Massachusetts Vape Ban

          On September 24, Charlie Backer declared a 4 month ban on the sale of nicotine and marijuana vapes. This will let the authorities investigate the illnesses and deaths caused by these vapes. So far, lung injuries have caused at least 40 deaths and 20,000 illnesses nationwide, specifically in Massachusetts, 3 people have died and 65 have gotten sick. This ban has its ups and downs, it is praised by most doctors, but it encourages people who still want to vape to do something dangerous to get it on the black market. Many vape stores say that this ban is going to put there store out of business, so they sued the state. This Tuesday the medical marijuana ban was lifted and it is now legal again to vape medical marijuana. It is becoming clear that the illnesses are from the cartridge with the THC (which makes you high) in it. The chemicals that are mixed in the cartridge include vitamin E acetate this substance is one of the main chemicals being investigated on having to do with the illnesses. This research is still continuing, and people are still finding out what this chemical does. One of the main impacts of the ban is that vape businesses are projected to lose 7-8 million dollars in sales, this forced many stores to lay off people. The next big news for this case will be coming on December 9, where the Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments from both sides in a lawsuit, and then vote on December 11th. This vote could cause the ban to stop short, or exceed and pass its 4 month mark going on indefinitely. To learn more about this subject click this link https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/marijuana/2019/11/11/what-know-about-mass-vape-ban-and-its-future/5A2Ao1i9cU655zJv5DFuXN/story.html

1. Do you think that this 4 month ban is going to have a long term affect on vaping and vape companies in America?

2. The risk of this ban is that people will go to greater, and possible dangerous lengths to get the product, is this significant enough outweigh the purpose of the ban?

3. Do you think that 40 deaths due to vaping is significant enough to have this 4 month ban?

4. How do you think you would react/what would you do if you found out something you were producing had started causing deaths, and illnesses?

Impeachment Inquiry Vote

On Halloween, a vote was held by Nancy Pelosi from the house to impeach Trump. If this vote passes then Trump’s trial will become public and will be another step into removing him from office. The impeachment inquiry has been going on for 4 weeks now. So far the Democrats have been doing closed-door meetings to help acquire witnesses to the famous quid pro quo phone call. The democrats would need a majority vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry. Because the house voted to establish a formal impeachment inquiry, now the trial is set up in the Senate (Republican-controlled). There would need to be a 67% vote to remove the President from office. This, however, is unlikely because, during the house vote, not a single Republican voted against Trump. This investigation is figuring out if Trump misused his political power and if that amounted to serious enough crimes to deserve impeachment and removal. To read more about this goes to  The New York Times.

1. If you were a Republican in the House would you have gone with the norm of your party or would you have voted to formalize then impeachment inquiry?
2. If the vote hadn't happened yet, what do you think that outcome would be?
3. Should the vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry be held sooner?
4. Have you ever defended a friend even if they were wrong?