Hello everyone, I made this into a new thread so it gets everyones attention.
In Australia e cigarettes were banned recently in yet another ignorant nanny state knee-jerk reaction. The way they implemented the ban was through the nicotine being a schedule 7 poison of which sale and distribution is illegal without regulation. I.e. warning labels, child-proof bottles etc, etc.
The good news is that it is still legal for me to purchase them from overseas for personal use. Customs have inspected my two overseas packages and passed them. Our TGA (equivalent to the FDA) Can only ban personal importation of restricted drugs which they themselves regulate in Australia. Nicotine replacement therapy is a drug and regulated by the TGA BUT there are few restrictions in place, i.e. its classified like Apsrin or Panadol (Tylenol) which is over-the count Pharmacy product.
I am not sure how it differs in the US but consider this: Is it illegal to buy nicotine patches or gum from oerseas and have it pass U.S. customs? The easy and moderated decision they will likely make is what our TGA has done, ban their sale from within the country especially at retail shops to avoid the issues associated with a dometic source of unregulated nicotine but allow users to import for personal use from overseas because the responsibiliity lies solely with the user if they are poisoned or harmed in some way.
So all may not be lost. For the US to ban the personal importation of e cigs then they will have to redraft the existing laws which which is a lenghtly process they need to justify etc, etc. They can howver ban them immediately from sale within the US becasue of Nicotine's posion listing and probably will.
Also remember without nicotine they simple have no justifictaion for the ban so the devices themselves are safe.
You can very easily extract the nicotine from patches (each one has 120mg or so but only 15 is absorbed) and make your own juice. This is my plan B if our TGA really gets histerical.
If the FDA does ban it then I'm sure lawfirms will be very interested in a class action lawsuit because I know that the e cigarette is by far the most effective way to quit smoking. The government will be liable if they are preventing smokers the best means to save their own lives, this could be easily proven in a civil lawsuit.
Remeber we are fighting three powerfull enemies using these things:
tobacco comanies and their lobbyists who are worried that these things may pose the first serious challenger to their monopoly over supplying nicotine addicts their drugs.
Drug companies who enjoy the profits supplying us with a far lamer and more expensive alternative, like giving a ...... addict a valium instead of methadone.
The government who enjoys taxing the hell out of a drug out of the most addictive drug known. Sure they need to recoup the cost of dying smokers but they are addicted to the tax all the same. In our country they take $7 per packet!! estimated to be 3 times the cost of smokers to the health system MINIMUM.
My guess is that if this comes to a head the drug companies will simple fund the research and approval of the priciple and then release their own lame arsed cotton-wool-regulation-coated expensive version of the same thing. If they do this then that opens the door for the chinese companies to comply with the regulations put in place.
I say let them bring it on, there are enough of us now to launch a counter offensive and the media will absolutely LAP IT UP.
Could a philathropist PLEASE help us hopeless nicotine addicts and fund a proper study into e cigarettes to clear this nonsense up ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!
In Australia e cigarettes were banned recently in yet another ignorant nanny state knee-jerk reaction. The way they implemented the ban was through the nicotine being a schedule 7 poison of which sale and distribution is illegal without regulation. I.e. warning labels, child-proof bottles etc, etc.
The good news is that it is still legal for me to purchase them from overseas for personal use. Customs have inspected my two overseas packages and passed them. Our TGA (equivalent to the FDA) Can only ban personal importation of restricted drugs which they themselves regulate in Australia. Nicotine replacement therapy is a drug and regulated by the TGA BUT there are few restrictions in place, i.e. its classified like Apsrin or Panadol (Tylenol) which is over-the count Pharmacy product.
I am not sure how it differs in the US but consider this: Is it illegal to buy nicotine patches or gum from oerseas and have it pass U.S. customs? The easy and moderated decision they will likely make is what our TGA has done, ban their sale from within the country especially at retail shops to avoid the issues associated with a dometic source of unregulated nicotine but allow users to import for personal use from overseas because the responsibiliity lies solely with the user if they are poisoned or harmed in some way.
So all may not be lost. For the US to ban the personal importation of e cigs then they will have to redraft the existing laws which which is a lenghtly process they need to justify etc, etc. They can howver ban them immediately from sale within the US becasue of Nicotine's posion listing and probably will.
Also remember without nicotine they simple have no justifictaion for the ban so the devices themselves are safe.
You can very easily extract the nicotine from patches (each one has 120mg or so but only 15 is absorbed) and make your own juice. This is my plan B if our TGA really gets histerical.
If the FDA does ban it then I'm sure lawfirms will be very interested in a class action lawsuit because I know that the e cigarette is by far the most effective way to quit smoking. The government will be liable if they are preventing smokers the best means to save their own lives, this could be easily proven in a civil lawsuit.
Remeber we are fighting three powerfull enemies using these things:
tobacco comanies and their lobbyists who are worried that these things may pose the first serious challenger to their monopoly over supplying nicotine addicts their drugs.
Drug companies who enjoy the profits supplying us with a far lamer and more expensive alternative, like giving a ...... addict a valium instead of methadone.
The government who enjoys taxing the hell out of a drug out of the most addictive drug known. Sure they need to recoup the cost of dying smokers but they are addicted to the tax all the same. In our country they take $7 per packet!! estimated to be 3 times the cost of smokers to the health system MINIMUM.
My guess is that if this comes to a head the drug companies will simple fund the research and approval of the priciple and then release their own lame arsed cotton-wool-regulation-coated expensive version of the same thing. If they do this then that opens the door for the chinese companies to comply with the regulations put in place.
I say let them bring it on, there are enough of us now to launch a counter offensive and the media will absolutely LAP IT UP.
Could a philathropist PLEASE help us hopeless nicotine addicts and fund a proper study into e cigarettes to clear this nonsense up ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!
