A Letter to His Honor

[Mitty]

by now , this is in the hands of the legal clerks for the case of Smokeing Everywhere V FDA. I hope they find somethign of interest here that coudl be brought to his honors attention.

What do you think?

July 29, 2009

To: The Honorable Justice Richard J. Leon

Your Honor,

While I am not professing to be of any formal legal training , I wish to bring to your attention 2 items which I believe must be taken into consideration when deliberating on the case of Smoking Everywhere V. FDA.

It is my belief that the FDA is acting on the behalf of Large tobacco companies and possibly Pharmaceutical manufacturers to end the sales of Electric Cigarettes. This would be in keeping with an internal study conducted by the Phillip Morris company in 1996 entitled Project Sunshine which was intended to ,” combat the declining social acceptability of smoking. In particular, they focused on the company’s “Fair Play” strategy, which was designed to limit the effectiveness of the tobacco control movement .(1) “. One of their proposed was tactics , Divide & Conquer : Figure out which groups in the movement want the fewest concessions from your industry. Pretend that you share their goals – for instance, keeping children from smoking – and offer them money. If they refuse, use it as evidence that they’re unreasonable. If they agree, trumpet your partnership with the group as evidence of your sincerity and goodwill. Also try to create schisms within the movement, so your opponents will waste their energy fighting over which goals to pursue (e.g., keeping kids from smoking vs. banning smoking in public place).(2)

In this instance, work with the FDA who has been given new authority over tobacco regulation, to eliminate competition from electronic cigarettes by waging a PR war against them with the FDA being their mouth piece. By the use of carefully worded statements from the FDA describing Electronic Cigarettes as dispensing an unregulated poison ( Nicotine) or neurotoxin the Impression given to the general public has been carefully crafted to make these products look dangerous and serves to gain support for their removal from the market in favor of the soon to be released “ reduced risk” cigarettes as a result of the new Government Tobacco regulations. The statements are no different than those used in a study in which several hundred people were convinced to ban the use of Water simply by calling it Dihydrogen Monoxide ( H2O) .

There is also a potential legal precedence to take into consideration when making a ruling on this case. I cite Section 1 & 2 of the Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890 which states ,

Section 1 : Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.

Section 2 : Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony

It is my opinion , that the Tobacco lobby and or the Pharmaceutical lobby has manipulated the FDA into Banning the import and sale of Electronic Cigarettes. In the absence of competition from companies such as Smoking Everywhere and Njoy , a Federally regulated monopoly for the control of Nicotine Distribution Goods and Services would be established in violation of the Sherman Anti Trust Act and subsequent anti monopoly legislation.

I respectfully request that your Honor please take this into consideration during your deliberations.

Respectfully,

Kevin Scott Wilcomb





Louisville, Kentucky

(1) (2)quotes from From Philip Morris , Advice on fighting a movement January 17 , 2007 by Liz Borkowski From Philip Morris, Advice on Fighting a Movement The Pump Handle

 

[DC2]

Well, if the truth would set us free, then you just abolished slavery to the cigarette.

 

[Boom!]

I think Sun posted somewhere in another thread that by law and just the way these types of hearings work, the judge isn't allowed to review are accept these types of petitions or something like that.

 

[ladyraj]

I don't mean to be sarcastic or mean but...why would you think the judge would be interested in a conspiracy theory scenario with tobacco companies and pharmaceuticals? Judge Leon will base his decision on facts such as did the FDA act prematurely to seize shipments without proper jurisdiction. Words such as adulterants and unapproved drug delivery device would come into play with the judge's decision.

Though I hope the case goes our way, I doubt that it will, because the FDA was issued a formal complaint to investigate these suppliers/shipments. The issue at hand is if the FDA had authority. I submit that they did in light of the health allegations made by some suppliers and a demand for action by various groups.

But there is another link to research this in which Sunvaporer has kindly been monitoring the situation:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...erywhere-v-fda-daily-docket-sheet-update.html

My opinion of the tobacco/pharma involvement is similar to yours but perhaps Judge Leon should not be the recipient.

 

[Mitty]

It isn't so much a conspiracy as it is someone trying to work the system. If you go back and look at the wording the FDA uses to describe Nicotine as a toxin, an unregulated drug, a poison, mentioning its use as a pesticide and ignoreing its own approval of the use of Propoline Glycol it raises a rather interesting question that the FDA has not answered. If Nocitine is as bad as they make it sound in their case agaisnt e-cigs, then why have they not gone after all of the other delivery methods as a health risk. Why only single out this one pertucular product. Why did they wait this long to do it?

probibile answers: becuse someone wants these gone becasue they stand to make the leap from fad to legitimate competition. If you were in a position of poor public standing and you wanted something done without people calling you the bad guy, then, in accordance with Project sunshine, get someone else to do it for you.

this isnt a MIB conspiracy theroy, its jsut the same dirty business tactics that teh Sherman Law was made to thwart.

 

[ladyraj]

It isn't so much a conspiracy as it is someone trying to work the system. If you go back and look at the wording the FDA uses to describe Nicotine as a toxin, an unregulated drug, a poison, mentioning its use as a pesticide and ignoreing its own approval of the use of Propoline Glycol it raises a rather interesting question that the FDA has not answered. If Nocitine is as bad as they make it sound in their case agaisnt e-cigs, then why have they not gone after all of the other delivery methods as a health risk. Why only single out this one pertucular product. Why did they wait this long to do it?

probibile answers: becuse someone wants these gone becasue they stand to make the leap from fad to legitimate competition. If you were in a position of poor public standing and you wanted something done without people calling you the bad guy, then, in accordance with Project sunshine, get someone else to do it for you.

this isnt a MIB conspiracy theroy, its jsut the same dirty business tactics that teh Sherman Law was made to thwart.

I like how you state it in the 1st paragraph rather than offering an explanation of how it is occurring...you are left with a huge question where the recipient of the letter could easily deduce themselves.

To me it is all about how one frames the letter....but that is only my opinion. My experience is that often these missives attributing allegations based on beliefs are put aside and unread if they don't end up in the trash bin or the "suspected" file.

Writing Judge Leon is heartfelt but a moot endeavor...perhaps writing the state AG or representative would be a better endeavor. Just trying to help...