So telling you the FACTUAL truth of my childhood gets rejected because it doesn't fit your narrative?

I don't claim every kid is like me. Lots of kids won't listen to their parents no matter what they say. Lots of kids WILL go find vapes even if you make possession punishable by death. Lots of kids will see someone older/cooler vaping and will forget everything they learned. I don't claim every kid is like me. I'm saying that if more parents were like mine there'd be a lot less vaping. That's all.

This right here. My parents explained in all the ways they could. I still ended up smoking. We're a society and a society should have some responsibility to its kids. What happened to. The idea that it takes a village to raise a child? Some keep trying to heap all of the responsibility on parents when they're just being asked to forego fruity flavored cancer.

Same thing is true in the US. Every restaurant used to have a smoking section. The diner where I grew up had ashtrays on every table and a cigarette vending machine by the entrance. And this was in a 'nice' town, not some backwater white trash place.

Now I can't remember the last time I saw a restaurant that allowed smoking. Even among blue collar workers it's MUCH less prevalent.

Vaping is somewhat more common in the US- I haven't been to Europe in the last few years (IE since vaping really took off) so I can't speak with authority on vaping in EU. But of my social circle- a lot more vape marijuana extracts than vape tobacco (marijuana is legal in my state of Connecticut, there's licensed stores where you can buy weed, vape products, edibles, etc). I really only know two people that actively vape tobacco. One used Jool type pods, and I believe he quit around the time his kid was born. The other you might call an 'enthusiast', like she had a fancy computerized vaporizer thingy that ran on a 18650 battery and the tobacco extract came in a big bottle and she'd pour it into these thumb-sized capsules that screw onto the vaporizer gadget.

Living in a free society also imposes obligations. Other people must be taken into consideration.
I’m also glad that I don’t live in a community where individuals get to decide what rules they should follow on the basis of some nebulous concept of personal freedom.

There's nothing nebulous here. I offer perhaps you are arguing against a 'stereotypical American' who wants 'muh Freedom!' and then votes for people who restrict freedom. That is not me.

I like freedom, but sometimes those obligations are part of freedom. There's a famous quote- "My right to swing my face ends where the other man's face begins." I believe this a good underpinning for a free society.

For example if I want to buy an apartment building, I should be able to do that. If I want to store explosives in the basement of that building, I shouldn't be able to do that- yes it restricts my freedom to use my building's basement as I see fit, but storing explosives in an apartment also somewhat takes away the freedom of the people living in it to life and safety.

And I can't take something that doesn't belong to me, because that takes away the freedom of the person who owns it.

Or take seatbelts. I agree with the regulation that cars are required to have seatbelts, airbags, ABS brakes, and a bunch of other safety equipment. I don't believe that people should be required to wear seatbelts (or helmets on bikes/motorcycles), because that's their body their choice. HOWEVER, I also believe that if there are multiple occupants in the car, all should be required to wear seatbelts, because in a crash their body could become a projectile that'd injure the other occupants of the vehicle.

Point is- restrict people from doing things that unreasonably endanger others, but permit people to endanger themselves if they choose.

I'm also STRONGLY against gerrymandering, because that takes away the freedom of the people to choose leaders who accurately represent them and their interests, and instead allows whoever's drawing the map to determine or significantly increase the election's outcome, a power that ideally nobody would have. I would argue if you claim to love freedom, but you have no problem with gerrymandering, then you don't really understand the meaning of freedom and you are not a patriot, you are a parrot repeating what the teevee told you to say.

Anyway- applied here.
I believe if an ADULT chooses to consume a potentially harmful product, knowing the risks of it, they should be allowed to. That is how free society works with things like alcohol, caffeine, and anything else that can be psychologically addictive like marijuana, pornography, sex, video games, TV, lottery tickets, etc. Any attempt to draw a line in here is simple hypocrisy- if you can drink alcohol and trash your liver, but not smoke and trash your lungs, why? Etc.
So if you can get mesquite vapes, but not cherry vapes or menthol vapes, why? Because some asshat regulator said these flavors might appeal more to kids? Even though it's already illegal to sell them to kids?

No, that is denying the freedom of adults to vape the flavors they want, based on a nebulous idea that kids might get them. That's not freedom, that's arbitrary restriction.