I have done a lot of Googling this weekend and today as I just can't stand to sit here and do nothing while our right to vape is disappearing fast.
I came across a website Welcome to ECITA, the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association and then read an interview with a lady named Katherine Devlin. The Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association has done monumental work in the UK to bring vaping into the mainstream legally.
As Canadian law is closer to British law than the USA's I sent her an email asking her to read the posts here and to comment on whether or not she could help us.
This is her reply (posted with her permission):
We have read and discussed the issues arising from the ECF forum thread concerning the challenges Canadian vapers are facing. It is absolutely disgusting when governments over-step the boundaries in this way. To suggest that ecigs should not be sold while protecting the ongoing sale of tobacco cigarettes flies in the face of all reason, and is utterly ridiculous.
It is very difficult to see how we can help you now that things have gone so far.
Unfortunately, we feel that the only course of action remaining open to Canadian ecig vendors will be a legal challenge.
VK Consulting the consultancy which established and runs ECITA can offer you one possible solution: we could do the research into your legal statutes, in a similar way to how we have done in the UK/Europe and are beginning to do in the US; we could then produce a proposed regulatory framework for self-regulation from within the industry, which could also be used for external regulation by government if they preferred this; if sufficient numbers of Canadian vendors were prepared to join us, we could co-ordinate the legal fight, and present lawyers with much of the research and evidence, thus making the whole process considerably cheaper than it would otherwise be; and we could present evidence in court as expert witnesses, based on our in depth knowledge of the industry globally, the products, and the Tobacco Harm Reduction possibilities offered by these products.
Other than that, Im afraid we cannot see any way forward, other than illegal imports, which is obviously no kind of solution.
Unfortunately, however, since it looks as if many of your vendors are simply shutting up shop
and moving elsewhere with their business interests, it may well be too late to mount a successful legal challenge.
Feel free to publish this response wherever you feel it may be useful, and I wish you the very best of luck with your campaigning efforts.
Ultimately, we are hopeful that common sense will win out globally, but countries like Canada may be the last to come round and even then, may simply be too stubborn. I sincerely hope I shall be proved wrong in this assessment.
Kindest regards,
Katherine Devlin
Independent Industry Consultant
ECITA Ltd
Is it too late? Will any vendor or vendors be willing to stand forward to do this? Will we as a vaping community stand behind them?
If a group of vendors does want to do this - I for one will put my money where my mouth is and send my support both monetary or otherwise to help them do it.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
I came across a website Welcome to ECITA, the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association and then read an interview with a lady named Katherine Devlin. The Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association has done monumental work in the UK to bring vaping into the mainstream legally.
As Canadian law is closer to British law than the USA's I sent her an email asking her to read the posts here and to comment on whether or not she could help us.
This is her reply (posted with her permission):
We have read and discussed the issues arising from the ECF forum thread concerning the challenges Canadian vapers are facing. It is absolutely disgusting when governments over-step the boundaries in this way. To suggest that ecigs should not be sold while protecting the ongoing sale of tobacco cigarettes flies in the face of all reason, and is utterly ridiculous.
It is very difficult to see how we can help you now that things have gone so far.
Unfortunately, we feel that the only course of action remaining open to Canadian ecig vendors will be a legal challenge.
VK Consulting the consultancy which established and runs ECITA can offer you one possible solution: we could do the research into your legal statutes, in a similar way to how we have done in the UK/Europe and are beginning to do in the US; we could then produce a proposed regulatory framework for self-regulation from within the industry, which could also be used for external regulation by government if they preferred this; if sufficient numbers of Canadian vendors were prepared to join us, we could co-ordinate the legal fight, and present lawyers with much of the research and evidence, thus making the whole process considerably cheaper than it would otherwise be; and we could present evidence in court as expert witnesses, based on our in depth knowledge of the industry globally, the products, and the Tobacco Harm Reduction possibilities offered by these products.
Other than that, Im afraid we cannot see any way forward, other than illegal imports, which is obviously no kind of solution.
Unfortunately, however, since it looks as if many of your vendors are simply shutting up shop
and moving elsewhere with their business interests, it may well be too late to mount a successful legal challenge.
Feel free to publish this response wherever you feel it may be useful, and I wish you the very best of luck with your campaigning efforts.
Ultimately, we are hopeful that common sense will win out globally, but countries like Canada may be the last to come round and even then, may simply be too stubborn. I sincerely hope I shall be proved wrong in this assessment.
Kindest regards,
Katherine Devlin
Independent Industry Consultant
ECITA Ltd
Is it too late? Will any vendor or vendors be willing to stand forward to do this? Will we as a vaping community stand behind them?
If a group of vendors does want to do this - I for one will put my money where my mouth is and send my support both monetary or otherwise to help them do it.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
