Decision Time
Electronic cigarettes – Try as I might I just cannot come up with a decent, common sense reason as to why there is so much negative talk (and written articles) about the so-called dangers of electronic cigarettes. I’ve knocked my head against the wall for months trying to figure out what it was that I was missing, some issue with ecigarettes that I’m missing somewhere… and I can’t think of a thing.
Last month I decided to switch sides for a while. To wake up everyday with the mindset that I would try to see electronic cigarettes as something that should be banned, that they were unhealthy… I attempted, faithfully, to see it from ‘their’ point of view. After weeks of trying to keep this mindset in tact the only thing I could come up with was …. Zilch. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be angry at something without having a reason to be? It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. “Electronic Cigarettes should be banned!” … “Why?”… “Because!”… Yea, it’s like that.
Nothing. Not even the ‘Nicotine is bad.’ Or ‘Electronic cigarettes show children that smoking is okay’.
Every time I tried to keep one of the above ‘beliefs’ in my head my conscious mind kept trying to push it out. Nicotine isn’t bad for you, not in the way these zealots claim anyway. Yes, its addictive, but then anything can become addictive. From Video Games to Chocolate, from your favorite “Must See TV” to your love of football, everything can be addicting to those that are easily addictive. Forget the addictive part then, where’s the physical harm? Hmmm… well, its no more harmful that coffee, perhaps even less so.
I guess the only thing I am ready to admit about nicotine is that if I go several hours without vaping I do get a bit anxious. At the same time, if I go without my morning coffee I get more than anxious, I get shaky, tired, hazy, irritated, and I just don’t feel like myself.
Funny, you don’t hear much coming out of the government or any other organization that is clamoring for the ban of coffee. Why not?
The other aspect of electronic cigarettes that I could come up with, the whole “kids might turn to smoking” is, upon reflection, downright stupid. If kids looked at vaping as ‘silly’ or ‘strange’ than how in the world would any kid look at someone vaping and say to themselves, “Hey, I want to smoke tobacco!” Asinine.
If the kids thought vaping was cool how would they be able to obtain electronic cigarettes more easily than tobacco cigarettes? Cigarettes are sold everywhere, so even if, in 3-5 years, electronic cigarettes were sold in every single location that tobacco cigarettes were sold, the worst that could happen is that there would be a product that is 99.99% safer to use than the product next to it. Hell, all those caffeine-infused drinks that are available in every convenience store are a hundred times more harmful than electronic cigarettes, yet there they sit.
If you have a teenager, which product would you least object to having you kid illegally purchase, cigarettes or Electronic cigarettes? The answer is obvious…to me anyway. How about you?
Why the bullshit against electronic cigarettes at all? It can’t be coming from tobacco companies anymore because they are getting in on the game now, what would tobacco companies have to gain? Maybe they won’t admit it right now but the future of all tobacco companies, and tobacco farms, is the electronic cigarette.
None of this makes any sense anymore. That’s why I think….
…It’s Time To End The Debate
Electronic Cigarettes have been available for a few years now and not a single reported case of serious illness has been reported. There has been plenty of science looking into ecigarettes, from the ingredients of the eLiquid to the makeup of the vapor we are exhaling, and science has found nothing worth noting.
So why are we debating this? Why are Vapers so concerned about the government, the FDA, or even tobacco companies? What would the FDA hang its hat on if it decided to lay down some heavy restrictions on electronic cigarettes? The FDA would have to write a report to support their decision, so what would be in that report? Does anyone know? Seriously, I’m asking here…
… As much as I disdain large government and red tape the FDA just can’t make shit up out of thin air and make sweeping changes without some science behind it, even bad science. Where’s the bad science?
There is more than enough evidence to say with confidence that electronic cigarettes are indeed safe to use, with very few caveats. Yes, the vast majority of eLiquid contains nicotine, but the amount of nicotine that reaches the bloodstream is much lower than the nicotine you would get with tobacco, unless you drink the eLiquid. Face it, if someone decides to drink the eLiquid than that’s Darwinism in action… Other than that, where is the science or even anecdotal evidence that vaping is harmful…at all?
It really is time to end the debate and get on with some very minimal regulation. It’s time for the nutty zealots to give it up and go home.
I’m getting tired of chasing down every article ‘for’ and ‘against’ electronic cigarettes. Surely some of the people that are vehemently against ecigarettes are against them just to generate pageviews, or attract attention to themselves, or the need to ‘fight the good fight’ (even though there is no good fight here), or maybe they take the position they take because they have nothing else in their life. I don’t really know but I’ve decided that I’m no longer going to bother reading them.
Tune Them Out
With 2013 a couple of weeks away its time for me, and millions of others, to start to lay plans for the coming year. New Years Resolutions. We don’t usually keep all our promises that we make to ourselves, but we do it anyway because the New Year is a time to ‘begin again’. With respect to the people that spend their lives talking trash about the only real solution to cutting the illness and early death from tobacco, ecigarettes, I’ve decided to tune them out. Completely. And I invite you to do the same.
Trust me here, nothing will change. There will always be people who are against whatever you are for, and vice versa. Science will not stop looking into, well, everything, because that’s what they do. Those against electronic cigarettes could read the most definitive study ever which proves without a doubt that electronic cigarettes are as safe as anything can be and they would still ignore it and tell us all we’re wrong. To illustrate this I really do have a couple of friends who are convinced that we have only a few days left before the world comes to an end. Some people just don’t know when to say ‘uncle’.
There will be many changes coming to Spinfuel in 2013, and some of those changes popped up a couple weeks early (An American Vaper Magazine? What does that mean?), one of those changes will be that you will no longer see us pay attention to the zealots that talk trash about electronic cigarettes. Well, to be honest, we didn’t publish much on the subject in 2012 either, but from now on there will be nothing written about them because they just aren’t worth wasting time on. Instead we are going to move forward as though the ecigarette industry is the only industry that is making any inroads into the reduction of tobacco usage.
Our position is an easy to understand position. It is this; electronic cigarettes are, for all intent and purposes, harmless. The growth of the eCigarette industry is in serious overdrive, and will remain so for years to come. We really don’t believe the FDA will do much of anything with regulation, other than to “keep an eye on the situation”, order a couple of studies, or make ‘recommendations’. Hell, they might even make some ruling that puts eLiquid manufactures under the same rules as those that are making edible foodstuff at home for resell, which isn’t a bad idea. Maybe they’ll demand stricter control of the stated nicotine in the eLiquids that are sold. Other than that, I’m not expecting much. Personally, I’d welcome these changes so perhaps I’m just reflecting my own desires here. We’ll see.
In Conclusion…
There are a lot of exciting things happening in the industry right now. Lots of new products and much more on the way will make the coming year an exciting year to be in the industry. Why put such negative energy into an industry that is changing the world for the better. We finally have the end of the tobacco scourge in sight and the electronic cigarette is lighting the way.
It’s time to celebrate.
John Manzione
Addendum
Although Spinfuel will continue to take the attitude that electronic cigarettes are the best thing to happen to smokers, we will continue to expose the fraudulent ways of many companies that are putting out bad product, making false claims, and swindling people every day. In fact, in 2013 we plan to accelerate the process by creating a Hall of Shame for those companies producing shitty products and selling them to people who are honestly looking for a way to kick the tobacco habit. It’s still the Wild West out there. – jm
