The FDA regulations do not surprise me one bit. Who gains from e-smoking and who loses? The individual gains but I can see how this this would be a huge threat for major firms.
Let me just state that I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I do think there are crooked members in our government, and firms will use those members for their own economic gain. Its just a matter of incentives and as an Econ major I know that incentives is truly what makes the world go round.
Who are the big players here and what to they stand to lose? I'll mention a couple, and hopefully you guys could give some input.
Big Tobacco Companies are first. E-cigarette smoking is unregulated thus making the market much more competitive. They'd have tough time competing with a form of nicotine administration that is much healthier than smoking. Also, it compete with their nicotine replacement therapy products which if you don't know by now is also owned by tobacco companies.
Tobacco growers also stand to lose. There would be less demand for tobacco if could be synthesized cheaper from a lab. The farming industry is heavily subsidized and I'm sure they have the money to influence Congress as much as they can through lobbying.
I think its our responsibility as e-smokers to do our part in doing what we can to protect our right and its the responsibility of the suppliers and distributors to do what they can so they can stay in business.
Our best bet would to create a group to lobby in Congress.
Like someone else mentioned, the hands off my body approach will not work unless we can get a Congressman to initiate legislation to protect our rights. I think Congressman Ron Paul would be our strongest ally for this approach. He has a strong following that are pro-liberty supporters and I'm sure we could get a nice petition list going with their help.
We will have to come up with some solid reasons as to why a ban or restriction should not be placed. Anybody got any ideas?
