Contact Schwarzenegger to oppose SB 400, CA ban - Form Letter

[Kamanjah]

We in CA need all the help we can get with bringing our opposition to SB 400 to the attention of the Gov. Everyone: Please email, mail, fax or telephone a comment opposing SB 400. It can be as simple as saying "Please oppose SB 400." Or, you can write a letter.

This bill will become law if the gov does not veto by Oct 11. If he does not veto, it will automatically become law even without his signature!

Link to send email: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - Interact

Snail mail at top of letter.

Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160 ( new number )

Here is a form letter I put together, with the help of several people on RTV & VF. Feel free to use it as is or with your own changes.

Please post on other boards you visit! I'm posting it on RTV and VF.

Thanks to everyone who helped on this!

Note: The vapers club dot com links have a space in them so they will show up.

So, if you cut & paste, please fix the links.

Please use this thread for discussion per SJ.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

September 19, 2009

Re: SB 400

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I am writing to oppose SB 400, initially introduced as an energy bill. From the original text: “44272. (a) The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program is hereby created.” Seven amendments later, it ended up being a bill to ban electronic cigarettes. No reference to energy is even in the final version. “Energy: green vehicles” morphed into “tobacco.” Then, somewhere along the way, the electronic cigarette was defined as a tobacco substitute, next, that was stricken and the bill now will “authorize action to halt the sale, distribution, or offering for sale of electronic cigarettes…”

SB 400 will take a freedom away from the people of CA and should be immediately vetoed.

It is your responsibility to protect the freedom of thousands of Californians who have chosen the electronic cigarette (e-cig) as an alternative to burning traditional tobacco cigarettes. Allowing SB 400 to become law will drive many people who have become tobacco free back to using tobacco products. Ex-smokers will become smokers again.

There have been many studies done on e-cigs, including an FDA study, which showed (if you take the next step and compare e-cigs to a tobacco cigarette) that the e-cig is much safer than smoking tobacco and generally has the same amount of TSNAs (tobacco specific nitrosamines) as the FDA approved NRT products. Their finding of approximately 1% DEG (diethylene glycol) shows the need for better quality control in manufacturing. Please note: DEG is found in tobacco cigarettes too. Other testing shows that the effects of nicotine on the human body are generally no worse than caffeine.

E-cigs should remain on the market and legal for adults to purchase while complete testing is done and submitted to the FDA for approval. They are a reduced harm product and do not fall clearly into any category the FDA has set up for regulation. With technology comes innovation. Laws take time to catch up. Please do not put the e-cig into a black market status! The FDA will not be able to approve these without lengthy testing and research. To date, the FDA has not banned them. California law should not supersede the FDA without any evidence they do any harm.

E-cigs are a tobacco alternative and many choose them as a healthier way to deal with their nicotine addiction. They are not inhaling the 4000+ chemicals found in a burning tobacco cigarette. Existing NRT products have not worked for the people who are using e-cigs. E-cigs are keeping them away from burning tobacco.

More information is available at
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/RuyanCartr...t21-Oct-08.pdf
http://www.vapers club/factsaboutpvs.html
http://www.vapers club/.........................pdf
http://www.vapers club/pg.html

Please veto SB 400. E-cigs, for many users, are the only thing keeping them away from smoking tobacco cigarettes. Please do not take this choice away!

Respectfully submitted,

[ferretlovr]

Great job, Kam. I'll make a few minor changes and send one off today. I'll also give a couple to some friends and family to mail. Thank you.

[Sad Society]

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Please Veto SB400!

This was a bill that was originally designed to keep electronic cigarettes out of the hands of children, a purpose which we would have all agreed with in its original form. However SB400, somehow in a matter of a few days, morphed into a complete “prohibition of of the sale of electronic cigarettes in California” and passed in the Senate, while we were commemorating 9/11 and had absolutely no time to protest its altered scope and intention. This bill does not represent the will of the people of the State of California!

Although not sold as a “quit smoking device”, thousands have successfully used the electronic cigarette to quit or or greatly reduce their tobacco smoking and reduce the health risks associated with the combustion of tobacco. Prohibiting the sale of the e-cigarette will not only return many to smoking cigarettes, it could also create a new black market in e cig material that will turn ordinary citizens into “criminals of the State” just to get their nicotine in a safer form.

SB400 was a good intention, run amok. The same arguments re “flavors appealing to children” could also be used to bar the sale of Peppermint Schnapps.

California is losing jobs, and we will now be shutting down e cigarette businesses? It makes no sense.

Please Governor Schwarzenegger, represent us where our legislators failed us and veto SB400!

Sincerely,

(Your name)

[kristin]

Which subject catagory should we choose when using the email form? "Request - general" or "Food & Ag issues/concerns" or another one? There's also "Governor" and "Consumer Affairs". What does this fall under?

I'll copy this letter to send and also include a link to my article!!

[kristin]

Just curious - Why is "NRT" always abbreviated? I honestly don't even know what it actually stands for with certainty - is it "nicotine reduction therapy??" Maybe that should be written out first for dopes like me?

[solonguniverse]

Originally Posted by kristin

Just curious - Why is "NRT" always abbreviated? I honestly don't even know what it actually stands for with certainty - is it "nicotine reduction therapy??" Maybe that should be written out first for dopes like me?

Nicotine Replacement Therapy...and that bill is bogus. I hope that everyone who's vaping today can keep vaping or quit smoking so we don't give the government another damned dime of death taxes.

[unknwn]

Kristan's question about the catagory to file an email message to the Governor's website should be addressed at the earliest opportunity.
My message is waiting confirmation of this info, and i'm certain that AT LEAST one more is also.

What is it? :
"Request - general"
"Food & Ag issues/concerns"
"Governor"
"Consumer Affairs"

We need some help here people.

[Vaporizer]

Another way to contact him if you want to keep it short and simple is to tweet him. Seems like someone is constantly updating his twitter so looks like it may get read. His twitter is @Schwarzenegger. Worth a shot.

[Kamanjah]

OK, I picked Consumer Affairs. We are consumers, this is our 'affair.' Should have put that in the orig post, sorry. Then on the email text page, be sure to put con in the pro/con selection.

@Vaporizer, would you be so kind as to tell me how to tweet Schwarzenegger? I have an account, 'followed' him, but am having trouble figuring out how to stick up an "Oppose SB 400" note directed to him. Thanks! (I don't usually tweet!)

[kristin]

His Twitter page comes up after you submit the email it's twitter.com/schwarzenegger.