I hate to kill anyone's hope, here, but I can tell you that once political wheels are in motion--especially when HUGE money is involved--your voices don't make a bit of difference. I found this out the hard way here in Wisconsin when a friend of mine and I decided to start a group called 'Ban the Ban' to stop the smoking ban. We got interviewed on radio shows, had newspaper articles about our efforts, had thousands of members and got lots of donations...but in the end, we discovered that we were incredibly naive to the power and money behind the legislation.
Here's what's stacked against us:
- The e-cig industry isn't wealthy enough to buy politicians. This is huge. Unfortunately, this is what our 'democracy' has become. If you don't have money, you don't get a snowball's chance in hell. Big Pharma and Big Tobacco have money. They already have politicians in their back pocket.
- Tax Revenue - I don't have to tell you how much money government generates from the taxes on cigarettes. They don't want us to quit smoking any more than Big Pharma wants us to stop being depressed and stop taking their drugs. You know how much tax money is generated from cigarettes, because you've purchased the things. This is a freaking cash cow for state gov't and the feds. Now that they've discovered that a very high percentage of people are quitting smoking with e-cigs and not purchasing their cancer sticks, what do you think they're going to do? They have to regulate it so they can tax it (best case scenario)...or they'll simply ban it.
- Shockingly enough and contrary to popular belief, government does NOT care about your health. If they did, they'd ban cigarettes--and thousands of prescription drugs--outright. (Go back to #2) So they can do all the testing in the world and make us 'prove' that these juices are better for us than smoking, in the end, that's not what their concern is. It's money and power.
- Anti-Smoking Nazis - Trust me, I have had my run-ins with these people at the 'American Lung Association' and 'American Cancer Society' level. They are busybodies with no sense of humor, who hate their lives because they spend most of it running 5 K's, biking to work, doing yoga after work with their 'LiveStrong' yellow wristbands on, and eating so much fiber that they are obsessed with discussing their BM's. In other words, they don't have fun. So when they see us enjoying what looks exactly like smoking, they get ...... OFF. It isn't about health for them, it's about you enjoying something that looks like something unhealthy but isn't, when they've spent so much time demonizing it because...well, they're jealous that you just don't give a s***, and that you don't care what people think of you...because THEY DO and are miserable because of it.
- The Media - These fools have been a tool of central planning gone insane for well-over a decade. Whatever the Nanny State wants, the media will be sure to sway public opinion their way. Trust me. The only media that don't do the bidding of Big Government are Talk Radio and bloggers. Period.
On the positive side, I think that we CAN change public opinion about vaping. This is our best and only hope, in my opinion. But we won't do it by 'hiding' and pretending like we're doing something wrong. We need to get out there and show people that it really is safer than smoking, that we feel better vaping than we did smoking, and that we're actually QUITTING or drastically reducing our smoking. And I mean vaping in front of children, pregnant women, small farm animals...whomever. And TALK about it. Have your facts. Be prepared to answer questions and to tell your story.
When I was with Ban the Ban, we had the Constitution on our side. No government entity should be able to tell a private business owner that they cannot allow a legal act on their private property. We brought this up time and time again, that this issue was about property rights, and if the government wanted to be honest about it, they should just ban cigarettes. We had property rights on our side, and we still lost. Obviously our elected officials don't give a rat's ... about our 'rights', let alone our 'health'.
Gosh, I wish I weren't jaded. I wish I could be positive, but I know what we're up against. I've faced the government machine, the media, and their 'We Know What's Best for You' non-profit propagandizing thugs, and all I can say is "Good freaking luck".