The people who staff the FDA are, by and large, folks who believe in public health policy that will protect the population from danger. The sooner we treat public health planners respectfully, and resist the impulse to accuse them of nefarious motives, the better -- for us. These people THINK they are protecting the public, and most of them want to do just that. Like many in the medical profession, some are ignorant of the relationships between nicotine, cigarettes, addiction, e-cigs, pharma and big tobacco, and they need to be taught -- as does the general public. The biggest problem we face is the confusion over what is and isn't dangerous in tobacco. Nicotine is still believed to be the primary evil by lots of people -- many of whom should know better.
If we can't learn to explain ourselves logically, again and again, and make our case without accusing our opponents of conspiracy and evil intent, we're going to be easily relegated to the fringe and disposed as players in this debate. We need to find friends -- like Bill Godshall, like Michael Siegel -- to help us, and we need to be positive and persuasive, to make it harder to dismiss us. Even if it is true that the nation's primary guardian of food and drug safety is nothing but a shill for the industry that produces the most dangerous legal product ever made, it doesn't help our cause to make that claim.
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