COMMENTARY: A Common-Sense Step to Protect Nebraska’s Children: Lock the Vape
by Matt Schulte
What do a bottle of ibuprofen, cabinet doors at a day care, lighters, rear car doors, and a pack of cigarettes all have in common? These are everyday items that exist throughout our community, often within reach of children, and yet we as a society have wisely decided they require child safety locks.
Children should not be able to open a bottle of over-the-counter medication and eat it like candy. Children at a day care should not have access to cleaning supplies. A child should not be able to start a fire at their whim. Children should not be able to fling open rear car doors and step into traffic. And most relevant to this discussion, children should not be able to open a pack of cigarettes without the dexterity to peel it open.
Yet today, in the state of Nebraska, a child can freely activate and inhale from a vape device.
Perhaps if you do not have a vape pen in your home, you have not noticed this. But vape devices are fully accessible to children and toddlers. They watch adults use them. A parent lifts it to their mouth, it lights up, often smells sweet, and produces a visible cloud. Children learn by imitation. What they see repeatedly, they assume is safe and acceptable. To a young child, a vape pen looks more like a toy than a hazard.
This is not an indictment of parents. It is an acknowledgment of human nature. Children are curious. They explore their world with their hands and mouths. That is why we have long accepted the need for safeguards.
And vaping is not harmless—especially for children.
Vape devices are not filled with simple water vapor. Most contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance that can disrupt brain development in young children whose brains are still forming. Medical research has shown that nicotine exposure in early childhood can affect attention, learning, mood regulation, and impulse control later in life.
Vape aerosols can also contain ultrafine particles, heavy metals such as nickel and lead, and chemicals that irritate and damage developing lungs. Even brief exposure can cause nausea, coughing, dizziness, and, in some cases, nicotine poisoning. What an adult chooses to risk, a child’s body is not equipped to endure.
A common-sense solution already exists: require child safety locks on vape devices.
This is not a call to ban vaping. It is not a push for government overreach. It is the same logic we already accept. When I start my grill, my lighter requires a coordinated motion—a small but intentional barrier designed to prevent children from igniting a flame. That same basic mechanical safeguard could be applied to vape devices.
Recently, a close friend of mine was visiting a young mother in her home. During the visit, her three-year-old child reached for the mother’s vape pen, activated the button, watched it light up, and took a drag. The child had seen her mother do it countless times. It tasted pleasant. It flashed lights. It made her feel something new. But the harm done to that small, developing body in that moment could be significant.
This child did not act recklessly. She acted innocently.
Just as we require child safety locks on medication, we should require them on vape devices. Just as we protect children from household chemicals, we should protect them from nicotine exposure. Just as we keep children safely inside a moving vehicle, we should guard them from harms they cannot comprehend.
A society that locks medicine bottles but leaves nicotine devices fully accessible to toddlers has missed something essential. This is not about politics. It is about protecting the most vulnerable among us. Nebraska can lead with compassion, responsibility, and common sense—by simply locking the vape.
Matt Schulte is currently a Lancaster County Commissioner. He has previously served on the Lincoln Public Schools Board of Education. Additionally, he runs a nonprofit, Youth for Christ, that reaches out to teens in and around Lincoln.
