Here is my effort, sent to 6 Lords:
"I am writing to you because the House of Lords will shortly vote on something that is very dear to me, my health. In fact I would not be exaggerating to say, my life.
You see, I used to smoke. I used rolling
tobacco so it's hard to say how much, I'd use a pouch every 1-2 days, I guess that's ~20 cigarettes. And I did this for 23 years.
About 3 years ago, I started to hear about electronic cigarettes, I like gadgets and new things so I thought I'd try one – I wasn't trying to give up smoking, I just thought I'd give them a go.
It was amazing, straight away I preferred it. It took me about a month to get one with enough battery power to last but instantly, if I had the choice, it was that which I'd reach for.
These things are an incredible invention, the science is in – they are much, much safer (
Nicotine without smoke: Tobacco harm reduction), they are not, for new users, addictive, and, they satisfy whatever it was in me that made me smoke.
They have created an incredible fuss in the Public Health community though, I think many were just scared of the unknown – one of the consequences is the drafting, and now enacting of the rules which pretty much destroy the
ecig market. They have made the rules so burdensome that even now, after the law has nominally come into force in the UK. there is no way to notify products so they can be sold.
This letter to No. 10 gives a flavour of the mess which has been made:
http://nnalliance.org/images/resources/NNAPMMay2016.pdf
It is a public health disaster, lives will be lost if it is allowed to continue, and the Lords has a chance to stop it.
Lord Callanan has tabled this motion: “to move that a Humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, laid before the House on 22 April, be annulled on the grounds that its restrictions on product choice and advertising of vaping devices were devised before evidence had accumulated that vaping was enabling many people to quit smoking, run counter to advice from the Royal College of Physicians to promote vaping and are so severe that they could force vapers back to smoking and create a black market with harmful products (SI 2015/507).”
I will not comply with the law if it goes forward, I cannot. I really do not want to smoke again – I will turn to the black market, I don't see how that is making me safer? I don't see how that is helping me.
Please support Lord Callanan, this law is going to cause harm, it must be stopped!
If you would like any further information, anything, please do not hesitate to get in touch."