With the “Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act”, Democrats want to kill the American vaping industry for good…
A man, in a position of power, and a track record of investing his money in Big Tobacco wants to rid America of vaping. He says he’s doing it for the kids but that’s not really true. If he were, then he’d dedicate his time to more pressing matters – things like opioid abuse and obesity.
Like the sun, these problems are too big, too difficult to look at straight-on. They require more thought, more money. Picking a fight with the largely independent vape industry is easier. And that’s what he does – he sponsors a bill that will effectively kill the American Vape Market.
Meet The “Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act”
Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Donna Shalala of Florida, Democrats, introduced this bill to the house on Tuesday, April 15.
If passed, this bill would effectively destroy the US vape industry overnight, killing thousands of businesses and costing thousands of jobs across the country.
So what’s the bill all about? Here’s a break-down of what’s being proposed:
- Prohibit all “characterizing flavors” except tobacco unless they are specifically approved by the FDA
- Prohibit online sales
- Gives FDA authority to collect $100 million in user fees from the vaping industry
- Prohibits sales to anyone under 21
- Orders FDA to issue a rule on the regulation of products using synthetic nicotine
- Extends all FDA rules on sales and marketing of cigarettes to vaping products, including advertising rules
Friends of Big Tobacco
What’s ironic about this entire fiasco, and why I used the phrase “virtue signaling” in the title, is that the bill’s sponsor, Pallone, had over $15,000 of his own money tied up in Big Tobacco shares. And to me, that just typifies everything that is wrong with politicians right now.
They don’t care. How can you say you care and then have vested interests in companies that have, collectively, killed hundreds of thousands of Americans over the years?
Not only that, but then have the audacity to propose a bill that would destroy a technology that has helped more people quit smoking, and stay quit, than anything else in history? How? Big Pharma couldn’t solve smoking, and neither could government initiatives.
Collectively, the US Government and Big Pharma have wasted billions on anti-smoking initiatives that DO NOT work. Whereas vaping, a technology that is 95% safer than smoking, has been shown to destroy smoking rates wherever it is present.
This is why the UK is now actively promoting vaping as the #1 method for getting off of cigarettes for good. The UK is even running campaigns about ecigs to dispel the lies and myths perpetrated by anti-tobacco/vaping zealots online and in the US.
But You Can STILL Buy Cigarettes…
And while all this nonsense is going on in the USA, you’re still free to buy cigarettes and tobacco. The ongoing flavor bans, which are sweeping the country, are yet another example of Big Brother getting it all wrong. Adults like flavors. They don’t taste like tobacco – and that’s a good thing.
Kids shouldn’t vape, obviously. They also shouldn’t drink alcohol and smoke weed, but many do. Banning an entire technology because of kids being kids is no different from banning cars because a few kids go joyriding every week somewhere in the US. It’s nuts, basically.
Using Emotive Language To Win Arguments
But what really irks me about this War on Vaping is the language used. They’re using children to push a political agenda. Not because they actually care about kids, but because they know that no one will dare argue with the implied logic – who wants to be seen as not caring about kids, after all?
At its core, it basically says that if you’re pro-vaping you somehow don’t care about child welfare. And in today’s PC Culture, being tarred with this brush is not something anyone in a position of power would want. It’s just too much heat. That’s why most just tow the line…
And this, my friends, is virtue signaling at its finest. Everybody towing the line, afraid to argue with the accepted logic that has been spewed down from god knows where, banning things for no good reason, other than some jumped-up BS about vaping rates amongst teenagers.
Interesting fact: more kids have smoked weed than tobacco in the US, did you know that? Crazy, right.
A few thousand people will read this post inside the next few days. Do me a favor: email or write to your state’s senator and tell them EXACTLY what you think about this bill. We have to come together to fight this virtue signaling PR machine. Only then will things change.
They have the mainstream media to do their bidding. They can push an idea, even a whole untrue one, into the minds of millions of people overnight – like the whole teen-age vaping epidemic. In order to stop them, you need to get active as well.
Get on the phone, email, write and attend calls to action in your area.
Follow CASAA for updates. And please, please, please take five minutes to call your state’s representative. They work for you remember!
