The Truth Behind the FDA's Plan to Kill Vaping
In reference to FDA Poised to Ban E-Liquid Flavors Nationwide; Claims Underage Vaping is an "Epidemic"
Why is it that we’re seeing this increase in regulation on electronic cigarettes right now? What are the driving factors behind the FDA’s announcement on Wednesday? The FDA is, by all intents and purposes, a governmental body designed to regulate products which could have a negative impact on the consumers health.
If the FDA’s number one concern is truly to increase consumer awareness and have a positive impact on the health of the American populous why are they trying to dismantle the vaping industry? I’ve written several articles detailing the scientific studies being done on the impacts of vaping across the world by health organizations and the data is always the same. The use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery systems is shown time and time again to have a measurable impact on smokers who want to quit using traditional tobacco cigarettes.
It certainly worked for me when no other cessation method would. I smoked cigarettes from the time I was 16 until my brother introduced me to vape devices when I was 23. It took me a few years to make the switch but I smoked my last pack of cigarettes when I was 25 and I haven’t looked back since. I quit cigarettes because of one thing and one thing only, the use of a vaping device was cheaper, more practical, and it tasted so much better than traditional tobacco.
If you ask me, this whole charade by the FDA to kill vaping all ties back to Big Tobacco. You see, in the past few years there’s been a drastic change to the electronic cigarette market in America. Before 2015 the electronic cigarette market was dominated by three companies. Blu, MarkTen, and Vuse, all of which are owned by Big Tobacco corporations. The FDA was perfectly fine with allowing these companies to roam almost regulation free for years. According to opensecrets.org the Reynolds American Tobacco Company has spent over 9.85 million dollars in the last four years lobbying the FDA, 1.2 million of that coming in the past year alone.
But in 2015 something changed, the JUUL device was born and swept the nation in one of the most successful product launches in history. In 2017 JUUL pulled in an estimated revenue of $245 million and they’re projected to make $940 million in 2018. Now Big Tobacco had something to worry about from Electronic Cigarettes. Those three e-cigarette companies that were owned by Big Tobacco no longer held the market share of Electronic Nicotine Delivery systems, they had lost it all to JUUL in the span of just a few months.
All of the sudden, almost too coincidentally, the FDA has stepped up its efforts to fight vaping nationwide. What was once announced as a 6 year period of time for e-cigarette companies to implement plans to curb underage usage has now turned into a 60 day deadline. From 6 years down to just 60 days, let that sink in for a moment.
Why the rush now? Why target JUUL specifically instead of those companies owned by Big Tobacco groups? It all boils down to one thing, and anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see the truth. Big Tobacco has realized that their stranglehold on the health of the American public is at an end and they're lobbying the FDA to make changes. People no longer need to rely on cigarettes to satisfy their addiction when they have healthier vaping alternatives. And that scares the people whose profits rely on Americans getting cancer.
16 Comments
As an ex-smoker I am fed up with the many attempts big pharma and the fda continue to make against vaping. They have no problem selling cigarettes that are known to kill, cause cancer and many many other health and medical issues but want to eliminate the one and only thing that freed me from the stinky sticks which is vaping. I had tried every other quit smoking product out there from the gum to the patches to the pills and everything in between and could not quit. Smoking had cause me chronic bronchitis, copd, asthma and so many other medical issues. Since I quit smoking I have not have bronchitis one time, I do not need to use my inhalers unless it’s cold out because the cold just takes my breath away. I can run, jog and walk for as long as I want now. I can run around and play with my kids and now grandkids, I don’t stink anymore amd my tastebuds have come alive. So how can anyone including big pharma, the fda or anyone say those are bad things. Vaping saved my life LITERALLY and all I have ever vaped is fruity, dessert, sweet, candy flavors!!!!!
It’s simple. We have let government get so big we now serve them. They are in every part of our life. And they demand their Money. They have taxed tobacco almost to death and now they are after your ejuice. FDA wants to TAX ejuice just like tobacco and that is the direction they are going.. Period Don’t be fooled by the misdirection. They want more money.
So… will tobacco companies have to stop producing “menthol” cigarettes, Black and Milds, etc…? I see a smoking gun that highlights a certain “relationship” between Big Tobacco lobbying, the FDA & the efforts to ban flavored e-liquid: With all the money Big Tobacco spends to get their products in the hands of consumers, why have they not introduced a variety of “flavored” cigarettes? Because it would undermine their efforts in conjunction with the FDA to crush the only real competition they have ever faced.
I do however see a fairly feasible “work-around” to the proposed ban on flavored e-liquids. Companies like eightvape can sell bottles of unflavored pg/vg base in different nicotine strengths & also sell brand name “flavor concentrates” (not vapable by themselves) with a warning lable “not intended to be used in vaping devices” (wink, wink, nod, nod). Or better yet, classify the flavor-concentrates as “health supplements”, an industry the FDA allows to operate completely free of any regulations. The customer will have to mix the two products (a minor hassle) thus removing the liability from the manufacturers & sellers. Customers may lose the ability to buy pre-steeped e-liquid but hopefully it would not be a death sentence to the flavored e-liquid industry as a whole. I’m not suggesting the above solution is ideal by any means, just posing an idea to ponder should a flavored e-liquid ban come into effect.
The biggest winner in our vaping industry is China!
Protecting big tobacco is a smokescreen. True that the tobacco industry is a major cash supplier of the government and FDA, but the real cash cow is the pharmaceutical companies. Tobacco is the number one traded commodity on the planet. They don’t need the US to have smokers when there are still 2 1/2 billion smokers world wide. The biggest loser from the success of the vape industry is big pharma, who stand to lose literally hundreds of billions of dollars from the lost sales of medications to treat smoking related illnesses. It’s easy to blame the tobacco industry for the negative moves from the FDA against vaping. But I really don’t think that’s the real story here. It’s a smokescreen to keep vaping and cigarettes in parallel in peoples perception. Protecting big pharma is the goal.