Recently, nine people have died due to vaping related illnesses, and more than 500 people have been hospitalized due smoking e-cigarettes. Now the argument flying around is whether or not vapes and other e-cigarettes should be banned. Here is the Lion’s Roar staff’s opinions on vaping and e-cigarettes:

Laura Madler, Editor in-Chief- “I think that it’s one of those problems that is difficult to get a handle on. Sure, it’s good for former smokers to have that as a means to quit or to switch over to somewhat “healthier” alternatives to cigarettes, but at the same time, if you put it on the open market, you are getting young people between twelve and eighteen- children- ruining their lungs for the rest of their lives because juuling is cool. This is an issue where we don’t really know enough about the risks to make sound decisions, and so we’re seeing problems. Quite frankly, it’s scary to think that because of foolish policy we might have an entire generation of people who are chronically affected by health issues from these devices.”

Shayla Shuping, Staff Writer- “Yeah, I think [that vaping shouldn’t be legal] so, because it is killing a lot of really innocent people. We really don’t know what’s truly in all of it.”

Jasmine Brown, Staff Writer- “I personally think it should [be banned], just because of all the health problems that come with it, and I just don’t think it’s okay to encourage smoking at all.”

Beth Ellis, Staff Writer- “I do believe it should be delegalized because we’ve seen it has a bunch of negative health effects and there have already been deaths from it so far, but it’s still an experimental thing so we don’t really know everything about it. We don’t know the worst [possibilities], we don’t know what it could do. Having it legal and in that experimental state is dangerous for the health of everyone involved in the issue.”

Matthew Swanenburg, Staff Writer- “I personally believe that vaping should be banned because it is dangerous to the youths.”

Amira Lovelace, Staff Writer- Although the original intent of e-cigarettes was to help cigarette smokers quit, they have become just as dangerous as the average cigarette, so I believe e-cigarettes and vapes should be banned.