Had a little idea and thought I would share, comments welcome.
As we all know, any stop-smoking aid, NRT, drug delivery system, "tobacco alternative," etc is controllable by the FDA (and equivalent bodies in other governments). This requires years of safety-testing (for any of these), proof of effectiveness (for stop-smoking aids or NRTs), quality controls, and after all that there is still the lengthy process of getting approval to distribute that each supplier would have to go through. In addition to the years this would take, the price would most likely be greatly inflated (look at how much a pack of nicotine gum is and think about how many of these packs you could make at home with the amount of nicotine in a $20 bottle of eliquid and some gum).
Now this may seem inevitable, but from an objective point of view, the electronic device in your mouth is really just a fancy way to consume tobacco (or at least the desired parts of it), since all of the liquids are made from tobacco extracts with some flavors added. Tobacco products, including disolvables and others that contain tobacco extracts but no plant material, are notoriously uncontrolled (for adults) for any reason other than quality control standards. Similarly, fancy "tobacco" consumption devices are not controlled (take a look in your local head shop at all the crazy stuff used for "tobacco" consumption).
By this rationale, could one not say that this is just an alternative method of consuming tobacco, and thus fall into the same category? While this may conflict with the current statements that eliquid is "tobacco free," the fact remains that the liquids are made from tobacco (and many contain more from the tobacco than just the nicotine), and thus we are simply consuming tobacco, just because not everything from the plant is consumed doesn't make it any less of a tobacco product.
Declaring it as an alternative way to consume tobacco may not be the best marketing technique, but if the FDA get their hands on this stuff, all of the current suppliers are going out of business anyway because even if it does get approval, it will be produced by pharmaceutical companies and not some guy in his kitchen.
Any thoughts?
As we all know, any stop-smoking aid, NRT, drug delivery system, "tobacco alternative," etc is controllable by the FDA (and equivalent bodies in other governments). This requires years of safety-testing (for any of these), proof of effectiveness (for stop-smoking aids or NRTs), quality controls, and after all that there is still the lengthy process of getting approval to distribute that each supplier would have to go through. In addition to the years this would take, the price would most likely be greatly inflated (look at how much a pack of nicotine gum is and think about how many of these packs you could make at home with the amount of nicotine in a $20 bottle of eliquid and some gum).
Now this may seem inevitable, but from an objective point of view, the electronic device in your mouth is really just a fancy way to consume tobacco (or at least the desired parts of it), since all of the liquids are made from tobacco extracts with some flavors added. Tobacco products, including disolvables and others that contain tobacco extracts but no plant material, are notoriously uncontrolled (for adults) for any reason other than quality control standards. Similarly, fancy "tobacco" consumption devices are not controlled (take a look in your local head shop at all the crazy stuff used for "tobacco" consumption).
By this rationale, could one not say that this is just an alternative method of consuming tobacco, and thus fall into the same category? While this may conflict with the current statements that eliquid is "tobacco free," the fact remains that the liquids are made from tobacco (and many contain more from the tobacco than just the nicotine), and thus we are simply consuming tobacco, just because not everything from the plant is consumed doesn't make it any less of a tobacco product.
Declaring it as an alternative way to consume tobacco may not be the best marketing technique, but if the FDA get their hands on this stuff, all of the current suppliers are going out of business anyway because even if it does get approval, it will be produced by pharmaceutical companies and not some guy in his kitchen.
Any thoughts?