I was disappointed to read in the local paper today that new regulations that lump together tobacco and e-cigs. They banned sales to minors which I support however it also creates a new license fee, sets location restrictions, and bans any form of discount for shops that sell tobacco OR e-cigs. The biggest issue to me is that they're lumping together tobacco and e-cigs. There was much of the usual fear mongering to drum up support(the death in NY was brought up for one thing), it only affects unincorporated parts of the county but it's a disturbing trend. Somehow I missed that they were considering this and that was a public comment session or I would have been there, I did write to the commissioner for my district.
Article:
County OKs tough e-cigarette rules | Local | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon
Email sent:
As someone who has voted for you multiple times and strongly agrees with your stance on most issues I was severely disappointed to read that you supported the new regulations on e-cigs. I smoked for over 20 years and tried everything to quit, the only thing that has worked is vaping(e-cigs). The article wasn’t very clear on the extent of the regulations and while I support banning sales to minors I strongly object to lumping e-cigs and tobacco together. Would you do the same with nicotine gum or patches?
I read a lot about the potential dangers of vaping before I used it to try to quit smoking and all of the unbiased studies I found said that it was at least 95% more safe than smoking and that nicotine without the other alkaloids in tobacco is actually less addictive as well. My own anecdotal evidence suggest that both are true, I no longer get easily winded and it’s been much easier to reduce my nicotine consumption while vaping than it was while smoking.
Much has been said about flavors being used to attract kids but I can tell you from first hand experience that the flavors are an important factor in being able to transition from tobacco to vaping. Concentrated nicotine can be lethal if ingested just like many household cleaners and like them should be stored out of reach of children and pets, many brands of eliquid also have child safety caps to help prevent kids getting into them. It’s wrong to single out eliquid when almost every house has equally toxic chemicals, like with toxic household cleaners the issue is irresponsible adults not the chemical itself(and no it doesn’t taste good if that’s what you’re thinking). I am curious where Pat Farr acquired cookie dough flavored eliquid, none of the local vape shops carry that flavor to my knowledge.
This article: BMC Medicine | Full text | Electronic cigarettes have a potential for huge public health benefit is a good read if you want to educate yourself on the basics of what has been found medically true regarding e-cig use(citations included). Personally I believe that vaping has saved me from an early grave and if these regulations prevent any smokers from switching to an e-cig it will be doing a great disservice to public health. I understand why tobacco companies are against vaping but I don’t understand why the anti-smoking crowd is so against it since it has a much higher success rate than any other form of NRT(nicotine reduction therapy). These two groups have funded almost all of the research that has found anything truly negative and the methodology used as well as the conclusions reached are questionable at best and propaganda and unfounded fear mongering at worst.
I don’t like to be a one issue voter but unless you change your stance or are running against the devil himself I will not being voting for you again, that’s how strongly I feel about this. This is a serious public health issue and in my opinion you’re clearly on the wrong side, I also don’t think that it is appropriate to regulate this at the county level.
Edit: I just realized that this maybe should have gone in the news and campaigns section, if someone wants to move it that's fine.
Article:
County OKs tough e-cigarette rules | Local | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon
Email sent:
As someone who has voted for you multiple times and strongly agrees with your stance on most issues I was severely disappointed to read that you supported the new regulations on e-cigs. I smoked for over 20 years and tried everything to quit, the only thing that has worked is vaping(e-cigs). The article wasn’t very clear on the extent of the regulations and while I support banning sales to minors I strongly object to lumping e-cigs and tobacco together. Would you do the same with nicotine gum or patches?
I read a lot about the potential dangers of vaping before I used it to try to quit smoking and all of the unbiased studies I found said that it was at least 95% more safe than smoking and that nicotine without the other alkaloids in tobacco is actually less addictive as well. My own anecdotal evidence suggest that both are true, I no longer get easily winded and it’s been much easier to reduce my nicotine consumption while vaping than it was while smoking.
Much has been said about flavors being used to attract kids but I can tell you from first hand experience that the flavors are an important factor in being able to transition from tobacco to vaping. Concentrated nicotine can be lethal if ingested just like many household cleaners and like them should be stored out of reach of children and pets, many brands of eliquid also have child safety caps to help prevent kids getting into them. It’s wrong to single out eliquid when almost every house has equally toxic chemicals, like with toxic household cleaners the issue is irresponsible adults not the chemical itself(and no it doesn’t taste good if that’s what you’re thinking). I am curious where Pat Farr acquired cookie dough flavored eliquid, none of the local vape shops carry that flavor to my knowledge.
This article: BMC Medicine | Full text | Electronic cigarettes have a potential for huge public health benefit is a good read if you want to educate yourself on the basics of what has been found medically true regarding e-cig use(citations included). Personally I believe that vaping has saved me from an early grave and if these regulations prevent any smokers from switching to an e-cig it will be doing a great disservice to public health. I understand why tobacco companies are against vaping but I don’t understand why the anti-smoking crowd is so against it since it has a much higher success rate than any other form of NRT(nicotine reduction therapy). These two groups have funded almost all of the research that has found anything truly negative and the methodology used as well as the conclusions reached are questionable at best and propaganda and unfounded fear mongering at worst.
I don’t like to be a one issue voter but unless you change your stance or are running against the devil himself I will not being voting for you again, that’s how strongly I feel about this. This is a serious public health issue and in my opinion you’re clearly on the wrong side, I also don’t think that it is appropriate to regulate this at the county level.
Edit: I just realized that this maybe should have gone in the news and campaigns section, if someone wants to move it that's fine.
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