Stephen Colbert Is Not So Sure About Vaping

On a segment from last night’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the host explored, with some degree of trepidation, a little trend called “vaping.”

And no, we’re not talking about weed—it’s possible that The Late Show has not yet peered into that beautiful backyard of the vape universe—but e-cigarettes. Remember when e-cigarettes were just those sad items by the cash register at gas stations that nobody bought? No longer! According to Colbert, an estimated 10% of U.S. adults now vape, and global sales of vaping devices just broke $6 billion.

The point of the segment is, e-cigarette makers are allowed to advertise to anyone on TV despite the fact that their long-term affects are unknown (as Colbert put it, “Could be cancer, could be laser vision!”). Thus, young people are being exposed to e-cigarettes via the same kinds of commercials that sold our parents on regular ones—featuring bad dancing and, yep, no health warnings.