What now?

[Junebug]

A friend lives in a nearby town, and sent me a link to the city website. This is on the agenda this week.....

• Consider Amendment to Smokefree Air Act ? Inclusion of E-cigarettes

At Council request, staff drafted language to include battery-powered electronic cigarettes in the ordinance restricting smoking in public places and places of employment

What should we do?

[Janetda]

arg! It sure doesn't take long for politicians to start their grandstanding does it? I'd say do your best to educate the council people in your town. Where are you anyway?

[yvilla]

Junebug, take a look at this post I wrote, just as a start in compiling some resources to print out and bring/send to the local legislators.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/for...and-smoke.html

Then, reach out for help from people like Bill Godshall, Dr. Nitzkin and Dr. Siegel. They have been willing to directly write legislators in other similar battles. For example, see this post by Bill, and his letter to the New Jersey legislators when they were considering the ban on vaping in NJ:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/for...tml#post943802

[Vicks Vap-oh-Yeah]

Try getting ahold of Bill Godshall here (he represents SmokeFree PA and has been fairly active on ECF) and take a look at Dr. Seagal's blog The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary: IN MY VIEW: The Court Ruling on Electronic Cigarettes: What Does It Mean?

Which has a lot of good information fighting bans, and the current political situations surrounding PV's

Above all, start getting people on letter-writing campaigns, and possibly a group to go to the courthouse on the day they're deliberating this, and be HEARD.

Good luck!

[Junebug]

I live in the metro Atlanta area. The city in question is Peachtree City. As far as I'm aware there are a few large companies in the town, NCR being one of the biggest and expanding. I don't know if they enforce no smoking in public places, I mean, I haven't seen them uphold other ordinances like dogs on leashes, or no smoking signs in front of their library or city hall.

Thanks for the links to other threads. I'll print those articles and bring them to the town meeting. I tend to think the town govt is a joke anyways. The exiting mayor is a well known drunk.

[thefisherman]

I'm stunned. I live in the south and have spent a great deal of time all over Georgia, and lived for a while in Atlanta. I consider Georgia to be a comparatively "free" state in terms of reasonable government regulation. I would never have expected this sort of thing out of politicians in Georgia. I guess [sigh] the forces of government surround us at every turn.

[The Mosh]

It's interesting. I do have to say that.

The whole rational for banning cigarettes is not simply because they're cigarettes. In fact, there are no anti smoking bans on the books that I know of that ban cigarettes simply because people don't like cigarettes. In order to be valid, there has to be a reason not to allow cigarettes. In these cases, you are referred to the overwhelming scientific evidence as to the dangers of smoking and second hand smoke. The science related to electronic cigarettes is very different. As such, including electronic cigarettes which are clearly not dangerous in a bill designed to protect public safety from things that are dangerous, could very likely open the door for the entire bill to be invalidated on scientific grounds, if it is ever challenged... in my opinion. I do not hold a license to practice law in any state at the present time, but I believe this argument makes sense.

[Webby]

Try getting ahold of Bill Godshall here (he represents SmokeFree PA and has been fairly active on ECF) and take a look at Dr. Seagal's blog The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary: IN MY VIEW: The Court Ruling on Electronic Cigarettes: What Does It Mean?

Which has a lot of good information fighting bans, and the current political situations surrounding PV's

Above all, start getting people on letter-writing campaigns, and possibly a group to go to the courthouse on the day they're deliberating this, and be HEARD.

Good luck!

Good Advice.

Bill is a good friend and CASAA Advisor. He knows local level trench fighting better than most of us and may be able to provide advice on who to contact.

[bogeyjim]

BE Heard? Yea right...

We need a Che Guevarra type to get out there and take care of things

[tpatterson]

Initially the ban on cigarettes was supposedly due to the "second hand" smoke issues. In this respect I can somewhat understand. An individual who does not smoke may not appreciate smelling my cigarette. However with the electronic cigarette not emitting the second hand smoke, let alone an offensive odor, I cannot quite understand the reasoning for them now wanting to ban the e-cigs either.

Go figure....