Don't know why Mike found this op/ed fascinating, as I was saying many of the same things back in 2009 after FDA banned e-cigs and before US Congress enacted the FSPTCA.
In fact, Smokefree Pennsylvania actively urged US Senators and Representatives to amend the FSPTCA in 2009 to include e-cigs in its definition of tobacco products in 2009 (to keep e-cigs legal). But we've consistently opposed FDA imposing the deeming regulation (i.e. Chapter IX) on e-cigs.
In sharp contrast, not only Big Pharma funded CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA and the FDA opposed e-cigs in the definition of tobacco products (as the former had urged the FDA to ban all e-cigs as drug devices, and the FDA had already banned e-cigs and insisted they weren't tobacco products), but
njoy lobbyists also convinced Sen. Tom Coburn of OK to sponsor an amendment that would have excluded e-cigs from the definition of tobacco products.
Had
njoy's absurd amendment been approved, Judge Leon wouldn't have been able to strike down the FDA's e-cig ban in 2010 by claiming FDA could regulate e-cigs as tobacco, and
njoy may have lost its lawsuit against the FDA in 2010.
