Originally posted by Technologist
I’m not a gun control nut by any means, ya’ll can have your guns.
But this is illogical.
Vaping kills 6 people and trump bans flavored ecigs in order to curb youth use.
But guns kill far more youth, and there’s no way guns will be banned.
Ecigs don’t kill people, people kill themselves with ecigs.
Maybe we should make flavored guns.
Okay I feel the need to make a point here: This is not because anyone thinks flavored vapes are 'bad'. That is such a ridiculous and flawed sentiment that only a retard could believe.
Something most people don't know is that big tobacco conglomerates like British American Tobacco, Altria (Phillip Morris), Reynolds, etc, have LONG held stake in the e-cigarette company. For some reason people think that the tobacco companies are lobbying against this shit, and that's why vaping is having such a hard time in America. It's not. JUUL, for example, is 35% owned by Altria. BLU, one of the first popular vapes on the market, has been passed around like a sex doll between various tobacco corporations. China Tobacco (a Chinese state run company and the biggest tobacco producer in the world) runs many of the factories where some of the cheaper hardware is produced. Stuff like Smok and Aspire. They also do mods but I cannot remember any brands as I've mostly used nicotine salts in recent years so those are what I remember.
You can look at previous legislation on ejuice regulation to see what this is all about. Remember before 2018 when you could get vape juice mixed on location, and stores even had their own product? Well that went away with new FDA regulations that introduced a need for FDA approval. Sounds good and well until you realize that the high cost of testing effectively stamps out smaller businesses. You see the same happening with new marijuana laws, which are currently being lobbied for hard by big tobacco. (In my state you literally need to have nearly 2 million dollars to spare for dept of agriculture bonds and licensing fees and whatnot. And that is ignoring the fact that the licenses are going to auctioned).
What they are trying to do is make it so that only large corporations can profit off this stuff.
Now this bill is going to ban all flavors that aren't FDA approved? Holy fucking shit. I don't know if the specifics are out yet but you can bet your ass the fees are going to be outrageous. I've been following this since 2016 when the FDA gained control over the ecigarette market and it has just been an absolute clusterfuck. I looked it up and currently it costs about 300,000 for the PTMA application process that gets a new juice to market. This is the same process that tobacco currently has to go through to get approved and sold in the US, which is why there are absolutely ZERO small cigarette companies. When you buy smokes, you're essentially buying from the same handful of brands. Marlboro, Camel, Newport, it's all just an illusion of choice.
These corporations are setting up a monopoly on nicotine and it is fucking disgusting. Do not for a minute believe that this shit is about the children, or protecting society. They are only interested in protecting their own pockets. They want to be the only ones able to afford these ridiculous and outrageous fees.
Here is the CEO of Altria (remember, they have a thirty five percent stake in JUUL) talking IN FAVOR of the fucking flavor ban.
http://investor.altria.com/Cache/1500117496.PDF?O=PDF&T=&Y=&D=&FID=1500117496&iid=4087349“Encourage FDA to take industry-wide action by banning retail and vape store sales of all non-traditional flavors until the youth issue is otherwise addressed, such as by the use of advanced age verification technology or premarket authorization.”
I would have liked to make this post more well researched but I don't feel like doing the homework again. I encourage everyone here who is interested to look into it themselves. This shit genuinely makes me angry. Free market my fucking ass. I really fail to see how a corporate democracy is any better than having a state run tobacco monopoly like they've got in China. Even if you support Trump you should absolutely not be in favor of this shit. This is a downright infringement of our freedoms as Americans. Both as consumers, and as entrepreneurs
