Roger it would be cheaper just to buy about 50 mech mods now than to buy manufacturing equipment.
Yuo make a good point, Gary - and I'll take it one step further.
Stosh, I think you're ultimately right that there is no solution except to learn how to put off-the-shelf components together. Who knows what sorts of batteries will be available 10 or 20 years from now?
So we have to be flexible and learn to build what we need from the current generation of off-the-shelf
components.
For now, I need to learn how to build my own coils and see if I can at least maintain the tank/atty part. I'll have to worry about power later.
Worst case, the FDA will surprise us and come out with the final rules in record time, and then hardware manufacturers will start bailing out immediately (which means the entire hardware market may suddenly collapse, and retailers will start closing up shop and dumping their stock). Either that or the price of everything will go way up
We still have until the end of 2014, I figure. Can't get worse than that, I don't think. So I might have to buy a little off-the-shelf equipment to tide myself over, until I can learn enough (and acquire enough tools) to build my own. Still looks like a major investment of time and money, no matter what. But it's still better than smoking cigarettes
[...]There are some very interesting ideas here. What if nic retailers pooled their resources to get unflavored nic approved. That's it. I think the EU caps it at 20%. That would be the starting point. You could say unflavored doesn't attract kids, better for public health, yada, yada. [...]
As I said the biggest prob. with that is that the application will cost $1M at least, and then FDA could reject it, one day after the 2-year window closes. I know they have an internal dispute resolution process for drugs, but I'm not sure what happens for tobacco products. That said, if the applicants have to wait for a hearing in federal court, relief could be many years away.
Any entity willing to take a risk like that had better be willing to lay out another few million for lobbyists and attorneys. That's what it costs BT and BP to navigate the system.
A cushy job set up for Mitch Zeller wouldn't hurt, as long as the offer was better than what BP probably already has lined up for him. Now we're talking several more million.
[...] I don't think a lot of people are realizing this may make even what is produced in a garage illegal.
Not necessarily, at least not yet under the worst case. I could build a mech mod in my garage and use it myself. As soon as I
give, lend, or sell it to someone else, then I become a manufacturer of a "misbranded or adulterated component or part of a tobacco product." Similar to the case of a RYO injector machine. I can use it to make my own tobacco cigarettes. I just can't sell them or give them away. (Well, I guess I have let people "bum" them before. Don't tell the FDA.)
If one were to set up a club or a co-op that allowed its members to make mech mods, that might lead to the raw milk co-op situation. Wouldn't be a smart idea, unless you like the idea of a SWAT team in your garage, enjoy tasting of your own concrete floor for serveral hours while you're handcuffed, and want to end up dropping tens of thousands in legal fees.
If you let someone else use your garage, knowing that they're going to make an illegal "misbranded or adulterated component or part of a tobacco product," that might also be risky. The FDA recently started busting these little shops that let customers use the shop's automatic rolling machines to make their own tobacco cigarettes. I assume the same would apply to any equipment used for that purpose.
But until the gov't outlaws "nicotine paraphernalia," it will still be legal to purchase your own equipment, and make your own tobacco cigarettes or mech mods - so long as they're exclusively for your own use.
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