Holy crap, are you people still trying to push these petitions. It's been done before and they all ended up doing essentially zero good. Petitions don't work, at least not on the level we could possibly generate. We had two petitions that went to the white house. The first one was replied with a generic form response from the white house quoting the FDA. Last I heard (a long time ago) the second one was never responded to.
So it goes, a new generation of folks comes along and try it again, and the results will be the same, it will do nothing, and quite possibly do harm as the people signing this actual think they are doing something positive.
Besides that, this petition has all the pitfalls of previous petitions going from faulty logic to outright lies.
The safer alternative to tobacco products is of course a lie, and anyone who is up on THR would know that. Smokeless tobacco has the same low risk as vaping and is a corner stone to THR. The author of the petitions appears to be careful to say combusted tobacco on several occasions in the petition, but then falls down hard with the above misdirection.
It matters not at all as because as I said, this petition will be read by no one of any significance when it comes to the actual regulation. Parties over boys and girls. Now why don't we all go home, have a little nap or a cup of Joe, then do something that really matters, as in writing a real letter to your congress person and Senator (or at least an email). How about talking to your local state senator and representative (or whatever the case may be in your state) and make a case to help prevent local bans. How about writing a letter to the editor of your local paper when an article on ecigs comes up. All of this actual helps. Signing a freaking petition does nothing. It's been done, doesn't work, and those of us that have been around have moved on.
I've been around for awhile, I've written my legislators both local and federal, I comment on every news story I come across, I've written to local media. There is no reason we can't do all of it. If you don't want to sign the petition, don't. I read the previous petitions, they were somewhat vague, and I read the "response" as well, that's one reason I chose to go with changedotorg instead of We The People, the social media aspect of changedotorg means that even if we don't get the attention of congress, we can get the word out to other vapers, and our friends and family that we are fighting for this.
As far as smokeless tobacco, I will admit that I'm not up on the research for smokeless, it's not something I've ever considered using, and this wasn't a petition for all of the products in the deeming regs, it was specifically for vapor products. I believe a case can be made for vapor products NOT to be considered tobacco products, I don't think the same case can be made for smokeless tobacco, modified risk is probably the best that can be done there, if the FDA would ever grant that status.
I do thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, I'd appreciate it more if you took 30 more seconds to sign the petition, even if it does nothing, one more signature couldn't hurt. There are also a lot more of us now than there were even a year ago.
If you would like to PM me on the faulty logic I used in the petition, I do have the ability to edit it, but I don't think that conversation should be done here.
Thanks.
Wishful thinking, maybe, but it is possible given enough time
