I am suing NYC over the Bloomberg vaping ban

[Sundodger]

As consumers we have to make wise decisions on who we give our money to. I applaud this gesture, and will show my appreciation with my wallet. I suggest others do the same.

Couldn't agree more! Even the local B&M's need to at least show support. I have one B&M here that I support because they are Vapers, ex-smokers, they believe in the product, they pass out CASAA pamphlets, they ARE active. The other B&M's in the area DO NOT. So I DO NOT give them my business.
We have to support those that support us, whether local or in N.C. or were ever. Some are in it just for the money, so they are no different than some of the organizations we are fighting. Others are in it because they believe in it. We MUST support them!

 

[Stosh]

Could not get PayPal or credit card to work. Check for $10,000 in the mail to Clash, Inc. Good luck.

Randy

As a long term and very satisfied customer of RTS Vapes, THANK YOU!!

 

[randyith]

I listened to the broadcast and it's very interesting. One is the fact that during the city council meeting, the council assured all the people who came to testify against the ecig ban, that the law wasn't meant to include ecigs. Well that put on record the city council's agreement that ecigs have a seperate definition than cigarettes. She's got a ton of quotes from the council meeting. That's why they can't just add "and ecigs" to an existing law per NY constitution.

It pays off to testify against these bans.

Even if it's not scientific / technical, this could play a role in distinguishing that vaping is not smoking.

Us vaporers cannot loose NYC, Philadelphia or Boston on the east cost. We also cannot loose Texas. Looks like we lost California. Sucks.

States with the most sales for RTS:
1) California
2) Texas
3} New York
4) Pennsylvania

Please advise if we can help with any state listed above other than PA. We already support Philadelphia vaporers there.

Edit; We are not a big company like Blu with over $200 million of revenue. RTS currently only does about $6 million of revenue but we will help certain jurisdictions we consider vital.

 

[DetraMental]

Nice to see there's a step going in the right direction for vaper's. I'll be watching this closely along with all of you. Thanks for posting this and the links.

 

[oplholik]

Cal. is not lost... yet. AB1500 is still in committee as far as I know.

 

[aikanae1]

One thing that makes a difference is when vendors step up.

I think some retailers (not you) believe they can survive increased regulations/taxes. Washington's 95% state sales tax should have woken them up, along with Calif's moritoriums on ecig biz. If there is increased organizing among independent business', then I'm not aware of it. Dr. F wrote up a piece on it, basically saying due to ecig business' not being organized, they are missing out on having a seat at the table when regulations are being written up. Pretty interesting article on his website (I think).

Us vaporers cannot loose NYC, Philadelphia or Boston on the east cost. We also cannot loose Texas. Looks like we lost California. Sucks.

States with the most sales for RTS:
1) California
2) Texas
3} New York
4) Pennsylvania

Please advise if we can help with any state listed above other than PA. We already support Philadelphia vaporers there.

Edit; We are not a big company like Blu with over $200 million of revenue. RTS currently only does about $6 million of revenue but we will help certain jurisdictions we consider vital.

 

[6pointprime]

Could not get PayPal or credit card to work. Check for $10,000 in the mail to Clash, Inc. Good luck.

Randy

That is very generous of you Randy. Thanks so much for your contribution!

 

[badwolf91]

America was founded on freedom that's what kills me is that not all americans are willing to fight for one anothers freedoms. The boston tea party was because of over taxation from british govt. This country was founded on freedom and escaping over taxation.. taxation without representation...... I sent an email to my local reps. I really hope they were able to read it. We need to fight for any and all freedoms that they are slowly taking from small groups to gain more power/money. Bloomberg is a {MODERATED} mad man who is up in the ranks with stalin and hitlers political agenda's in my opinion before the mass killings that is. A revolution now (like the American revolution) would be considered terrorism as im sure it was called something of the like in britian at the time but its sad we would be attacked/taxed to no end or jailed for fighting for our own freedom. I pay tax's on every thing I buy, on top of the massive amount of tax they have to take from my paycheck and then all the fee's and tax's we must pay to have a car on the road, ect. I should be able to use a smoking alternative at a reasonable price that isn't triple taxed since im already paying a tax on every dollar. I understand some money is needed to keep roads and whatnot up to par but gov't has gotten to strong and is way to far apart of our everyday lives now. I could drone on and on though sorry. Revolution is growing in the air I can smell it we must stand together for freedom as so many very good people have died for its cause.

-- very sorry for the part that had to be moderated. didn't mean to evade the sensors will keep the talk mature as it was not needed just really don't like that guy

 

[2coils]

America was founded on freedom that's what kills me is that not all americans are willing to fight for one anothers freedoms. The boston tea party was because of over taxation from british govt. This country was founded on freedom and escaping over taxation.. taxation without representation...... I sent an email to my local reps. I really hope they were able to read it. We need to fight for any and all freedoms that they are slowly taking from small groups to gain more power/money. Bloomberg is a fking mad man who is up in the ranks with stalin and hitlers political agenda's in my opinion before the mass killings that is. A revolution now (like the American revolution) would be considered terrorism as im sure it was called something of the like in britian at the time but its sad we would be attacked/taxed to no end or jailed for fighting for our own freedom. I pay tax's on every thing I buy, on top of the massive amount of tax they have to take from my paycheck and then all the fee's and tax's we must pay to have a car on the road, ect. I should be able to use a smoking alternative at a reasonable price that isn't triple taxed since im already paying a tax on every dollar. I understand some money is needed to keep roads and whatnot up to par but gov't has gotten to strong and is way to far apart of our everyday lives now. I could drone on and on though sorry. Revolution is growing in the air I can smell it we must stand together for freedom as so many very good people have died for its cause.

97% well said!! You are right, enough already! We are killing our own society at its core! I honestly don't know what is worse, the control grab/money grab from our politicians and big government, or the citizens who allow it and welcome it?? Really a close call!

 

[Luisa]

The replay of last night's episode of Click, Bang! is up. All the info you need to help with the lawsuit against NYC can be found in the text and links contained in the replay notes.


I am suing NYC over the Bloomberg vaping ban


https://soundcloud.com/vp-live/i-am-suing-new-york-city?in=vp-live/sets/the-click-bang-archives

Who is your attorney for the lawsuit and what is the name of the firm? Thanks

 

[Luisa]

I discussed the Chicago situation with an attorney friend of mine. It turns out that the Illinois State Constitution has a similar provision ("one subject per law/ordinance") and that the Chicago ordinance, which is basically just an amendment to the existing anti-smoking ordinance, could be overturned and the City Council then have to write a brand-new ordinance to repress vaping.

His strong advice was to hold off until vapers make a strong enough case, via the media and whatever, that vaping is a public health measure and not something to be suppressed. Otherwise, all Chicagoans would wind up with is an iron-clad vaping repression ordinance and thus be worse off than with what we have now.

Just reporting what I've found out.

I would hope that all the REAL scientific studies would be presented including showing the FDAs" original report which shows no harm from vapor--if Elaine can explain this to the Court! Should any of the genuine studies be presented in the lawsuit maybe e-cigs would at least some honest exposure in some articles.

 

[Luisa]

Who is your attorney for the lawsuit and what is the name of the firm? Thanks

I forgot to ask if they are a NYC firm.

 

[badwolf91]

97% at least im close, my blood boils when it comes down to freedom so I might sound a little crazy at points lol. as noted before so many good people have died to defend this and now we have politicians who are living so far from reality its just so sad to see this way.. we can make it better though if we try, money controlling them is just such a big problem. This lawsuit should be 100% valid and win if there is no corruption. Glad to see CASAA has open eyes, I joined their cause

 

[Berylanna]

I would hope that all the REAL scientific studies would be presented including showing the FDAs" original report which shows no harm from vapor--if Elaine can explain this to the Court! Should any of the genuine studies be presented in the lawsuit maybe e-cigs would at least some honest exposure in some articles.

Neither of these lawsuits will be about ecig safety, they will both be about the fact that both bans were passed on the basis that we need to control peoples' behavior in public, EVEN WHEN IT IS NOT DANGEROUS. It's the "denormalization" thing. The point of the lawsuits is that avoiding denormalization is a completely different topic than clean air, and both states have laws that you can't combine different topics in one law. (And the reason is to avoid this very thing, amending a law with something unrelated to avoid having to address the subject from the beginning point.)

 

[mostlyclassics]

I would hope that all the REAL scientific studies would be presented including showing the FDAs" original report which shows no harm from vapor--if Elaine can explain this to the Court! Should any of the genuine studies be presented in the lawsuit maybe e-cigs would at least some honest exposure in some articles.

Luisa, a huge impediment to killing the Chicago ordinance is the fact that the City of Chicago is worse than broke. Its bond rating is worse than any other city in the country, excepting Detroit, which is in bankruptcy court. It's billions in the hole, thanks in large part to unfunded pension liabilities.

It desperately needs tax revenues. Vaping can't generate any tax revenues: if Chicago tries to tax vaping, people will just buy their vaping goods elsewhere. The City Council wants smokers to keep smoking, so it can collect all those cigarette tax revenues. The clear effect of their ordinance is to suppress conversions to vaping in order to keep smokers smoking.

The city government doesn't care about public health; it very much cares about not doing a Detroit and financially circling the drain.

 

[Luisa]

Luisa, a huge impediment to killing the Chicago ordinance is the fact that the City of Chicago is worse than broke. Its bond rating is worse than any other city in the country, excepting Detroit, which is in bankruptcy court. It's billions in the hole, thanks in large part to unfunded pension liabilities.

It desperately needs tax revenues. Vaping can't generate any tax revenues: if Chicago tries to tax vaping, people will just buy their vaping goods elsewhere. The City Council wants smokers to keep smoking, so it can collect all those cigarette tax revenues. The clear effect of their ordinance is to suppress conversions to vaping in order to keep smokers smoking.

The city government doesn't care about public health; it very much cares about not doing a Detroit and financially circling the drain.

Well,if all these cities and States are unable to be fiscally responsible maybe they should follow the lead of 2 States. They could legalize a certain product that is now illegal,tax it and solve their problems. Maybe they would leave us alone and be happy with their new found source if income. They might even get rid of the criminal element that now profits from this product. That element sure pays no taxes. Oh dear,I hope I wrote this in a manner that is acceptable!

 

[mostlyclassics]

But, Luisa, vaping (even if only in private) is legal in all 50 states, and us vapers presently have access to the internet for our goods. Those two states, which have legalized that substance which we dare not name here, don't have that problem: the market for that substance is captive to those two states. So, it's possible for them to tax that substance.

At any rate, so far Colorado has received only a few tens of millions of dollars of taxes from that substance. Chicago's unfunded pension liabilities alone are in excess of ten billion dollars — with a "b." And never mind the city's other unpaid liabilities.

It's thought by analysts that the only way for Chicago to dig its way out of its financial hole, in addition to drastically cutting back or charging much more for city services, is to double property taxes. Politically (and economically) this isn't possible. Collecting their precious cigarette tax helps to kick the can down the road a bit further.

I just came across this fascinating and terrifying article, which explains graphically what Chicago is up against: Chicago's vanishing middle class.

 

[DC2]

Large taxes on "fattening" foods is the "solution" that will eventually come to pass.
If I could bet on it, I'd bet my life savings on it.

Unless of course we find a way to fix the system before that happens.
But of course, we have to piss off the majority of voters before any fixes will be considered.

And they are being very careful not to piss off too many too quickly.

 

[Sundodger]

Large taxes on "fattening" foods is the "solution" that will eventually come to pass.
If I could bet on it, I'd bet my life savings on it.

Unless of course we find a way to fix the system before that happens.
But of course, we have to piss off the majority of voters before any fixes will be considered.

And they are being very careful not to piss off too many too quickly.

I could just hear the screams if this came to pass in ChiTown. Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza, 9" only $55.95. A lot of Chicago's ethic type restaurants would close up. Italian, Polish, Greek, Irish, none are known for low fat offerings. Sorry if I missed anyone.

 

[Stosh]

Large taxes on "fattening" foods is the "solution" that will eventually come to pass.
If I could bet on it, I'd bet my life savings on it.

Unless of course we find a way to fix the system before that happens.
But of course, we have to piss off the majority of voters before any fixes will be considered.

And they are being very careful not to piss off too many too quickly.

I think you'd lose that bet. They'll tax sugary, sweetened foods (all those empty calories) separate from fats (gotta fight heart disease), salt (think of the chilin's blood pressure), meat (ecological unsustainable), dairy (cow farts are ruining the planet).

Divide and control, have the lobbyists throwing money at the politicians to "tax the other guy" while the public suffers...