EU Holland bans e-cigarettes

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emonty

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A very black Xmas day for sure. Let's see what the suppliers come up with, we need to make a strong reply, the least we can and should do. As it looks more countries will follow to make ecigs fall under medical laws. As I understand the people from those countries that have that rule in place still can get there supplies from others easy but it will become more difficult as time goes, really unbelievable but again it shows what the politicians are good for: to get the tax money, let people get sick from cigarettes and make us suffer!!
 

Sophora

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Well, there's the problem for European vapers. The internal Dutch market is relatively small, the larger sellers get 75% of their turnover from exporting to other European countries, where nicotine containing liquids are already considered pharmaceutical. It's only because of the free internal EU market, that the Dutch could supply them. That route will now
be closed, hence no or little availability of nic containing liquids in larger parts of the EU.
 

JollyRogers

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you'd think holland being the place where drugs are legal, nicotine wouldn't matter..... just goes to show how crazy these left-wing lunatics really are.

This! my visit to Amsterdam in my Navy days was VERY trying... and they make this illegal??? Wow that just does not make any sense?!
 

emonty

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It is not going to be illegal, it will be regulated and can only be purchased by government controlled and approved suppliers.
I wonder if atomizers etc. will also be controlled...Really I don't see them opening up all packages that come from abroad, so I am not to worried as an end consumer, it is the suppliers that will feel it and also to bring it to market to the general public will become a different story.
 

LadyWeeps

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I'm extremely ...... off by this. The stupidity and hypocricy of our rulemakers is mindblowing. Mrs Visser states that nicotine is a pharmaceutical product since it is capable of influencing the state of the human body. According to this logic so is a cheese sandwich (cures hunger), but for some reason those don't need te be regulated.

If this is the determining definition used by Holland's government, what is the policy on actual cigarettes?
 

rolygate

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It is not going to be illegal, it will be regulated and can only be purchased by government controlled and approved suppliers.
I wonder if atomizers etc. will also be controlled...Really I don't see them opening up all packages that come from abroad, so I am not to worried as an end consumer, it is the suppliers that will feel it and also to bring it to market to the general public will become a different story.

The language used is the same as in many other places, EM. The 'ban' part is identical to that used in the UK, which was temporarily defeated: they are saying that, (a) as nicotine is a drug with a pharmacological effect, the equipment described (e-cigarette) is a device to deliver a drug with a significant pharmacological effect and thus requires a pharmaceutical license; and (b) that this equipment is being sold to treat a disease, therefore it is a drug. Point (b) refers to that fact that e-cigarettes are either sold as or believed by buyers to be a method to quit smoking (the 'disease' is the addiction).

In practice this is a ban, because it takes several years and a lot of money to get a license for ONE product. This is untested, as yet, but will probably mean ONE e-cig model and ONE flavor of e-liquid. Any variation of equipment or liquid (of any type including the base material or the flavor) will require another license.

In the UK we have found that the minimum time and cost for a license is 3 years and £300,000. That's for ONE license. After that you can sell your registered mini + 1 flavor. You can probably see the issue here.

It's a ban.

On the other hand it may be challenged to the extent they are forced to allow the sales of equipment and liquids that do not include nicotine (this is the 'Canada solution'). Currently in the UK there is sufficient money to challenge this type of ban in court, probably successfully. Both premises the ban is based on have weaknesses that can be challenged - if you have the money to go to law.

I like the way they did this the day before Christmas, so that it was impossible to challenge the ban immediately, and with the slowest week of the year in the courts coming up. This timing was obviously deliberate, to cause the maximum possible inconvenience. No one would do it like this unless they deliberately wished to make it as difficult as possible, and you can see by this factor alone that public health is not the issue here.
 

martinc

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I dont see my previous smoking habit as a disease...or addiction...just...a bad habit.

E-cigs or PVs are not (for me) a solution to a disease but something to prevent a possible disease.

I am not good to explain those things,but their phrasing tends to point that they are a cure,which they are not.

Its just way better than analogs.
 

jameth

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Maybe eventually all nicotine will be tightly controlled and illegal for general sale, and we will all have to go down to the corner "nicodone" clinic, and stand around in lines to get our government provided fix of fake nicotine like substance.

Oh and of course it will be less effective and more expensive.
 
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Ande

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According to this logic (as lucidly explained by Rolygate) fruit is a drug. It is used to cure the disease of "unhealthy food addiction." When are they going to get around to restricting the advertisement and sale of fruit? Wouldn't we be better off relying on proven save pharmaceutical vitamin products??

The term "alternative" springs to mind. But only to our minds, not to the minds of legislators.

Bleah.
Ande
 

CatVTTV

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This is sad news indeed.
And a fate we all share unless we can convince the various powers out there that we use e-cigarettes as an alternative to the regular tobacco ones.
The association of e-cigs and quitting has to stop.
If e-cigs are classed as 'quit kits' then of course big pharma are going to want to run the whole business, and will have every right to do so.
Electronic cigarettes are alternative devices designed to administer nicotine without the by products of burning tobacco, if by using them you reduce the amount of cigarettes purchased and burnt, thats fine, but, they are not designed to to be a quit smoking device.
We do all need to join forces here and assist the Netherlands e-smokers.
 

Ande

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Keep informing them of your discontent- and seriously, if you think a little show of international support could be in any way useful, say the word.

NOT cool.

I've spent a little time in your fair country. Not true to say that drugs are legal, of course. But it seems that your government, at some point, recognised that it's pointless to spend police time and tax money dealing with some of the more common ones. In other words, prohibition really doesn't work.

Which is what makes an ecig prohibition even more infuriating. It's just madness.

Best,
Ande
 
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