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Vape News | San Fran Vape Ban Fight Back Begins | Hoodies Now Classed As Tobacco Products + More

Midweek Vaping News 3rd July 2019

July 3, 2019

Midweek Vape News Headlines:

Fight To Overturn San Fran Vape Ban – EU and Big Tobacco Investigated – Gottlieb Urged To Resign – Smoking Rates fall In England – Lamborghini Themed E-Cig – VPZ Expansion – JUUL Launches UK Ad Campaign – and finally Hoodies Now Classed As Tobacco Products!!!

San Fran Vape Ban Fight Back Begins

A campaign to reverse the disastrous San Francisco all out vape ban is gathering pace leaving a tiny chink of light for beleaguered vapers and vape businesses.

The fight back is being led by none other than JUUL Labs who have plenty of skin in the game given not only will their products be banned from sale – they also have a large office within the city with 2,000+ employees.

Should the ban pass into local law in 7 months time the company and others selling or manufacturing vape products would be evicted from any council leased buildings. It’s understood JUUL is a step ahead and already looking to purchase office space saving thousands of jobs.

I’ve written about JUUL’s petition, which would force a ballot on the ban and now the vape giant has banded together with other city based vape shops, sellers as well as vapers and local residents. The organization heavily funded by JUUL Labs is called The Coalition for Reasonable Vaping Regulation. In order to trigger a ballot on the vape ban 9,500 votes was needed and they’ve already managed to get over twice that amount and it’s still rising.

The CRVR website has all the information you need to fight the ban and of course you are able to sign the petition and/or contact your local politician.

The site says:

The Coalition for Reasonable Vaping Regulation is an alliance of San Francisco residents, businesses, and community leaders who support protecting adult choice through common sense regulation.

We don’t want minors using vapor products. We also believe in the need to protect consumer choice for responsible adults. Vapor products play an important role in transitioning adult smokers from combustible cigarettes and providing a viable, potentially less harmful solution.

In fact, according to a recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine, vapor products are almost twice as successful at helping adult smokers abstain from cigarettes as traditional nicotine replacement therapies, such as gum, lozenges, or patches.

Historically, prohibition has never succeeded. Banning the sale of vapor products in San Francisco won’t keep them out of the hands of minors – and simply doesn’t make sense. Instead, we support stricter regulations at retail locations and online to enforce the law for sales to adults 21 years or older.

It is possible to maintain strictly-regulated access for adults in the city while getting tougher on underage use. Let’s learn the right lesson and retain reasonable availability of vapor products for adults while implementing rigorous oversight of sales and distribution to prevent youth access.

Absolutely and just as an aside all those big vape companies over in China are remarkably quiet over all these USA bans and threats of bans. Maybe it’s about time some of them stepped up as JUUL is doing…just a thought 😉

OK, I urge anyone whether they be a smoker, vaper or simply someone concerned about such a draconian piece of legislation impacting directly on the health of the city to get involved.

Big Tobacco EU Sponsorship Deal Investigated

Authorities in Belgium are looking into whether British American Tobacco has fallen foul of strict EU laws on sponsorship and advertising.

And the same investigators are also looking at if the EU Parliament has also broken the ‘law’ after it was found an event held there was sponsored by Japan Tobacco International!

Things that make you chuckle lol.

OK the BAT men are in the dock so to speak due to their sponsorship of the European based website Politico, a site that takes a close look at the workings of the EU. BAT are makers of lit cigarettes and VUSE and Vype e-cigs.

The news based website has begun featuring a strap-line advert “supported by British American Tobacco” on its ‘Playbook’ pages as well as banner ads on its health pages.

Investigator Paul Van den Meerssche reckons such ads are a blatant breach of the EU’s rules on advertising and says this is Big Tobacco pushing the boundaries to see what they can get away with adding:

We have made preparations to start an investigation into the BAT sponsorship of Politico. We have taken print-screens of the website and will assess next week what the next steps should be

They know they are very powerful and that they have the funds to afford hiring expensive lawyers.

In response BAT says they’ve done nothing wrong and stated their lawyers had gone over the regulations with a fine tooth comb before signing up to the deal!

Meanwhile the EU itself is in hot water with the same team of investigators!

Back in December last year the EU Parliament held a meeting titled: Transparency and Better Regulation which was sponsored by Japan Tobacco International – makers of Logic e-cigs.

With regards to Big Tobacco companies the EU has stated that politicians and indeed Governments should ‘take great care when receiving advice from them’.

Double standards?

Source

Top Politician Calls For Gottlieb To Resign From Pfizer!

Senator Elizabeth Warren is saying what we all think and calling out former FDA supremo Scott Gottlieb for a move to the board of Pfizer saying it “smacks of corruption“.

She’s talking about his extremely lucrative appointment to the board of directors of Big Pharma company Pfizer – direct competitors of the vape industry.

In his final months in office Gottlieb went on an all out attack on vaping in general ending with claims vaping was linked to seizures, something since dismissed by the experts as ridiculous.

I look forward to a response and hope Dr. @ScottGottliebMD will rectify his mistake & resign from his position at @Pfizer. It would send a strong message about the importance of integrity of current & former federal officials. pic.twitter.com/6JhGfSutAX

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 2, 2019

Senator Warren has written a strongly worded letter to Gottlieb saying:

This kind of revolving door influence-peddling smacks of corruption, and makes the American people rightly cynical and distrustful about whether high-level Trump administration officials are working for them, or for their future corporate employers.

I don’t particularly agree with much of the Senator’s general politics, but once again vaping makes for strange bedfellows lol.

In reply Gottlieb tweeted:

While I was at FDA, I had a productive relationship with Senator Warren, working together to advance shared public health goals.

I respect the Senator, and I will respond to her letter that I received today from reporters promptly, directly, and privately.

One highly doubts he’ll give up the job given wages and stock options combined make for a very tasty package.

Source

Smoking Rates Fall As E-Cigs Take Over

New stats from the NHS shows a steep fall in the number of smokers in England and a rise in vaping.

The Statistics on Smoking England: 2019 was released yesterday and also points to a drop in young people smoking.

The numbers also proves that kids trying a vape definitely doesn’t lead to them taking up smoking.

I’ve written an article on the study containing much more info: Smoking Rates Plummet As E-Cigarette Use Rises Says NHS Report

High End Lamborghini Themed E-Cig Pics Leaked

Weeks before the launch of a new and extremely expensive e-cigarette designed by Tonino Lamborghini, leaked photos have appeared on numerous websites.

The e-cigs – that look like pod kits – are a joint collaboration with world renowned design group and social media experts Yedao Holding.

I say expensive, there appears to be two versions – the Standard and the Special Edition – the latter featuring an 18 carat gold finish!

Will be very interesting to see how these perform and I’m sure the petrol heads on the vape scene will be getting all revved up over these – especially our Michelle!

Source

VPZ Expansion Continues

VPZ is currently the largest vape retailer in the UK and has plans to get even bigger.

They currently have 125 vape shops dotted around the country and have unveiled plans to open up 200 more creating 1,000 jobs and almost trebling their presence.

VPZ’s director, Doug Mutter, said:

These plans will treble the size of our business by the end of 2021.

There are currently 3 million vapers in the UK market and that is continuing to grow fast, so we need to grow fast ourselves to meet that high demand.

The company says it will be specifically targeting Wales and the South East with jobs including marketing and mixology up for grabs.

Doug also commented on the San Francisco vape ban saying:

I can’t see anything similar happening here because the UK government has a much better stance.

The regulations over here are reasonable, and in fact, we’ve helped to drive a ‘Challenge 25’ policy for UK vaping retailers which has been backed by the Vaping Industry Association.

Indeed 😉

JUUL Launches HUGE UK Ad Campaign

Love ’em or hate ’em JUUL is here and about to roll out a massive UK wide advertising campaign.

The company has targeted the country’s main cities and the ads will be featuring testimonials from 5 former smokers who were able to make the switch using the JUUL pod kit.

The cities targeted are London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, Newcastle and Belfast and began on July 1st running for 3 months and include billboards and signs on bus shelters.

Managing director of Juul Labs UK, Dan Thompson said:

The ex-smokers featured in our testimonial campaign share their personal stories and the role that Juul has played in helping them transition away from combustible cigarettes.

Key reasons for switching included more social inclusion, no lingering smell and financial benefits, which I am convinced will resonate with a high number of adult smokers.

As someone who smoked for 20 years and tried to give up on numerous occasions, only managing to switch using Juul, I am incredibly moved by this campaign and excited about the potential it offers to inspire large numbers of the UK’s 7.4 million adult smokers to follow their lead and make the switch.

Via: JUUL Labs UK Press Release