I have just been added to the agenda to raise awarness about e-cigarettes with my citys council, i need your help in coming up with a bullet point poresentation of things i should mention.
im not going to be saying they are an aid to quit but a replacement.
my only goal is to get this information to the chief of police who can then tell his officers that they are not drug paraphaneilia or a cigarette.
i was told by a commisioner that i would need to come up with about 8 bullet points i would need to talk about.
what would you guys reccomend i mention.
Much of this
thread befuddles me. I'm hoping the OP isn't carrying a bucket of naivete. I might be overly-projecting here. These are my random thoughts while reading the
thread.
City Council meetings are not the usual route for the public to communicate with a police chief. Normally it would be the other way round on this type of matter. The Chief of Police, if questioned by the council, informs
them of the law,
as was done here.
The last thing I would want is a bunch of council folk interpreting a presentation and giving cops their third-hand imitation of what they heard.
Will the chief and other officers be at the meeting to see/hear directly for themselves? If not, the normal route would be to
meet directly with the chief or a senior officer who meets with the public on behalf of the chief. If your local police precinct advised you otherwise - okay, that would be a new one on me!
The above could be all wrong if you have a local smoking ordinance that was written and passed by this city council and it's all under their control. But you did not say your goal involved such dealings.
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If the council does not have a tight schedule you could find yourself being the target of
questions you don't necessarily want to answer in this setting, such as a 15 minute public discussion about whether or not kids can
buy these online cuz that's what somebody heard, and where do you buy yours, and do you feel it's really safe, and I read that the FDA banned them or will you still use them if the FDA bans them, do people in jail get to use these and how do any smoking bans in your area apply and what happens if kids are caught using them in class... Perhaps the commissioner you talked with is supporting you? and will set a supportive tone for your presentation and manage any discussion to that end or cut off discussion on your topic all together.
Many cities video all their council meetings and some broadcast them on community cable. Does yours? If so, are you comfortable that there is benefit in a [repeated]
local tv broadcast of your eliquid demonstration?
Your location is listed as Kentucky so there is potential of
tobacco industry presence also, either at the meeting or other monitoring of city council activity.
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Many of the responses read like you should sell the city council on ecigs, as though they have to provide some manner of consent. I not only disagree, I think it's dangerous to give that impression. (see previous disclaimer!) Your average city council spends too much time dwelling on things that s/b none of their concern, esp. if they've been granted even a whiff of the notion that it might be their concern. Same with local "hard-core" public who attend council meetings looking for things to disagree with.
The 'aid to quit' vs. 'replacement' - this issue is irrelevant to anything beyond official ecig company marketing and internal FDA regulations. It isn't something ecig users have to repeat like a mantra whenever someone asks us about ecigs (which is how people talk of late on this forum).
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All that said...
Props to you for trying to help your community deal with vaping. Seriously. Whatever you do I hope it goes as well as it possibly can. Clearly you are doing your best to prepare and that's what I wish here, the best experience for you.
