With Alberta suddenly and intensely focused on what is ostensibly an issue of the protection of children, we should hope that any such conversations are grounded in evidence.

If the government has identified a threat facing our youth, we shouldn’t have to wonder whether there’s a factual basis for that claim. It’s important to not be careless in these endeavours, lest subsequent warnings be met with increased skepticism.

Last month, the Alberta government sounded the alarm over youth vaping rates, touting its new Tobacco and Vaping Reduction Strategy (with a headline that ironically included the phrase “clearing the air”). There’s no disagreement on the need to prevent young people from using such products, and it’s no secret that youth vaping has risen over the past decade.

But the province made a very specific (and alarmist) claim: that the vaping rate among Albertans aged 15 to 19 “rose to 35 per cent in 2020 from 19 per cent in 2013.”........

© Calgary Herald