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Red faces — 17 Comments

  1. A quote for you from the Telegraph:“The experts called for e-cigarettes to be prescribed on the NHS once regulated.” [My emphasis]You see? People are reading it the wrong way round. First they will be regulated and then they may be prescribed. You can bet a pound to a penny that the prescribed ecigs will be produced by Big Pharma since they are the only organisations which can afford all the ludicrous tests which MRSA will demand. I think that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. In effect, the MRSA wants to take ownership of ecigs via control. The Tobacco Control top people are desperate to keep tobacco companies out of the ecig scenario, which they see as a way for tob coms to avoid eventual annihilation.  It will be interesting to see how things develop.  

    • One way or another they are going to have to divert funds into their masters in Big Pharma.  Presumably the latter will have to go into production at some stage.  Naturally, Big Pharma's e-fags will be as pure as the driven snow while every other e-fag is packed to the gills with poisons.

  2. I often read of e-cigarettes, but do they (whoever ‘they’ are) make e-pipes ?

    • I was being polite and just quoting the number who actually thought they were worse.  If you add in the don't knows, the figure rises to 55.2%.

      • well god damn you grandad made me have faith in people for a few moments then snatched it away

  3. There is a twin danger with this though. First they may decide to reduce the nicotine content in e-cigs to the point that they become useless. Secondly, if they become prescription only it makes them easy to to apply Excise Duty through a single channel. Currently a pack of twenty fags is €2.00 plus €8.00 made up of VAT & Excise. An e-cig refill costs €2.00 and is the equivalent of twenty fags with neither VAT nor Excise applied. Imagine how attractive to our cheating Government that is!

    • I’m pretty sure there is 23% VAT on vaping products. Not enough for some, I imagine.

      They will have a hard job putting high taxes on e liquid as there are only 4 components and it’s easy to make it yourself.

      Propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG) and food flavouring are widely available and can never be controlled or taxed excessively.

      Nicotine base (made up of PG and VG and a percentage of nicotine) also is widely available at present and it’s likely the nicotine is the only thing they could control and tax.

      They will also have a hard time justifying an excessive tax on a drastically less harmful alternative product for smokers.

      Vaping is a consumer led smoking cessation movement. If every smoker switched to vaping, the smoking money machine would come crashing to a halt.

      It’s great the authorities in the UK are taking such a good approach.

      In Ireland however it’s likely to be business as usual for the tobacco control people. Irish Cancer Society are not convinced yet and call for more research, and still recommend their sponsors’ NRT products. Luke Clancy was sounding pretty desperate on the Last Word on Today FM. He was up against Professor Peter Hajek. He was still going on about dual use, gayeway effect, no long term data etc. Worth a listen back to.

      Vaping is the very thing that many people have feared would happen. It’s a huge threat to Pharma, government revenue, and tobacco control.

  4. Woop ! Woop ! Alert ! Alert !

    The bit that hasn’t been widely reported is that a new EU Directive is pretty much going to regulate these out of existence. All hail our EU overlords !

    Have a look at the article at El Reg and the stuff linked from it:
    “Enjoy vaping while you still can, warns Public Health”
    “Pharma-friendly EU clampdown threatens suppliers with banhammer”

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/20/public_health_ecigs_analysis/

    Personally, I quit smoking 10+ years ago, but smoked for 30+ years before that. Some of those smokes were lovely – but most were just habit, addiction, and pretty naff realy.
    That said, if you want to smoke or Vap that’s up to you – but you’ll have to sit on the doorstep if you want to so so at my place 🙂

    • I saw that point elsewhere today [can't remember where] that the EU were still going to introduce their precious directive.  There is however a challenge going through the courts that the directive contravenes one of the EU's basic principle of free trade.

      Non-smokers are more than welcome here at the Manor, and we even have a smoke free zone [we call it the garden].  😉 

  5. You've absolutely hit the nail on the head there sir, very well put.

    Sent from my iPhone.

    (whilst chuffing on my Curve set at 5v, happy days). 

     

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