Clash of the Titans
I saw a few passing references to the IQos yesterday.
Or is it the IQOS? Or the Iqos? Or even the iQos? No matter. It’s the yoke that Philip Morris has produced that is a sort of half way between a fag and an electrofag. It’s a sort of lukewarmfag.
Even Herself had heard about it on the radio and was showing a mild interest. Can we buy one to try, says she. I looked it up and yes – there it is on Amazon. £150 but they don’t deliver to Ireland. Thank God thinks I, the pension is safe for a while.
Anyways it piqued my interest, so I pooked around for a bit of further information. It transpires that it’s a sort of electrofag, but instead of sticking nicotine juice in it, you stick what looks like an ordinary fag in instead. So the device just replaces the burning bit with a hot bit. Grand.
So how is this going to be received by the Great Unwashed? Are those who don’t like electrofags and who have been brainwashed into thinking that ordinary fags are more dangerous that liquid Nitroglycerine going to welcome the device with open arms? Frankly that’s irrelevant. You see, the devices have to get past the Nannies, the Prohibitionists, the Puritans and the Anti-Smokers first.
There is going to be fucking war.
One one side of the battlefield there will be Philip Morris [who have invested millions] backed up by the Plain Man. There’s a lot of money there so that’s a formidable army. Add to the fact that they have a head start and the devices are already Out There and it’s far easier to beat a foe when it’s nicely corralled and not ambushing from all sides.
On the other side we have the Nannies, the Prohibitionists, the Puritans, the Anti-Smokers, Big Pharma and no doubt the gubmints.
The Anti-Smokers are just going to use their single battle cry of “Big Tobacco”. Of course Philip Morris could accidentally [or otherwise] come up with a pill that cures every know disease on the face of the planet and save mankind from itself, but the Anti-Smokers would still cry “Big Tobacco” because underneath it all, they are just a bunch of fanatical brainless morons with single track minds.
The Prohibitionists and the Puritans are just going to scream that the new devices contain Nicotine which as we all know is more deadly than Cocaine laced with rat poison.
The gubmints are going to back this side of the field as they won’t want to lose revenue from tobacco excise.
And of course on that side you will also find Big Pharma who will see the new device cutting even further into the billions they make from useless patches and gum.
I can see interesting times ahead.
Honestly, GD, I get so tired of all this stupidity. I ask myself over and over again WHY? Why are these people so obsessed with telling others what they can and cannot consume? What difference does it make to them if you or I want to enjoy something they don’t personally like? I just don’t understand it. I mean, I REALLY don’t understand it. There are lots of things in this world that people enjoy doing that for me would be like sticking hot needles in my eyeballs, but it would never occur to me to want to stop them from doing it. Strokes for folks and all that. And anyway, it’s none of my business what other people get a kick out of.
I’m just grateful that I view all this pitiful malakias from afar. I count my blessings that the moronic zealots and their armies of useful idiots have gained no traction here whatsoever. I chose to be here since well before the idiocy of the smoking bans appeared, but the Gods must have guided my decision, because I’m sure I would have died of a Tobacco Control induced apoplectic fit had I remained in UK and had to witness, first-hand, the lies, deceit and naked bigotry foisted upon the country at the behest of a bunch of self righteous losers.
It’s all part of this new religion of Heath that’s sweeping the world. People are obsessed with the subject to the extent that they are willing to pay extra taxes, eat special diets [that they probably don’t like] and take their medical advice from the tabloids. They can no longer think for themselves and rely on “experts” to do their thinking for them. Everything has to be declared “safe” before they eve touch it.
The word can’t go on like this and sooner or later the whole fad will die down [I hope]. Cracks are beginning to appear and the appearance of electrofags and lukewarmfags is nicely widening those cracks.
Why do they press on? They’re insane.
Follow the money!
Well, presumably the Government’s tax take will remain at least partially intact, because the tobacco pods (I understand), do contain real tobacco – I’ve heard them described as “about half the length of a conventional cigarette” – which will be taxed like all tobacco is taxed now. Maybe not as much per pack, but more than e-cigarettes, which, as non-tobacco devices, attract no tax at all.
But you’ve forgotten vapers in your list of opposing parties. There are a lot of them who are going to be furious at the advent of these devices, which promise to steal their self-satisfied thunder in a major way and, if they are as good as they promise to be, are likely to cut severely into the currently-growing e-cigarette market, as smokers looking for an either permanent or occasional alternative to conventional cigarettes are more likely to try these first (because they are more like conventional cigarettes) than they are to try e-cigarettes (which are very different).
As you say – interesting times ahead.
I meant to include vapers on the list. They are caught in a bind as a vociferous sector of vapers have been using the Anti-Smoker rhetoric [A billion lives and all that crap] but they can’t use those arguments against the new devices. They have to welcome them as the new yokes fulfil all their claims, yet they have to be against them as they are a direct rival.
Very interesting times.
“…a bunch of fanatical brainless morons with single track minds.”
Nail – head. You have a way with words, Grandad!