I am asking this, as I know that there are vapers and anti-vapers on this site. There are people that think the FDA can create a better vaping industry and others that think they will ruin it (as do I). I am not writing this to start a fight but rather have a reasonable discussion about view points.
I post this after reading more and more about regulation, seeing both sides fight tooth and nail at times but one lingering question still remains, how. How do people think that the FDA can improve vaping or make it safe/safer. How have people been so blinded to believe that only the government or an agency there of can make the world go round. I am not anti-government, I view it in high regard but at the same time see where it's roles and responsibilities lie.
There are many items we as consumers purchase or use that have been regulated by the FDA, yet have caused massive injuries and death. This list includes foods and medications (not counting the preparation facilities and such), I write this as a father of a child that has Cerebral Palsy from Zoloft, the FDA approved alternative (at the time) to Paxil. The agency doesn't know any more than any of us, they take research data and make a subjective judgement. This judgement at times has been bought in the past and who is to say it can't be bought again. We have to remember that the Surgeon General at one time said smoking was perfectly safe and was even an advocate for smoking (aided in digestion).
In the past 20+/- years, that I have looked there have been more scandals and possible cover ups than we have ever seen before. I'm sure a lot has to do with the fact of being able to spread information faster and further than ever before. One thing doesn't change though, the amount of facts that the government has gotten wrong.
We as vapers just on here argue about many things, sometimes in the name of safety and other times for petty reasons. We have to get our act together and stand as a united front, accept and admit the possible risks but scream about the benefits. We need to educate and be educated at the same time. We need to look at why people believe an entity (gov.) that says this, when thousands, maybe millions say that they are wrong.
If you have read this far, thank you. I would love to see why people think we need the FDA to regulate and why we don't. We can have vaping be safe and to some extent it already is. I do believe in inspection of liquid labs but by the health dept. as they do in foods, that is no where near the level of FDA, of course I'm just some guy from Alabama.
I post this after reading more and more about regulation, seeing both sides fight tooth and nail at times but one lingering question still remains, how. How do people think that the FDA can improve vaping or make it safe/safer. How have people been so blinded to believe that only the government or an agency there of can make the world go round. I am not anti-government, I view it in high regard but at the same time see where it's roles and responsibilities lie.
There are many items we as consumers purchase or use that have been regulated by the FDA, yet have caused massive injuries and death. This list includes foods and medications (not counting the preparation facilities and such), I write this as a father of a child that has Cerebral Palsy from Zoloft, the FDA approved alternative (at the time) to Paxil. The agency doesn't know any more than any of us, they take research data and make a subjective judgement. This judgement at times has been bought in the past and who is to say it can't be bought again. We have to remember that the Surgeon General at one time said smoking was perfectly safe and was even an advocate for smoking (aided in digestion).
In the past 20+/- years, that I have looked there have been more scandals and possible cover ups than we have ever seen before. I'm sure a lot has to do with the fact of being able to spread information faster and further than ever before. One thing doesn't change though, the amount of facts that the government has gotten wrong.
We as vapers just on here argue about many things, sometimes in the name of safety and other times for petty reasons. We have to get our act together and stand as a united front, accept and admit the possible risks but scream about the benefits. We need to educate and be educated at the same time. We need to look at why people believe an entity (gov.) that says this, when thousands, maybe millions say that they are wrong.
If you have read this far, thank you. I would love to see why people think we need the FDA to regulate and why we don't. We can have vaping be safe and to some extent it already is. I do believe in inspection of liquid labs but by the health dept. as they do in foods, that is no where near the level of FDA, of course I'm just some guy from Alabama.
ing their pants for a multitude of reasons. Taxes on tobacco are higher than on just about anything else. In some areas there are nearly $10 in taxes on every pack of cigs that are divided up among the various city, county, state, and federal coffers. BP makes a huge amount of $ every year off smokers too. Patches, gum, chantix, meds for cancer and COPD, etc. Doctors and hospitals get their chunk when smoking makes us sick. It's population control as well. Smokers die off 20 years or so earlier than non-smokers, allowing the government to steal more money out of Social Security and Medicare. No one really knows how much the government makes off smokers because no one outside the government has ever really put together a comprehensive list of all the different ways Uncle Sam collects, and He's not gonna volunteer the info. I've poked around half-heartedly looking for the numbers (they aren't easy to find with basic gogle-fu, and there is a great deal of differing information) and the closest guess I can make is somewhere in a neighborhood of a 6 or 7 that sits 11 places to the left of the decimal. That's more than half a TRILLION dollars a YEAR!!!! It's no wonder the government want to eradicate vaping. If they lose the tax dollars AND the campaign (bribes) contributions from their biggest (puppet masters) donors, they might have to actually work out reasonable spending budget and stick to it.
