Corruption in government is a universal thing that brings us all together
It's less blatant, and perhaps not that extensive, here, but there are lobby groups and industrialists that are maybe too cozy with politicians, etc. Overall, I think we have more "honest" politicians than not, but you do find abuses of the system.
So tell me, what's going on in Canada? why did they ban e-nic ? as far as I know... ( I might be wrong ) a friend of mine told me you buy tobacco, alcohol and even those dried sleeves who make people peace and love all the time on a legal way. is that truth ? if so, I smell some double morality around...And don;t get me wrong... I'm just curious.
This could get to be a loooong comment, but I'll try to summarize. This is just my understanding of things.
Health Canada banned liquid with nicotine in (I think) 2009. The rationale was that nicotine is addictive and misuse can lead to overdose. Obviously, we can buy cigarettes, nicotine patches and gum, so I don't think that's the whole story. Health Canada is responsible for making sure that any device or substance about which a medical claim (such as "helps you quit smoking") is made can back that up with scientific study. I would understand the ban much better if they said that e-cigarettes with nicotine are an unproven device and they could not make medical claims about it. That would be a position consistent with how they treat other devices and substances.
It is pure speculation on my part, but I think that a major factor in banning nic juice is the anti-smoking lobby and sentiment. There has been a decades long campaign against smoking here, and for many years it was successful in reducing smoking rates. It's now seen as socially unacceptable. Not on the level of being a drug addict, but there is an attitude that it's a moral failing if you're a smoker. The anti-smoking lobby started going further, pushing into scientifically unproven territory. Things like "third hand smoke", the idea that it's actually dangerous to be in a car or room that someone has *previously* smoked in. This has been less successful, and smoking rates have pretty much leveled off.
One of the other effects of the anti-smoking lobby is very high tax rates on cigarettes. The idea is that higher tobacco costs lead to quitting. Currently, approximately 70% of the cost of a pack of cigarettes is tax (this varies by province).
So, to answer your question, yes, tobacco and alcohol are legal, although heavily taxed. That "other thing" is not legal, although you will only receive a fine for "personal use" amounts.
It definitely *is* a double standard, as far as tobacco, nicotine patches and gum and nic juice goes. Some speculate that the government doesn't really want to get people to quit smoking because of the large tax revenue, some that pharmaceutical companies that sell stop-smoking devices (and have a *terrible* success rate) are pushing the government to keep e-cigs out of the market so they can keep selling their products.
There may be some truth to all of that, although I don't think it's a big conspriacy. I think that the actual laws are often made by people who don't have a complete understanding of the nature of addiction, that there is very little political will power to legalize e-cigs (because of the anti-smoking lobby) and the fact that policy can just take a long time to catch up to reality.
TL;DR: lots of anti-smoking sentiment, many don't think e-cigs are different than smoking, and there's a lot of money in stop-smoking products.
Whew! Sorry, really did not mean to make that so long!
A question of my own: how do people view smoking in El Salvador? Here it's frowned on, but it sounds more acceptable there? Is there an anti-smoking movement?
