Why I Love E-Cigs #497

Here is David Sweanor, a renowned Canadian tobacco controller, talking about one aspect of the benefits of e-cigarettes.

[...] vaping offers to save taxpayers money while saving smokers’ lives.

Saving taxpayers' money is the thing we are always told, isn't it?

Smokers are costing every country in the world a fortune! Politicians always implore us to quit to save the country cash.

Yet when push comes to shove we see stuff like this.

10. OBSERVES that some of the products, such as e-cigarettes, defined in Directive 2014/40/EU on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products, do not fall into any of the categories of products subject to excise duty under Directive 2011/64/EU. 

11. NOTES that in most of the Member States some of such non-categorised products, often being niche-products in the market, are not subject to an excise duty or any other specifically designed tax, and AGREES that the situation in the market should continue to be monitored and, should the market share of such products show a tendency to increase, the ongoing efforts to develop an efficient taxation method for such products would have to be intensified.

Y'see, e-cigs keep throwing up awkward hot potatoes like that for 'public health', don't they? I mean, if vaping saves wads of taxpayer cash while saving lives, why on Earth would any state body be even considering taxing them? Surely it is a win/win for government as costs to public services plummet with every person who quits smoking with an e-cig.

You don't think they might have been lying to us for years, do you?

One to watch, isn't it?