General

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A Case of “Told You So”

In a truly mind-bendingly terrifying moment, one of the key arguments used – particularly in the US – by the opponents of vaping has been gloriously ripped asunder. That argument is of course that The Children™ will use them and become “addicted” to nicotine. The thing is, there is a substantial portion of teens that vape without nicotine a statistic that is overlooked by the US tobacco controllers. You can imagine the shock and horror on their faces when they read that part of this study.

There is a lovely ongoing survey which began in 1975 and is maintained by the University of Michigan. The Monitoring The Future (MTF) survey has many purposes, among them is to study changes in beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of young people in the United States.

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Let’s Talk About Youth

Thanks to Sarah Jakes, a short two-page document from ASH Scotland found its way into my twitter timeline. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, it’s all about youth and e-cigs. I had a read. I had another read. I had a third read. They also have a short blog post on the subject. I read that too. Then I read it again.

There isn’t really much to the document in itself, page one is primarily background stuff, while page two gets to the heart of the matter. Or at least tries to. It is a masterclass in fence-sitting. (more…)

Nothing but a speck of ASH

New EU rules on nicotine strength not a problem for most vapers is the headline of a pretty dire press release from ASH where, once again, they show that they’ve never really been the ‘vapers friend’. With an increasing number of smokers switching to vaping – estimated to be around 2.8 million in 2016 – ASH reckons that the Tobacco Products Directive “need not cause problems for most vapers”.

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Words from the Echo Chamber

It’s always nice to put finger to key and put some thoughts out into the virtual world isn’t it? I could, and often have, gone on for quite some length (especially when ranting) about a particular topic, but what good does it actually do? After all, I’m only “speaking” to like-minded folk right? What is commonly referred to as the “echo chamber” – indeed, most of those that read my words are either vapers, smokers or just plain ol’ libertarians who are, to put it mildly, fucked off with state interventions in our lives.

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