As quickly as the popularity of the herb vaporizer pen is rising, so is the fear that the devices will lead to underage nicotine consumption and the discreet use of cannabis.

Initially, e-cigs and vape pens were marketed as a way for smokers to be able to get away from the strict laws that have been laid down on where and when people can smoke cigarettes. A number of celebrities joined the cause early on, with the Snoop Dogg Vaporizer Pen a sure sign that big names were behind the cause.

It is those very freedoms that are starting to cause some states to sit up and take notice of what is going on in the vaping industry. Amid concerns that nicotine use among teenagers was on the rise due to vaporizers, many states are now trying to put eLiquid in the same category as cigarettes and tobacco. The push is now on to put the same age restrictions on the eLiquid vaporizer pen as there is on cigarettes, with Florida among the states leading the way. Ohio lawmakers want to see taxes applied to e-cigs as they are to traditional cigarettes, while New York already has a ban in place around schools and on public transit, which means vaporizer owners are now having to be increasingly careful about where they vape.

Not everyone is on the side of the lawmakers here, though, as doctors are quick to point out that e-cigs and dry herb vaporizers are a much healthier alternative to cigarettes. It has long been known that the vast majority of the health issues caused by cigarettes is from the smoke and not the nicotine. Forbes magazine ran a piece that claims that much of the activism against e-cigs is actually being funded in large part by the pharmaceutical companies that market smoking cessation aids such as nicotine patches and gum.

The Europeans are taking a more common sense approach to the issue by putting age restrictions on the purchase of oil vaporizer pens like the AGO G5 and other electronic smoking devices. They are also putting bans on advertising, which is generally much more effective than the US approach of yelling as loud as possible about how the children will suffer if vape pens are allowed to be used.

The big issue here seems to be more about cannabis than it is eLiquid. The debate still rages on about whether or not the drug should be made illegal. It doesn’t help the cause of the vapers when you hear stories of people using their vaporizers to discreetly smoke cannabis in public. That only serves as fuel on the fire for the anti-vape crowd. Again, vaporizers are a much healthier way to take medical marijuana, but the fact that the table top vape units have now been replaced by small, portable pens makes things a little sticky.

The fact of the matter is that people against e-cigs and vaporizers have to start looking at the health improvement that comes by using those devices as opposed to traditional cigarettes and joints. If those folks are worried about their kids, they need to learn to parent rather than allowing the government to play house.