tl;dr version:
For just who are the bad guys in this whole affair (hint: it is not the tobacco companies), please read this thread
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...bacco-control-9-july-2014-conversation-2.html
Read the silly fearmongering nonsense in the document linked in the 1st posting. Read that the writer values "unity in tobacco control" over the health of human beings. Read that the writer values hating the tobacco companies over helping human beings.
Realize that those human beings are
us. That this health is
ours.
Then scroll down to the comments (start reading when Clive Bates comments). - Clive Bates, Bill Godshall, Carl Phillips, Gilbert Ross. Four great advocates of Tobacco Harm Reduction. - Plus a number of very knowledgeable vapers.
Knowledge, links, proof, everything. Right there.
It takes some time to read it all. But reading this is paramount to understanding the truth about the Tobacco Control Industry. And to understanding that the tobacco companies are by no means the worst "bad guys" in this whole dirty business.
Reading those comments is - so to speak - a summary of our knowledge. Uma's and mine.
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additions, explanations, by myself (caution, long
)
Banning the eCigs assured tobacco sales.
They don't want people to quit. They want to stress them into smoking more so they can keep collecting their "sin" taxes or whatever they have going on there.
Healthy people have less stress, are happy, self sufficient, welcome citizens. The TCI and all their glorified "health experts" achieve opposite goals.
Yes, the EU is the devils advocate.
Why don't they follow the logic? Because it works. Education was working. Thousands of people chose to quit on their own. Others slowed down. Then the TCI demanded "light" cigarettes, and taxes, and those who switched to light cigarettes with supposed less tar, ended up smoking more. Paying more. Then eCigs were born and thousands switched over because they feel safer and they really do help smokers to not light up anymore, or for others, to slow way way down on their smoking. Today they (TCI) preach lessening the nicotine in smokes, because cigarette sales are way down due to the popularity of the eCigs. The "country" is going broke trying to pay back their tobacco bonds, while their sales dwindle. Their sin taxes, MSA funds, everything, has slowed to a whisper. This is why they fight eCigs so determinedly, to ban or to demean them them into the sin tax & MSA funding list. You know it's a sad sad day when supposed "health experts" (ALA, ACS, CDC, etc) do everything in their power to scare smokers away from switching over to safer alternatives, harm reduction products.
I am flustered. I apologize for being all over the map and out of focus. You have been a real dear, but the TCI makes my blood boil, which causes angry reactions from me. I'll leave the comments section for others to clarify and add to. You've brought up very important questions and they deserve to be answered with calm and precision.
Anja's book suggestion, readable online, is a major eye opener. I hope you get a chance to read it. There are more pages waiting in the wings, as well.
That is the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. Unfortunately.
And yes. We can back up every statement. Each and every one.
It does take a lot of reading, though, to acquire the same knowledge. It is eye-opening. But it is not pleasant. Especially when one realizes the extent of manure and misinformation that one has been fed, all this time.
Some comments for now (I can provide the links later, if you wish to see them).
0. "evil big tobacco"
In many countries, cigarette taxes make up for the biggest portion in the price of a package of cigarettes.
In Germany, a pack of cigs cost 5 Euro:
4 Euro go to the government in cigarette taxes
1 Euro goes to the dealer+distribution channel + tobacco companies.
Now, just who profits the most from every pack of cigarettes sold?
Now, just who is the most interested in having many packs of cigarettes sold?
And no, this cigarette tax money is not spent on medical treatment for smokers (or anybody else). This money goes into the general government coffers, to be spent as the government sees fit.
1. e-cigs have made a dent in tobacco sales. In Europe and in the US.
Every pack of cigarettes not sold in Germany means the loss of 4 Euro cigarette tax to the gov't. 1 Euro = 1.36 USD. Multiply that by approx. 2 million vapers who used to smoke 1 pack a day. That is 8 million Euro cigarette taxes not paid
per day. In one year, that makes 2,920,000,000 Euro in taxes not paid.
In the US, many states are desperate..
They have issued tobacco bonds in the expectation of a completely unearned future windfall from MSA payments (tobacco industry has to give part of its earnings to the states).
Well, cigarette sales have decreased approx 7% now, and the expected future windfall will be smaller than expected.
(pls check the News subforum for my recently opened thread on Tobacco Bonds)
- - do you really think that any government takes kindly to that?
By the way, health cost spent on treating smoking related disease is much smaller than the income in cigarette taxes and the savings on having smokers die earlier (approx 8 years) and saving all the old-age pension and the very expensive medical treatment / care of very old people. Rolygate (ECF admin) wrote a great text on this, link upon request.
2.
You know it's a sad sad day when supposed "health experts" (ALA, ACS, CDC, etc) do everything in their power to scare smokers away from switching over to safer alternatives, harm reduction products.
Yes, they do. They are heavily influenced by /and receive funding by the Pharma Industry which makes a bundle selling "treatment" to sick smokers. You see, those very old people I mentioned above, they cost money for their
care. (Alzheimer patients, Parkinson patients, being old and feeble in general). But smokers, aaaaah, they get their smoking-related diseases in middle age - heart disease, diabetes, lung ailments etc - and then receive lifelong "treatment" with expensive medications. Sold by Big Pharma. The sale of NRTs is petty cash compared to this gold mine. And now people are switching to healthier alternatives? Big Pharma is not happy. Not happy at all.
- And you do realize that all those "health" organizations
make a living on the high incidence of sick people?
Yes, that thought is mind-boggling at first. But it is the truth.
Why do Cancer societies scream bloody murder against a product which
does not cause cancer, but which replaces a product that can cause cancer? Why indeed?
Why does the CDC scream bloody murder against a product which
does not cause non-communicable diseases, but which replaces a product that can cause non-communicable diseases? Why indeed?
The tobacco companies are most definitely not little holy saints.
But the true devils are so-called "public health" organizations and especially the Tobacco Control Industry. They feed on the smoking gravy train, they feed on money that consumers spend on cigarettes, they feed on money that they get from Big Pharma to do anything that will sell more pharma products.
The tobacco companies do it for profit.
The so-called "public health" organizations also do it for profit. But they SAY that they do it for the health of people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Do start reading the rampant anti-smoking link please. It will open your eyes on many things. Many things that we used to take for granted. Because they were fed to us again and again. Tell a lie often enough, and people will believe it.
And if you would like the links to back up what Uma and I have said above, please let me know.
