undercover team finds special interest allegation fraudulent

[happily]

here is an article I read on vaporfox.com

Undercover Team Finds Special Interest Allegations Against E-Cigarettes Fraudulent | E Cig Info Wars

[Legato525]

Deleted by me.

[Hellen A. Handbasket]

Nice piece Happily! Thanks for posting that. I wish newspapers would write like that!

I hadn't seen that video of Oregon's A.G. was going after Smoking Everywhere... (there is a link in the beginning of the article that's easy to miss Oregon investigates electronic cigarette company | Local News | kgw.com | News for Portland Oregon and SW Washington). Heaven help ya'll Oregonians!! Good grief.

[Surf Monkey]

I'm very pleased to see that KGW is investigating the Oregon AG's claims. I've written to his office on several occasions admonishing him for going beyond enforcement and pressing an anti-smoking agenda. I'll send KGW a note thanking them for this piece. It's critical that the AG understand that his propaganda won't go unchallenged.

[Legato525]

Deleted by me.

[happily]

The Oregon AG has only asked that SE submit in writing all they do to keep from marketing there product to children. What's the harm in that? That is not an abuse of power, IF there is an Oregon law that prohibits sales of tobacco products to children, which I am sure there is. So it is HIS job to make sure that the law is being upheld. He would take the same action of any company that he feels could be selling to minors. He obviously cannot legally shut them down without proof of breaking the law of selling to minors, which, if SE does not so, there is nothing to worry about.

I guess what you're not getting here is that e-cigs are a house of cards..Which at this time cannot handle very many whacks before the whole uneducated sector of the country shuns them completely. We need some positive stories in the news to start building a solid base to fight from. We are not here to split hairs but simply glad to see some positive information hit the streets. Rest assured the anti-vaping community is not going to fight fair and honestly.

[marlin]

I agree Happily, we have to fight back, this is a grandstanding issue for politicians and the population is getting misinformation. We have to educate the public and expose the people and special interest that want to take our freedoms from us.

They will not fight fair because they can not. We have truth on our side, so if we do educate the public, we have a fighting chance.

[Surf Monkey]

It should be noted that the Oregon AG isn't limiting his campaign against Smoking Everywhere to their health claims. If he was, he'd be on solid ground and no argument could be made against him. It's clear that Smoking Everywhere made unsupportable claims about their product that and that the Oregon AG has every right to challenge them.

HOWEVER, and this is the most important part: the Oregon AG has been on television making statements that go WELL beyond the strictly legal issue. In particular he's been claiming that the devices are marketed to children due to the location of the kiosks at the mall and the fact that the carts for the device come in various flavors. In doing so, the Oregon AG has expanded his campaign into the purely political realm. He has no authority to do so and his actions are clearly inappropriate and arguably unethical.

When contacting the AG's office here in Oregon I have been very careful to point out that he has every right to challenge Smoking Everywhere over the health claims they made. He's fully within his jurisdiction in doing so and I support his efforts to compel Smoking Everywhere to comply with the law and retract their health claims. But I've made very voiceferous objections to his statements regarding the supposed marketing of these devices to children. The fact of the matter is that Smoking Everywhere does NOT market these devices to children and it's of vital importance that the AG be made aware of this fact and is strongly urged to abandon his personal political campaign against them on this front.

The primary danger here is that the AG, as an authority and a person who has a public stage on which to make these statements is in a position to make a seriously negative and flatly inaccurate first impression on people who know nothing about personal vaporizers. He knows this and that's why he's doing it. He has a personal agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with his mandate to enforce the law.

Again, kudos to KGW for exposing this inaccuracy. They should be applauded for their investigative report and encouraged to continue providing the public with balanced reporting in this area. As we've seen before, the majority of reporting on personal vaporizers contains inaccuracies, lack of fact checking and the parroting of anti-smoking rhetoric that is completely inappropriate. It's refreshing to see a media outlet live up to their mission and provide sane, factual reporting on this subject.