Another study shows e-cig minimum age laws associated with slightly more cig smoking; no evidence on effect on e-cig use

A second paper, “The influence of electronic cigarette age purchasing restrictions on adolescent tobacco and marijuana use,” was just published in Prevnetive Medicine by Michael Pesko and colleagues from Cornell.  They found that youth cigarette smoking rates in states that prohibited e-cigarette sales to youth were 0.8 percentage points higher than in states without such laws.  (This estimate is similar to the 0.9 percentage point increase Friedman reported a few months ago.) 
 
Overall, this is a reasonably done paper.  In interpreting the result, however, it is important to note, that, like the Friedman paper, this new paper indicates that, as overall cigarette use continues to fall, e-cigarette youth access controls are associated with relatively fewer kids initiating nicotine use with cigarettes. 
 
Not surprisingly, Brad Rodu and Clive Bates have jumped on this finding to argue against minimum purchase age laws.
 
The point that the e-cigarette enthusiasts have ignored is that e-cigarette use among youth is exploding.  As Pesko and colleague point out, e-cigarette use prevalence among US adolescents in 2014 was 13.4%, higher than the 9.2% cigarette smoking rate.  Viewed in this context, the 0.8% effect is small.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these minimum purchase age laws were pushed through by the cigarette companies and lack meaningful enforcement provisions.
 
Like Friedman, the new paper does not say anything about the effects of e-cigarette youth access laws on e-cigarette use (a point both papers make) or total nicotine use, which other studies show has increased as a result of the advent and aggressive marketing of e-cigarettes, and the eventual level of cigarette smoking among youth and young adults that result from this increased use of addictive nicotine delivery products.

The bottom line remains:  Until and unless there is convincing evidence from a range of studies showing that e-cigarettes are leading to less, not more, nicotine addiction, current laws policies designed to discourage e-cigarette use among kids, including minimum age of sales, including e-cigarettes in clean indoor air laws, and banning marketing targeting kids, should continue to be promoted.