Nicotine is an extremely small component of e-juice, at the highest level it just 3.6% of the total. Depending on the mix ratio it should be classified as a PG or VG product. What politicians are doing is like calling a car a petrol product.
Not very long ago, I managed to totally confuse an e-cig naysayer on this "nicotine debate".
He believed that the laws regarding the e-cig as tobacco products were "only fair", because "there's nicotine in it", and "no-one knows the possible health effects". He stated that taxing e-cigs like cigarettes was "only fair", because "we don't know the long-term effects of e-cigs, and later, non-smoking people will have to pay for vaper's health care expenses". (I don't thing he knows about the *profit* Govt's already make with tobacco cigarettes, something that, unlike e-cigs so far, is *surelly* going to create health care expenses over the years. And that profit is made despite those expenses).
Pharma NRT's, WITH nicotine, ALL of them?
"They could be considered tobacco products as well, albeit *benign* ones, because they won't hurt you, and because they're medicines. Therefore, they could be a special tobacco product, exempt from tobacco excise taxes"
He was kind of surprised when I told him about tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant... he did not know about the nicotine in those.
So, should tomatoes and potatoes be considered benign tobacco products as well, exempt from tobacco excise taxes?
He thinked for a few moments, and then told me "Of course not. That nicotine is coming from the plant itself, not from tobacco and added later".
Is the tomato nicotine any different from the tobacco nicotine?
"No".
Then why consider e-cigs as a "tobacco product", and not a "tomato product"?
"Well, because it is being *extracted* from tobacco, is it not?".
As you can see, this was going around, and around, and around...
And then, it hit me: INSULIN !!
So, I asked if HAM was a pork product.
"Of course", he said, looking a little confused.
Bacon?
"Yes..."
Sausages?
"Yes..."
What about INSULIN for diabetics?
"What about it? It's a medicine, produced in a lab..."
True, it's been produced in a lab since the mid 80's using genetic engineering and Escherichia coli. But *before* that, it was also *extracted* (ex-trac-ted) from the pancreas of pigs and oxen.
Does that mean that insulin was ever considered a "pork product" until then (just like ham and sausages), and only later was considered a "lab product"?
Does that mean that oxen (and PEOPLE) are pigs too, because they also produce insulin, which is a "pork product"?
"What is your point exactly?"
(He did not even know where this was leading to
)
My point is, a "tobacco product" *should* actually have tobacco in it to be considered as such. Just like ham and bacon, where there's actually "pork" in there.
On the other hand, something with nicotine alone should not be considered a "tobacco product" just because *today*, it is extracted from tobacco for purelly *economical* reasons. There are *other* sources in Nature, and in the future, we *could* be using those sources, or even producing it in a lab, if it turns out *cheaper* to get it that way.
THIS time, he had no quick, smart-a** answer.
