Never a truer word said http://t.co/KErYYZc8tB pic.twitter.com/XTyCwKvMxf
— Dick Puddlecote (@Dick_Puddlecote) January 30, 2015
Sadly, I was taken to task for what I hadn't tweeted agreement with, rather than what I had. Still, that's by the by.
What I did find interesting about this undeniable statement is the possible future reactions to yesterday's news that Ireland is planning plain packaging for e-cigs too. You see, it is very true that "advocates of e-cigs within the tobacco control community" are fully behind plain packaging of tobacco - last week gave us a prime example (for which I was unfollowed by the way).
So what are they to make of e-cigs being slapped with plain packaging? Well, my guess is that they'll sit back and say nothing. I mean, how could they do any different? We are constantly told that tobacco controllers are not anti-smoker, they are anti-smoking, and are not trying to interfere in your free choice should you choose to smoke. Perish the thought!
The plain packaging campaign has been at pains to point out throughout the past few years that it is merely trying to stop kids from taking up tobacco, not bullying smokers into submission or intervening if adults choose to purchase a legal product. You have nothing to fear. They are absolutely in favour of your liberties and plain packs won't change that one iota. Or, as the instigator of the Irish proposal put it.
Our bill won't ban e-cigarettes or discourage people from using them as quit aids. It will just ensure they are properly regulated.
— Senator Averil Power (@averilpower) January 30, 2015
Therefore, considering tobacco controllers are in agreement* that under 18s should be forbidden to buy e-cigs - despite simultaneously arguing that there is no evidence of the 'gateway theory', and despite the current situation slashing youth smoking worldwide - they'll be quite content with plain packaging for e-cigs, won't they? And since they're convinced that plain packaging doesn't stop adults making free choices either, where's the problem?
Of course, if they oppose plain packs for e-cigs ...
* The e-cig advocate who once asked why harm reduction should only be for over 18s excepted.
10 comments:
Just out of interest, DP, are you "total vaper" now, or are you still "dual user?" Just curious ...
How are they going to apply plain packaging for vaping? I have several different mods of several different designs, these are just battery housing and circuitry, so how will they be "plain packaged", will manufacturers be forced to paint them all poo brown? How will they enforce this in other countries?
If its the atomisers, again these products can come from any number of manufacturers, they are not a standardised design or product in any way, and many are manufactured in countries other than the UK, so how will this be enforced?
Then we come to the ejuice, will the bottles all be poo brown with gross pics and warnings? Warnings of what, nicotine is addictive, (that is debatable but even if it is so what), vaping may cause you to quit smoking tobacco?
I make my own ejuice, so it will be meaningless to me.
In one way I hope they do push for this ridiculous plain packaging of vape gear, as well as booze, and chocolate bars, and soft drinks, because it will make a hell of a lot more people wake up to what these pinch mouthed puritans are all about. Vaping, and the hysterical whinging of the ANTZ about vaping, has brought into stark relief the hypocrisy and lies of "tobacco control" nutters, and public health parasites.
In my opinion, the main reason that TC is turning its big guns on e-cigs and vaping, with bans on vaping where smoking is banned, plain packaging, warnings about the negative health aspects etc etc is because they emphatically DO NOT WANT smokers to evade their punishment regime by switching to vaping. They've spent years scheming how they can vilify the objects of their hatred. You MUST QUIT and become one of them. There are no alternatives.
The thought of all those billions of dollars spent on junk science and lobbying for smoking bans all over the world being circumvented by new technology which allows smokers to indulge their pleasure is anathema to them. And when they've spent so long making sure that smokers are excommunicated from polite society, to let them back in with e-cigs is just too much to bear. It cannot be allowed to happen. Because IT LOOKS LIKE SMOKING, and people ENJOY it. That just can't, can't, can't be allowed.
Vapers, be warned. You will never be let off the hook. Not as long as your pastime is seen to be enjoyable. Vaping WILL be banned, just the same as smoking. The puritans will make certain of it.
Which is precisely why vapers are so vocal in their fight against these measures. The puritan mouth foamers are going to hang themselves, because they are arrogant, and ideologically blind. All we need to do is keep handing them more rope, and more shovels.
Much of what was done to smokers occurred long before the advent of the internet, (the brainwashing had been very successful, not only with non-smokers, but with smokers themselves, believing the lies and hating themselves for being "filthy addicts"). I've heard so many smokers over the years actually agreeing with their own persecution, in some strange fog of Stockholm syndrome.
Vaping has been the catalyst that has led to the public exposure of the lies told about smoking, because they are trying to use the same tactics with vaping. These tobacco control narcissists have made the same mistake that most narcissists do, they have underestimated their chosen victims. People are waking up, and they are very afraid.
Yes indeed, Jude. In many ways I feel that the advent of vaping is the one thing that will finally break Tobacco Control on the wheel of reality.
The more they try to demonise e-cigs in the face of increasingly insurmountable evidence of the lack of harm, the more they will drive themselves to the fringes of public support. And it's their implacable hatred of smoking and all things (like vaping) related that will be their eventual undoing, because the naked spite and vitriol is showing through, however much they try to hide it behind the mask of 'concern for our health'.
The general public are very gullible when it comes to announcements from 'authority' and 'experts', but they are generally not completely stupid.
Just as with the doomsday predictions of 'Global Warming' (or 'Climate Change' as it's now known, since the 'warming' bit rather inconveniently failed to materialise), people will see through the bullshit eventually. The ideologues always overstep the mark at some point, and I'm hopeful that e-cigs are going to be the line beyond which TC steps and loses popular credibility. But as I said above, they WILL try to ban e-cigs. It's in their DNA.
Maybe this will prove to be their Rubicon.
“Our Mao jackets bill won't ban clothing or enscourage people to go around starkers. It will just ensure they are properly regulated.”
I think they must mean the cardboard boxes the eliquid bottles come in. I mix my own, so it won't apply. It would actually be helpful if it said cherry 24% in big black letters on a white background - would be, were bottled liquid, flavours and strengths above 20% not about to be banned. So there will actually be nothing to plain-package that's not already plain-packaged.
It's a nonsense really, and another waste of taxpayer money on policing and forcing compliance. This is petty spite by those in "tobacco control", they want to hurt vapers somehow, how dare we be able to buy a product that "looks like smoking" and not be punished for it.
Vaping does not harm the user, it does not harm anyone else, so why does there need to be any regulation bar basic consumer safety standards applied?
This is about money and power, not health, but then we all know that already.
Head's Up, Dick. The pollies are cynically undertaking another, "OK for me, but not for thee" exercise:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyashton/mps-win-the-battle-to-smoke-e-cigarettes-in-parliament
Dual user, I think it's called. Though a lot fewer smokes than in the past.
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