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...
I hate to say it, but unfortunately I believe that it IS big industry that is behind this flavor ban, primarily JUUL/Altria. Consider these facts:
In a 2019 presentation to a room full of financial analysts, Altria made clear that Altria and JUUL intended to work together to:
“
Encourage FDA to take industry-wide action by banning retail and vape store sales of all non-traditional flavors until the youth issue is otherwise addressed, such as by the use of advanced age verification technology or premarket authorization.”
You can find the presentation here:
http://investor.altria.com/Cache/1500117496.PDF?O=PDF&T=&Y=&D=&FID=1500117496&iid=4087349
Why? Because a flavor ban would be
beneficial to JUUL.
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, "
A nationwide flavor ban might actually help Juul, which has an estimated 70% of the U.S. e-cigarette market, by bringing its competitors in line with what Juul has already done voluntarily. Juul in November
halted the shipment of most flavored pods to U.S. stores, with the exception of mint.
The move halved Juul’s U.S. revenue, Burns said, because the vast majority of Juul’s sales come from retail stores. Any new FDA regulations on flavors would hurt only Juul’s online sales, which Burns says make up less than 10% of its U.S. revenue."
You can find the full article here:
http://investor.altria.com/Cache/1500117496.PDF?O=PDF&T=&Y=&D=&FID=1500117496&iid=4087349
And, lastly, guess who donated $500,000 and attended a special candlelight dinner with Trump and Melania? Altria, owner of 35% stake in JUUL.
"Altria/Philip Morris is no stranger to Capitol Hill. Between 1998 and 2004, the company and its affiliates spent more than $100 million lobbying the federal government, making it the second most active lobbying organization in the nation,
according to the Center for Public Integrity.
"The tobacco behemoth is also no stranger to Trump, donating $500,000 to his inaugural celebration. The Wall Street Journal
reported donors who gave $500,000 or more to the celebration fund were invited to a special “candlelight dinner” event during inauguration weekend with President-Elect Trump, Vice President-Elect Pence and their spouses.
"That cozy financial relationship, viewed in the context of Wednesday’s announcement, doesn’t sit well..."
See:
https://www.lp.org/libertarians-vaping-industry-condemn-trump-vaping-ban/
I feel like the anti-vaping crowd is being played while, like Brer Rabbit, JUUL/Altria begs not to be thrown into that briar patch known as a flavor ban.
