Ecigarettes and Smoker's Rights

[Magkisa83]

*Sorry that I'm posting this here but I was unable to post in any other category. Tried Law and the ECigarette and General but got an error each time and am not sure if it's my browser or a rule here for new members. Please feel free to move this to the appropriate place.*

I'm a smoker's rights advocate and enjoy reading things at forces.org and smokersclub.com. I'm against public smoking bans enforced by the government and alot of the propaganda about tobacco that the media promotes. Now I know we all love our ecigs and they're generally a great thing. But I'm concerned that we're giving the antis the upperhand here. Do any of you think that ecigarettes can harm the smoker's rights movement? In your opinion, is it possible to still be an advocate and to smoke ecigarettes or are you basically straddling the fence?

 

[Mouser]

Hello Mag,

You can't start a new thread except here in the "New Members Forum" until you get 15 posts. A great activist site is http<colon><slash><slash>www<dot>righttovape<dot>com (link mangled because I am also a newbie here).

As a smoker, that happens to have quit now for 6 weeks thanks to the PV device I am using, I do not consider myself to be straddling any fence. I consider myself to be using the one thing that works for me to keep me off of cigarettes.

Sites like this and righttovape are basically my best sorce of information regarding the legal issues surrounding PV devices and are absolutely invaluable.

I'm not sure what you mean though by "giving the antis the upperhand" -- we are using a viable alternative, that is hopefully less damaging to us. I have been vaping for 6 weeks now, and every last thing about my former smoking habit is mitigated to a large extent -- the stench, the cough, the crap coating my tongue, and on and on...

Harm reduction is what this really is all about. Antis should stand up and cheer -- hooray for those of us that can use PVs as an alternative, imo.

 

[JustJulie]

Well, I see you've now got 10 posts under your belt, so you can probably post wherever you wish.

As for how e-smoking affects smokers' rights, well, you'll get differing views on that subject.

From my PERSONAL standpoint, I do not think that it is in our best interests to align ourselves with the smokers' rights movement. (By "our," I mean e-smokers, vapors, or whatever you want to call us.)

Even when I was a 2+ pack a day smoker (30 years), I was well aware of the fact that my smoking created second-hand smoke which I believe was, at best, unpleasant to those around me and, at worst, dangerous. That being so, even as a smoker, I understood many of the bans on smoking in public places. As for private businesses like bars and restaurants, I feel that whether smoking should be allowed and, if so, to what extent, well, that's something that should be left up to the owner.

In any event, the reason why I do not personally want to tie our cause to that of the smokers is simply because I do not think that vaping is dangerous to those around us. Oh, the jury is still out as to what damage we're doing to ourselves, but I think it's reasonably clear that the vapor that we exhale is less damaging to bystanders than walking down a city street.

Because I do not believe our habit infringes on the rights of others to enjoy a safe and pleasant environment, I personally would prefer to distance e-smoking from tobacco smoking. In fact, I vape devices that do not resemble tobacco cigarettes to make the point that we are not smoking tobacco.

But for what it's worth, I do think the anti-smoking nazis have gone too far in many cases, and, as an American, I resent what I see as governmental over-reaching.

 

[JustJulie]

Well, I see you've now got 10 posts under your belt, so you can probably post wherever you wish.

Whoops. My bad . . . I guess the magic number is 15.