BREXIT has happened — the UK has opted to leave the EU. But what does BREXIT have in store for vapers?
UPDATE: The UK has decided to leave the EU. This is a HUGE situation that will, in all likelihood, take several or more years to play out. The markets are all over the place, but appear to be doing better than expected, but it is the political chaos that is the most unnerving thing — the major parties appear to be in free fall.
The post below was written WAY before the BREXIT vote. I penned it mainly to speculate about what would happen in the event of the UK leaving the EU. The other point I wanted to stress in the post was the EU’s glaring ignorance towards vaping and its on-going love of corporatism — the EU wants vaping destroyed. And the reason is its pals in Big Pharma want it that way.
But now the vote has been cast, what does the immediate future look like? What will change? Is the TPD void?
“The short answer is nothing,” says a report from Vaping 360. “The vapor products provisions of the TPD will stay in effect until the UK negotiates the terms of its exit from the EU.
Presumably, the government will continue on the path it has already begun, enforcing the regulations lightly and creating as little disruption to vapers as the regulations allow. But a new government could make different choices.”
NNA Wants TPD KILLED
Clive Bates and Sarah Jakes of the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) have penned a joint letter to the Right Honourable Jeremy Hunt MP asking for the TPD to be repealed. If successful, this will be a HUGE boon for the UK vaping market and also set a precedent for the rest of the world to follow.
Here’s what the NNA said in a statement posted on Clive Bates’ Blog:
“We recognize that the primary purpose of the Great Repeal Bill to be announced in the 2017 Queen’s speech is to bring most of the body of European Union law into UK law substantively unchanged,” write the NNA harm reduction advocates. “However, we hope that ministers will consider actually repealing some of the worst examples of European Union Law, especially where a domestic approach would have multiple benefits to health, wellbeing, commerce, personal freedom and competitiveness.”
“Public health supporters around the world will be looking to the UK to defend safer alternatives to cigarettes,” writes Professor Gerry Stimson, emeritus chair at Imperial College London, in The Spectator. “So far, France is the only EU country to share the UK approach. These two, the only countries in the EU where cigarettes must now be in plain packaging, are rightly recognised as Europe’s leaders on tobacco control. They must hold their ground. A billion lives could depend on it.”
Read on below the break for the full original post.
Whatever your stance on the issue, either in or out, is entirely up to you, but there is one thing we can ALL agree on and that is the EU’s continuing war of ignorance against vaping.
Personally, I’m all for an exit — but not because of the vaping thing. I am, and always have been, wary of large, top-down-managed superstates. And the EU certainly meets all the criteria for this with its love of bureaucracy, corruption and general air of totalitarianism.
But that’s a story for another day and another website; no, here I want to talk about vaping and what BREXIT will mean for the future of vaping in the UK should we decide to leave the EU and go it alone on the global stage.
Let’s take a look at all the factors currently facing the UK vaping scene, including the about to hit TPD, BREXIT and finally what it would mean if we left or remained part of the EU.
BREXIT & The TDP As It Stands
As of May 2016, the TPD — a European piece of legislation that aims to pretty much kill the vaping scene here in the UK — is now in effect. The knock-on result of this piece of legislation is limited choice of products, restrictions on what you can and can’t vape, increased prices and mountains of red tape for those looking to design and develop new products.
Basically, the TPD will do for vaping in the UK what the FDA’s Deeming Regulations will do for vaping in the US inside the next two years. And in case you’re not reading between the lines what I’m talking about here is now good — this is effectively the end of the line for vaping as we know it.
Who voted for this law? Who asked for it? Do we need it? The answers to all those questions are simple: no one, nobody and no. The EU simply dreamed it up, likely at the behest of Big Pharma and Big Tobacco, and it now about to become a reality.
This isn’t fair, of course. And no one likes this kind of legislation, regardless of whether you’re a vaper or not. It’s bullshit of the highest order.
“At the heart of the TPD is the simply untrue assertion that e-cigarettes are tobacco products,” says The Electronic Tobacconist. “They aren’t, they don’t contain tobacco, and this kind of perverse Orwellian doublethink doesn’t reflect well on the EU at all. E-cigarettes are only superficially similar to cigarettes; nicotine is the only shared ingredient, and the nicotine-free e-cigarettes, of which there are many, will be regulated just the same. In fact, they are much more similar to nicotine inhalers, a product which gets a preferential 5% tax treatment.”
The House of Lords may block this bill and stop it from happening. This is not guaranteed, though. There are petitions you can sign and things you can do, however, which you can read more about HERE. And say the Lords do block it: what’s stopping the EU trying again and again and again?
The only way to stop this happening is to leave the EU. This way the UK can make its own laws and decide its own legislation on vaping — if any. I mean, we have the Royal College of Physicians’ approval and many, many scientists and researchers have been shouting about the benefits of vaping.
No one in the EU is listening, though. Whether this is kick-backs from lobby money, outright bribes or ignorance, I have NO idea, but what I do know is that there has been ZERO debate and ZERO serious discussion on the subject.
THEY decided and WE have to obey.
And like all good conspiracies, there is an “official story” mouthed by a few anointed “experts” that is designed to quell the public from enquiring further. Get the mainstream media on board, publish a few scaremongering stories here and there, and voila, you’ve got 90% of people onboard with your bullshit arguments and regulations.
That is what happened with vaping, the TPD and the FDA Deeming Regulations in the US. They saw a viable, disruptive alternative to tobacco and Big Pharma’s products and, either through coercion or lobbying or both, they set about in a totally corporatist manner to destroy a vibrant, life saving industry.
“Pharmaceutical companies make a killing from completely ineffective smoking cessation products (gums, patches and inhalers),” the report added. “This lucrative industry has taken a hit thanks to the arrival of e-cigarettes, which not only work better but are also more enjoyable. To steady the ship, big pharma lobbied the EU hard.”
This isn’t democracy. This isn’t about your well being. It is corporatism. It is about money. And it is going to keep on happening over and over again until the public wakes up and realizes it is being governed by a pack of liars, thieves and war criminals who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about your well being, your children or the planet you live on.
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