To the editor:

This is a letter about the article headlined “E-cigarette advocates criticize vote raising age for tobacco sales to 21” in the Sept. 15 edition of the Call.

I was struck by a quote from Justin Price, owner of The Vape Room in Oakville: “Why can you get help off of heroin and prescription pills (from a methadone clinic here in St. Louis County), but you can’t get help off of tobacco?”

That is an excellent question. There should be. I believe it would be cheaper in the long run to have a smoking cessation clinic to help people to get off of tobacco than to treat them for tobacco-related illness or diseases like asthma, COPD or lung cancer.

But I do not think that vaping should be the first option for trying to quit smoking. I think counseling combined with a preferred smoking cessation medicine, such as nicotine replacement products like Nicorette lozenge, gum, or patch; Chantix; or Zyban would produce better results. If a person has tried the above approach multiple times, but failed, vaping might be a last option.

It might be better than smoking. But you could wind up hooked on both smoking and vaping.