’d be heavily marketed to physicians and their patients.

about the author

Bill Burge is a physician and a resident of Portland.

But I’m a physician, and I’ve yet to see one representative or one medical journal advertisement touting the benefits of e-cigarettes. Instead, I hear about them at home, from my three teenage sons. One even began an online group to tout the virtues of “vaping,” and made me a member!

They tell me the e-cigarettes come in a variety of sweet flavors, such as sour cherry, candy and pancake. None of my boys can tell me exactly how much nicotine is being delivered to their bloodstream with each “vape.”

One thing I’m sure Mr. Harmon will agree on: The corporate profit margin much more efficiently targets our children, their money and their lives, than our lazy, tax-and-spend, liberal bureaucrats.

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