"Isn't anyone else blown away by the fact that a company cannot make the claim that this is used for smoking cessation and/or is a healthier alternative to smoking even though it IS true without running afoul of "the law"? Does anyone else realize how utterly absurd this is?"
I for one am totally astounded by this fact, and was about to make an independent thread topic out of your statement content. When the FDA and the gov't knee jerk against something so amazing, while at the same time they allow and have subsidized tobacco, only leads me to believe that it's an insane system we live in. True should be true, and it should be stated out loud...
...and fact are NOT the same thing. They sometimes co-incide, but that is incidental.
If or not you hold something to be true is a personal choice and distinction. Whether or not what you hold to be true is actually based in fact is a whole other thing entirely.
Constantly repeating that the FDA allows cigarettes but not eCigs *is not true* nor *factual*. The FDA, until this year, had virtually no choice or say in the matter whatsoever. It was decided via process of law that they could not...on several grounds ban tobacco products. They still can't.
Are eCigs tobacco products? They are marketed as NOT being tobacco products, hence under the jurisdiction of FDA. Where are the black helis about this? Why do people continuously float this conspiratorial nonsense when the principals involved, until they realized their error, did not?
No one involved has given anyone, ANYONE, a single reason why this product should be treated different than others. They are in court right now, not even making this case.
The case they are making is "well, we *said* it was so-and-so, but it is really such-and-such, so the FDA has no jurisdiction whatsoever."
I mean, not even a viable "public safety" argument...nothing. The principle players at the head of this game are in court, essentially fight for their "right" to essentially be "Big Vapor"...to run a business without oversight, based on unfounded claims and anecdotal "evidence".
SunV, have they even introduced signed affidavits from customers? Anything, outside of a submission from a fairly hastily-formed trade group that *one of the principals involved is chair of*?
Cigarettes were proven to be anything *but* harmful after being sold and marketed for years and years as being anything but. You are telling me it is...reasonable...to believe claims that "the New Cigarette" making essentially the same claims...at face value?
*Really?*
You do not think that being at least...agnostic about this is the most sane course of action?
You honestly don't think a product that makes what can *more than arguably* be considered an "extraordinary claim" shouldn't have to back it up?
Or is the confirmation bias so deep, that this "answer"...the eCig...is a "miracle of modern science, health and technology" that it should get a pass?
It is like I asked in another thread and all of the naysayers have *still* yet to answer:
If the FDA, right now, went out, on their (ok, our taxpayer dime) went out and bought 4 samples of every cart and juice out there, over a 4 week period, and tested them...do you *really* believe the results would be better...
or worse?
Think about this...I mean really think about this. Think about both NJOY's actions and Smoking Everywhere's.
If we are truly thinking for ourselves...we shouldn't *stop thinking* when we find the answer we want to hear. That is "truth".
If or not the answer we wanted to hear *is the right one* is the search for fact.
I personally blame the general lack of understanding of this concept to be a failure of our general public education system
-K