Im quoting an old post, but the thread is still current. I agree 100% with this post. Bear with me on this next part:
The US government has a track record of doing things that bring in governmental and corporate funds. The CIA has incited a number of coup d'etats in history to install governments favorable to US governmental and corporate interests (Chile and Iran are fully acknowledged by the government itself). A housing bubble was made by banks aiming for higher profits through subprime morgtages, politicians getting votes for such policy, and people blindly taking on loans to pay for the houses that hence skyrocketed in price (the markets way of indicating that too many people were buying houses beyond their means and hence prices rise to eventually stymie the process). Corporations like GM, Toyota, Chrysler, Dow, etc have continued to sell products they knew were harmful or potentially harmful solely for the sake of profit (it would hurt profits too much to fix the problem). The International Monetary Fund makes loans to third world countries, the money is used to build infrastructure, then when the government responsible for paying inevitably fails to repay in time, commercial and industrial resources are plundered and sold off to Western based corporations (and by extension, their governments) through privatization.
If you put $2000 in a bank account, a year of yielding interest probably wouldnt get you $20 of profit, yet if you are $0.10 over using your check card, the same bank that gives you less than $20 for a year of using your $2000 in speculative markets charges you a $35 overdraft fee. And heres the real insult- since your money is FDIC insured, if the bank loses your money, the taxpayers pay the money to reimburse your loss (while those who ended up with the money originally keep it all). If a massive speculative bubble in the housing market occurs as a result of pooling collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and the banks/corporations go bankrupt on account of wielding deposits worth a fraction of what they thought they were worth, the government passes a bailout package using pooled taxpayer money to reinforce their wealth. You pay taxes all throughout the year, and unless you are really poor, you only get the money back you gave in taxes (not an inflation adjusted amount) or less and thus allow the government to used pooled resources of the public and give you back a lesser result.
My grandmother died due to her insurance company abruptly cutting off her supply of steroid injections (which were being used to treat degenerative bone loss). She would have lived about 5 more years, but since she had had the steroid injections long enough her body culled natural steroid production. 2 weeks after she would have had another steroid shot, her body slipped into shock. They saved her at the hospital (by injecting steroids among other things), but since she had been dead for 15 minutes, there was lasting damage to her liver and intestines. My grandfather got asbestosis in the Air Force, is 100% disabled and on every breathing treatment known to man- the VA decided he no longer needed oxygen...!
If you bought enough gold in 1963 to purchase a car and put it away in a safe deposit box, you could pull that gold out today, sell it, and buy a new car. If you stored cash instead, you wouldnt even have a decent downpayment. This goes on and on. I could cite many more examples, and im sure all of you could cite even more than me.
What does this have to do with e-cigs? It is a threat to the tobacco industry AND a threat to tax revenue the government collects AND a threat to all the drugs big pharma sells in response to smoking related health issues. On top of this, it is also a significant threat to social security, since people living longer means more money must exist for SS payments. Medicare/aide is a push- people live longer so more expenses, but ecigs likely cause less health issues to treat. While now only a minority of the public smokes/vapes, it is a sizable enough amount to cost money to "important" people.
They need a way to make money across the board. The best way is to pass what little ecig sales still occur onto Big Tobacco, and greatly stymie ecig sales in general so that smoking continues its lucrative side-effect of health issues. A win win for all parties (except the People).
Sorry for the long winded response. I agree 105% with the post I quoted. I am tired of the way the world works. I hope that we and other entities can protect some of our liberties (and money) in the coming legislative war, but im not holding my breath.
Notice that drugs like ...... and such are illegal, but cigarettes are not?