CALLING ON THE VAPING COMMUNITY TO CONTACT PRESIDENT TRUMP

[zoiDman]

Isn't this exactly what Big tobacco and Big Pharma does by hiring top notch lobbyists?

...

Huge Difference.

A PR AD Campaign (Hearts & Minds) is design to Influence Individuals. But when it is Funded by the people who are trying to make Money off a Product, then they are seen as just an AD for a Product just to make a buck.

That aint gunna help us. And in Many Ways, could end up Hurting Us.

Lobbying (Wallet Stuffing) is designed to Influence Pending or Future Policy via those who can play a Part in implementing such Policy.

There is Nothing to be Gained by doing Hundred(s) Mullion Dollar e-Cigarette AD Campaign sponsored OEM's saying that e-Cigarettes are Better than Smoking.

Unless you are the AD Agency. I which case, I'm sure they would be All For It.

 

[Georgia Boy]

The battle certainly is not over, the war has hardly got started. I've been in touch with My Senators, Congressman and White House. I have also sent emails to all as well, also managed to stay polite which is a must. Just lay out the facts as they really are, we all know this ban won't work for those people they are trying to protect. The Black Market will really explode and lets see what happens then, I think we all have a good idea.

Don't forget in any emails or calls to Mr. President just tell him vote will go elsewhere in 2020, if there is one thing he cares about it is re-election. If only 25% of vaper's get this message across!

 

[bnrkwest]

New slogan or tag line- Dump Trump save flavors LOL! Use on twitter to get his attention

 

[RedForeman]

Probably redundant for many, but Common Cause has an online lookup tool that you can put your address in and get a list of your government representatives, along with their contact links. From the homepage, click the "find your representatives" link up at the top margin of the page.

I just did a copy/paste email to the White House, my Georgia Senators and 6th District Representative (of Tennessee LOL). The Senators' robots already sent me a reply

Here's what I sent, like it or not. My style is brief and to the point. Hopefully enough keywords to count. These guys just scan and count to screen for election issues. Nobody actually reads them.

I am strongly opposed to any ban on vape products. Recent health-related issues in the news have clearly been due to off-market or counterfeit products made only for use with THC (marijuana compounds). That is, a tiny percentage of vape users who are not using mainstream products already established to be harmless, for over a decade.

This will be a make or break issue for me when voting in upcoming elections. Although I have been a strong supporter of the President, this is an attack on my civil liberties. I cannot cast a vote for any candidate that supports such a policy.

 

[RedForeman]

New slogan or tag line- Dump Trump save flavors LOL! Use on twitter to get his attention

As much as I can appreciate the humor, if you think the President will ban these products, the entire panel of opposing challengers for 2020 will come to your house and take them, after paying your neighbors a bounty to turn you in.

 

[bnrkwest]

As much as I can appreciate the humor, if you think the President will ban these products, the entire panel of opposing challengers for 2020 will come to your house and take them, after paying your neighbors a bounty to turn you in.

I don't trust any of them, either side, they make no sense. I never thought the right or the left were on the vapers side and it shows no one really cares except us.

 

[Mazinny]

This is going to be a tough battle. If our fellow vapers feel this way about it, ..... Sad!


'Doing me a favor': Vapers open to Trump's proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes - Reuters

“He would be doing me a favor,” said Antoinette Quiles, a 31-year-old carpenter, as she inhaled from her Juul outside a New York subway stop. “Hopefully, if it’s not available, I won’t buy it. I’ve tried to stop and put it away, but it’s available.”

In interviews with a dozen New Yorkers who said they regularly vaped, no one expressed dismay that the government might crack down on the widely preferred flavored pods.

“It’s fine if they think that’s going to be a deterrent for young kids that aren’t of age to buy them,” said Nick Agosti, a 31-year-old assistant community school director, adding he would miss the flavors. “It’s something that needs to be addressed.”

“I don’t think it’s the flavors that are the reason why people are dying, it’s the e-cigarettes themselves,” said Bush George, a 44-year-old stylist who said he vapes in addition to smoking cigarettes.

“If they’re still online, then I’ll find a way to purchase it. There’s ways to do a lot of things, get your hands on anything if you know how to do it correctly,” said Stephen Figueroa, 25, as he took a hit from his vape against his better judgment.

 

[MarkRNY]

Liquid manufacturers buying yaughts, lambo's, ferrari's, mansions...

Hate to break it to you, but the vape industry for the United States is in the billions of dollars in turnover.

Here are the cold hard facts, brought to you from a reviewer in a country that did advocacy right....

Liquid manufacturers buying yaughts, lambo's, ferrari's, mansions...
Hate to break it to you, but the vape industry for the United States is in the billions of dollars in turnover.

Here are the cold hard facts, brought to you from a reviewer in a country that did advocacy right.

The United States, for consecutive years, over and over again, pushed and called for the "community" to do the advocating, failure no.1.

The United States, for consecutive years, over and over again, pushed for reviewers to be the forefront of advocacy, failure no.2.

The United States, for consecutive years, turned a blind eye to e-liquid companies, wholesalers, vendors and some manufacturers raking in millions of USD per tax year...who not once...EVER...donated or supported advocacy, failure no.3.

The United States, for consecutive years, over and over again, beat the "community" over the head with the advocacy stick. Advocacy group after advocacy group, popping up over and over again, begging for money...and where did it all go? Failure no.4.

Now...myself and a few other in the UK have been warning about this for the past three years. We got laughed at, even after the successes of the New Nicotine Alliance, we still got laughed at.

Then the "think of the children" groups formed on Twitter. US vaping had no industry led trade group backing up the industry. Instead it was the consumers that had to advocate. The "community" that people speak of, on twitter, facebook, youtube, and forums, represent a small fraction of the 9 to 10 million US vapers.

From 2015, the emphasis in the US should have been building a trade group, or a single advocacy entity with the backing of those same US distros, wholesalers, businesses and manufacturers along with e-liquid companies who, together, constitute a multi-billion (not million) dollar industry. Instead, the opportunity was wasted. US advocacy was led down the wrong path, by clueless US community "leaders" who thought they knew better than everyone else, I warned about it, and many from the UK and the EU has warned about it.

We tried to warn these people about the wrong direction they took with advocacy...we got laughed at.

All I can say it, you are now reaping the harvest of 4 years of ill-informed, mismanaged, and badly thought out advocacy.

A PR firm won't do jack all. The United States needs the heavy hitters in the industry itself, the money makers, the big industry based named to group together into one single trade group entity and meet the lobbyists head on. The cold hard fact is this...without the industry itself backing up advocacy...NOTHING will work. What happened yesterday proved that, because if a trade group with billions in collective turn over had managed to lobby the Presidents advisors, Trumps speech last night, Melania's tweet the night before, and bloombergs $160,000,000 anti vaping fund would have been forgotten about, or not happened at all.

As long as the vaping industry itself in the US remains silent, it will be run rough-shod over by every single anti vaping twitter group, lobbyist, and media mogul...

[/QUOTE]

Liquid manufacturers buying yaughts, lambo's, ferrari's, mansions...

Hate to break it to you, but the vape industry for the United States is in the billions of dollars in turnover.

Here are the cold hard facts, brought to you from a reviewer in a country that did advocacy right.

The United States, for consecutive years, over and over again, pushed and called for the "community" to do the advocating, failure no.1.

The United States, for consecutive years, over and over again, pushed for reviewers to be the forefront of advocacy, failure no.2.

The United States, for consecutive years, turned a blind eye to e-liquid companies, wholesalers, vendors and some manufacturers raking in millions of USD per tax year...who not once...EVER...donated or supported advocacy, failure no.3.

The United States, for consecutive years, over and over again, beat the "community" over the head with the advocacy stick. Advocacy group after advocacy group, popping up over and over again, begging for money...and where did it all go? Failure no.4.

Now...myself and a few other in the UK have been warning about this for the past three years. We got laughed at, even after the successes of the New Nicotine Alliance, we still got laughed at.

Then the "think of the children" groups formed on Twitter. US vaping had no industry led trade group backing up the industry. Instead it was the consumers that had to advocate. The "community" that people speak of, on twitter, facebook, youtube, and forums, represent a small fraction of the 9 to 10 million US vapers.

From 2015, the emphasis in the US should have been building a trade group, or a single advocacy entity with the backing of those same US distros, wholesalers, businesses and manufacturers along with e-liquid companies who, together, constitute a multi-billion (not million) dollar industry. Instead, the opportunity was wasted. US advocacy was led down the wrong path, by clueless US community "leaders" who thought they knew better than everyone else, I warned about it, and many from the UK and the EU has warned about it.

We tried to warn these people about the wrong direction they took with advocacy...we got laughed at.

All I can say it, you are now reaping the harvest of 4 years of ill-informed, mismanaged, and badly thought out advocacy.

A PR firm won't do jack all. The United States needs the heavy hitters in the industry itself, the money makers, the big industry based named to group together into one single trade group entity and meet the lobbyists head on. The cold hard fact is this...without the industry itself backing up advocacy...NOTHING will work. What happened yesterday proved that, because if a trade group with billions in collective turn over had managed to lobby the Presidents advisors, Trumps speech last night, Melania's tweet the night before, and bloombergs $160,000,000 anti vaping fund would have been forgotten about, or not happened at all.

As long as the vaping industry itself in the US remains silent, it will be run rough-shod over by every single anti vaping twitter group, lobbyist, and media mogul...

VwV--You're dead-on right. I'd add that the very last thing that should be done is to let the Chinese fight this battle for us, as the two geniuses above suggest. Any chance of winning a PR war would be DOA.

As you say, the industry players have to step up and the "community" itself has to get MUCH more active. We badly need more (and better) spokespeople out there.

 

[zoiDman]

This is going to be a tough battle. If our fellow vapers feel this way about it, ..... Sad!


'Doing me a favor': Vapers open to Trump's proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes - Reuters

“He would be doing me a favor,” said Antoinette Quiles, a 31-year-old carpenter, as she inhaled from her Juul outside a New York subway stop. “Hopefully, if it’s not available, I won’t buy it. I’ve tried to stop and put it away, but it’s available.”

In interviews with a dozen New Yorkers who said they regularly vaped, no one expressed dismay that the government might crack down on the widely preferred flavored pods.

“It’s fine if they think that’s going to be a deterrent for young kids that aren’t of age to buy them,” said Nick Agosti, a 31-year-old assistant community school director, adding he would miss the flavors. “It’s something that needs to be addressed.”

“I don’t think it’s the flavors that are the reason why people are dying, it’s the e-cigarettes themselves,” said Bush George, a 44-year-old stylist who said he vapes in addition to smoking cigarettes.

“If they’re still online, then I’ll find a way to purchase it. There’s ways to do a lot of things, get your hands on anything if you know how to do it correctly,” said Stephen Figueroa, 25, as he took a hit from his vape against his better judgment.

It's the Black Art of Dis-Information.

I Don't Care what the Issue is. You can Always find 1 or 2 People out of 100 that will Say what you Want them to Say.

Or can be quoted Out-of-Context enough to sound like What you Want

 

[Mazinny]

It's the Black Art of Dis-Information.

I Don't Care what the Issue is. You can Always find 1 or 2 People out of 100 that will Say what you Want them to Say.

Or can be quoted Out-of-Context enough to sound like What you Want

Hmm, but 12 out of 12 not having a problem with it!?

Could it be that as hard core, dedicated vaping hobbyists, we aren't in tune with what the casual vapers and dual use vapers think about the topic.

I shoot pool in a league with quite a few vapers and none of them seem to care about the upcoming FDA crackdown, and believe me, I have tried to get them involved.

 

[flexy123]

I see many posts and even petitions (!) which focus on the "wrong things"

For example, you start off with justifying vaping because it helps so many ex-smokers, or you say how bad the ban would be bad for the vaping industry. All this MAY WELL be true, check, but this is the wrong approach. It will do nothing if ignoramuses are convinced that "vaping kills our kids" <--- which currently seems to be the case.

The thing is that it must be pointed out that the ban on fruity vapes has NOTHING to do with the recent epidemic of sick/dying teens. All investigation so far point to teens having vaped black-market THC, and these few where it's not clear have in all likelihood just not admitted they had been vaping THC.

Any petition, any email and so forth should make this clear right in the beginning, that the ban is pointless, and useless, yes indeed entirely wrong. Bubblegum flavours have nothing to do with teens "getting THC from a friend" and making a vape out of it. NULL. ZERO. NADA.

Any justification like "the ban will kill the vaping industry" instead makes it sound as if someone is concerned about the vaping industry, but ignoring the (assumed!) dangers "of vaping". (And 80% of people now, thanks to the horrible media, do believe it is a general problem with "vaping")

---> Saying, any petition or any email to an official should come straight to the point.

 

[zoiDman]

Hmm, but 12 out of 12 not having a problem with it!?

Could it be that as hard core, dedicated vaping hobbyists, we aren't in tune with what the casual vapers and dual use vapers think about the topic.

I shoot pool in a league with quite a few vapers and none of them seem to care about the upcoming FDA crackdown, and believe me, I have tried to get them involved.

Common Sense Check:

Do you Really think you could go ANYWHERE in the USA and ask 12 "Vapers" and get 12 Responses that it Didn't matter to them?

Sorry. But that just Doesn't Pass the Smell Test.

Even if Half of them were Replying about Vaping as something that we used to Not be able to Talk About.

 

[Pinggolfer]

I've contacted President Trump, Senator Graham and Senator Scott.

 

[RedForeman]

I went on my never-used Twitter account and searched #VapeBan. Then suddenly remembered why I never use it. Many of the tweets are downright vicious, and clearly opinions of people that have absolutely no dog in the fight. Yay social media.

 

[PatVapes]

Contacting whether by phone or email is only for Americans, right?

 

[Mazinny]

Common Sense Check:

Do you Really think you could go ANYWHERE in the USA and ask 12 "Vapers" and get 12 Responses that it Didn't matter to them?

Sorry. But that just Doesn't Pass the Smell Test.

Even if Half of them were Replying about Vaping as something that we used to Not be able to Talk About.

Yeah, it seems unlikely, but there you have it.

I never thought we'd see this day. Never. But then Juul came onto the scene.

This had a lot more to do with the ban, than the six deaths.

 

[RedForeman]

Contacting whether by phone or email is only for Americans, right?

Generally, yes. You have to fill out a chart with your name, address, etc. I did notice on some pages there was a separate link for non-constituent feedback or comments. They would have to do this to enable someone like me to contact the sponsor of a bill that may be a Senator or Representative from another state or district. Because of potential influence on foreign markets, I see no reason why you shouldn't send something.

Edit to add: I'm sure your ability to vote for whom you write to would matter some when they screen the responses when analyzing the data.

 

[RedForeman]

This had a lot more to do with the ban, than the six deaths.

On this, i would agree.

Having vaped fruity flavors for 9 years, I had no idea it was a new thing. Then again, I stopped buying the crap stocked behind the counter at gas stations when I stopped smoking. So I guess Juul was the first mass-market product to feature flavors other than "dirty ashtray?"

 

[cigarbabe]

Done. Also mentioned that it is only happening in states where there is no legal MMJ.
Mentioned that vaping has been going on for over a decade without serious harms to vapers and that banning is a dem knee jerk reaction to shutting down legal lawful businesses....
C.B.

 

[Mazinny]

On this, i would agree.

Having vaped fruity flavors for 9 years, I had no idea it was a new thing. Then again, I stopped buying the crap stocked behind the counter at gas stations when I stopped smoking. So I guess Juul was the first mass-market product to feature flavors other than "dirty ashtray?"

No, I would say Juul was the first mass market product to appeal to kids. And the kids preferred Mango and Mint, to Tobacco. I'm not going to accuse them of deliberately marketing to kids without knowing more, but it doesn't seem unlikely.