Contact Schwarzenegger to oppose SB 400, CA ban - Form Letter

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Kamanjah

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
We in CA need all the help we can get with bringing our opposition to SB 400 to the attention of the Gov. Everyone: Please email, mail, fax or telephone a comment opposing SB 400. It can be as simple as saying "Please oppose SB 400." Or, you can write a letter.

This bill will become law if the gov does not veto by Oct 11. If he does not veto, it will automatically become law even without his signature!

Link to send email: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - Interact

Snail mail at top of letter.

Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160 ( new number )

Here is a form letter I put together, with the help of several people on RTV & VF. Feel free to use it as is or with your own changes.

Please post on other boards you visit! I'm posting it on RTV and VF.

Thanks to everyone who helped on this!

Note: The vapers club dot com links have a space in them so they will show up.

So, if you cut & paste, please fix the links.

Please use this thread for discussion per SJ.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

September 19, 2009

Re: SB 400

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I am writing to oppose SB 400, initially introduced as an energy bill. From the original text: “44272. (a) The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program is hereby created.” Seven amendments later, it ended up being a bill to ban electronic cigarettes. No reference to energy is even in the final version. “Energy: green vehicles” morphed into “tobacco.” Then, somewhere along the way, the electronic cigarette was defined as a tobacco substitute, next, that was stricken and the bill now will “authorize action to halt the sale, distribution, or offering for sale of electronic cigarettes…”

SB 400 will take a freedom away from the people of CA and should be immediately vetoed.

It is your responsibility to protect the freedom of thousands of Californians who have chosen the electronic cigarette (e-cig) as an alternative to burning traditional tobacco cigarettes. Allowing SB 400 to become law will drive many people who have become tobacco free back to using tobacco products. Ex-smokers will become smokers again.

There have been many studies done on e-cigs, including an FDA study, which showed (if you take the next step and compare e-cigs to a tobacco cigarette) that the e-cig is much safer than smoking tobacco and generally has the same amount of TSNAs (tobacco specific nitrosamines) as the FDA approved NRT products. Their finding of approximately 1% DEG (diethylene glycol) shows the need for better quality control in manufacturing. Please note: DEG is found in tobacco cigarettes too. Other testing shows that the effects of nicotine on the human body are generally no worse than caffeine.

E-cigs should remain on the market and legal for adults to purchase while complete testing is done and submitted to the FDA for approval. They are a reduced harm product and do not fall clearly into any category the FDA has set up for regulation. With technology comes innovation. Laws take time to catch up. Please do not put the e-cig into a black market status! The FDA will not be able to approve these without lengthy testing and research. To date, the FDA has not banned them. California law should not supersede the FDA without any evidence they do any harm.

E-cigs are a tobacco alternative and many choose them as a healthier way to deal with their nicotine addiction. They are not inhaling the 4000+ chemicals found in a burning tobacco cigarette. Existing NRT products have not worked for the people who are using e-cigs. E-cigs are keeping them away from burning tobacco.

More information is available at
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/RuyanCartr...t21-Oct-08.pdf
http://www.vapers club/factsaboutpvs.html
http://www.vapers club/vapersclubdotcompamphlet.pdf
http://www.vapers club/pg.html

Please veto SB 400. E-cigs, for many users, are the only thing keeping them away from smoking tobacco cigarettes. Please do not take this choice away!

Respectfully submitted,
 

Sad Society

Ultra Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Aug 5, 2009
1,458
818
Los Angeles, CA
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Please Veto SB400!

This was a bill that was originally designed to keep electronic cigarettes out of the hands of children, a purpose which we would have all agreed with in its original form. However SB400, somehow in a matter of a few days, morphed into a complete “prohibition of of the sale of electronic cigarettes in California” and passed in the Senate, while we were commemorating 9/11 and had absolutely no time to protest its altered scope and intention. This bill does not represent the will of the people of the State of California!

Although not sold as a “quit smoking device”, thousands have successfully used the electronic cigarette to quit or or greatly reduce their tobacco smoking and reduce the health risks associated with the combustion of tobacco. Prohibiting the sale of the e-cigarette will not only return many to smoking cigarettes, it could also create a new black market in e cig material that will turn ordinary citizens into “criminals of the State” just to get their nicotine in a safer form.

SB400 was a good intention, run amok. The same arguments re “flavors appealing to children” could also be used to bar the sale of Peppermint Schnapps.

California is losing jobs, and we will now be shutting down e cigarette businesses? It makes no sense.

Please Governor Schwarzenegger, represent us where our legislators failed us and veto SB400!

Sincerely,

(Your name)
 

solonguniverse

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Jun 8, 2009
412
2
Missouri, USA
Just curious - Why is "NRT" always abbreviated? I honestly don't even know what it actually stands for with certainty - is it "nicotine reduction therapy??" Maybe that should be written out first for dopes like me?

Nicotine Replacement Therapy...and that bill is bogus. I hope that everyone who's vaping today can keep vaping or quit smoking so we don't give the government another damned dime of death taxes.
 

unknwn

Senior Member
Jul 7, 2009
73
1
Kristan's question about the catagory to file an email message to the Governor's website should be addressed at the earliest opportunity.
My message is waiting confirmation of this info, and i'm certain that AT LEAST one more is also.

What is it? :
"Request - general"
"Food & Ag issues/concerns"
"Governor"
"Consumer Affairs"

We need some help here people.
 

Kamanjah

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
OK, I picked Consumer Affairs. We are consumers, this is our 'affair.' Should have put that in the orig post, sorry. Then on the email text page, be sure to put con in the pro/con selection.

@Vaporizer, would you be so kind as to tell me how to tweet Schwarzenegger? I have an account, 'followed' him, but am having trouble figuring out how to stick up an "Oppose SB 400" note directed to him. Thanks! (I don't usually tweet!)
 

kristin

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Aug 16, 2009
10,255
20,248
CASAA - Wisconsin
casaa.org
I emailed this version. I added one sentence for those of us not living in California. I also included a link to my article - hopeful the anecdotal stories will help sway him.
Re: SB 400

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I am writing to oppose SB 400, initially introduced as an energy bill. From the original text: “44272. (a) The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program is hereby created.” Seven amendments later, it ended up being a bill to ban electronic cigarettes. No reference to energy is even in the final version. “Energy: green vehicles” morphed into “tobacco.” Then, somewhere along the way, the electronic cigarette was defined as a tobacco substitute, next, that was stricken and the bill now will “authorize action to halt the sale, distribution, or offering for sale of electronic cigarettes…”

SB 400 will take a freedom away from the people of CA and should be immediately vetoed.

It is your responsibility to protect the freedom of thousands of Californians who have chosen the electronic cigarette (e-cig) as an alternative to burning traditional tobacco cigarettes. Allowing SB 400 to become law will drive many people who have become tobacco free back to using tobacco products. Ex-smokers will become smokers again.

Your decision will most likely cause other states to follow suit, affecting millions of other citizens of this country, as well.

There have been many studies done on e-cigs, including an FDA study, which showed (if you take the next step and compare e-cigs to a tobacco cigarette) that the e-cig is much safer than smoking tobacco and generally has the same amount of TSNAs (tobacco specific nitrosamines) as the FDA approved NRT products. Their finding of approximately 1% DEG (diethylene glycol) shows the need for better quality control in manufacturing. Please note: DEG is found in tobacco cigarettes too. Other testing shows that the effects of nicotine on the human body are generally no worse than caffeine.

E-cigs should remain on the market and legal for adults to purchase while complete testing is done and submitted to the FDA for approval. They are a reduced harm product and do not fall clearly into any category the FDA has set up for regulation. With technology comes innovation. Laws take time to catch up. Please do not put the e-cig into a black market status! The FDA will not be able to approve these without lengthy testing and research. To date, the FDA has not banned them. California law should not supersede the FDA without any evidence they do any harm.

E-cigs are a tobacco alternative and many choose them as a healthier way to deal with their nicotine addiction. They are not inhaling the 4000+ chemicals found in a burning tobacco cigarette. Existing NRT products have not worked for the people who are using e-cigs. E-cigs are keeping them away from burning tobacco.

More information is available at
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/RuyanCartr...t21-Oct-08.pdf
http://www.vapersclub/factsaboutpvs.html
http://www.vapersclub/vapersclubdotcompamphlet.pdf
http://www.vapersclub/pg.html

Please see this article: Negative Reactions Mystify Electronic Cigarette Owners - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Please veto SB 400. E-cigs, for many users, are the only thing keeping them away from smoking tobacco cigarettes. Please do not take this choice away! Your decision could influence other states to follow suit and therefore affects everyone in this country.

Respectfully submitted,
Kristin Noll-Marsh
 

Reuben

Full Member
Sep 8, 2009
50
0
Puerto Rico
I already send an e-mail to the governor, but under category I put "Governor". I chose that because I see options like for example 'First Lady' and others like that, and I want my e-mail to go directly to the governor office and not other agency, you know, just in case.

Reuben

_________________
"The reverse of the fate is called conscience: Freedom".
 

Vaporizer

Full Member
ECF Veteran
Jan 1, 2009
18
0
Thanks Kristin - and everyone else who has emailed. Looks like we may have a chance to get noticed!!!

Um, I'm on that twitter page, where can I write "Oppose SB 400"??? Duh.

Hi Kamanjah to get a message to appear to him update your status but at the beginning of the status update put "@Schwarzenegger" less the quotes and then your message and it will appear on his timeline. If enough users do this his timeline will be full of Oppose SB 400 Tweets. Now not everyone will be able to see them but he or whoever is updating his twitter page will. Hope this helps.
 

Chris From Cali

Unregistered Supplier
ECF Veteran
I've emailed and posted your letter along with others on Vapor Talk, I hope he hears our calls! I don't care what forum your from so long as we make the effort to stop this.

I also picked up a cheap fax machine from Rite Aid of all places (34 bucks) and started faxing stuff out, it's easier than you'd think to do from home :)
 
I just sent your form letter. Thank you for putting this together. I am just starting out my life of being smoke free and would hate to have to turn back now. It would mean that my hopes and dreams of not having to live the every day hell of the nicotine addiction struggle would be yanked out from under me. I'm sure we all feel very strongly about this.

current mood:
Very ...... off at the thought of this.
 
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