Nick O'Teen – The Gremlin in the Evil Weed

Recent exchanges in Social Media have highlighted the general perception of many non-smokers of the role of nicotine as being the key to tobacco addiction. Don’t get me wrong here; there is virtually total understanding by open-minded people that it is the tar and other carcinogenic chemicals from smoking tobacco that does the damage to human health. That message has been successfully rammed home over many years by Tobacco Control, The Media, etc.

However, nicotine and smoking have become inextricably linked by the 50 year fight of Tobacco Control to lower smoking prevalence. Not surprisingly, as a direct consequence of this activity, nicotine has been ‘fingered’ as the culprit responsible as the addictive component that makes stopping smoking so difficult. In the mind of the non-smoking public, nicotine is the reason that people start and continue smoking and the reason that cannot easily stop. In addition, for many individuals, nicotine itself is seen as a threat to health despite all the strong evidence to the contrary.

In order for the safer alternatives to smoking, that we know and love, to become acceptable to non-smokers, a mountain will be need to be climbed to change perceptions and attitudes of the majority in society, including many existing tobacco smokers.

So how do we decouple nicotine use from smoking tobacco in the minds of most people in society?

That, as they say, is the $64,000 question!

If we were in Tobacco Control (and wielded that sort of power and cash), we would immediately leap to the tried and trusted methods that have served us so well in the past:

 

·         Science

·         Pseudo-science

·         Education

·         PR

·         Control measures

·         More control measures

·         Even more control measures

 

You get the idea.

But is there another way? Is there a THIRD way? (Where have I heard that before?)

 

I wish I knew the answer to that question, but I have some ideas:

 

• What if every Vaper managed to persuade at least 10 non-smokers by whatever method available to them, of the fundamental difference between consuming nicotine as a recreation and smoking tobacco?

• What if Vapers collectively, via a single global organisation (or a united network of sole national organisations), took the same message of persuasion to Governments, Policy-making Bodies, The Media, Health Professionals, etc?

The British Labour Party was born in the 20^th Century from the needs of workers (via their Unions) to not only organise to negotiate collectively with their employers, but to represent their interests in the national political sphere.
 

We Vapers only really have one overriding interest. To ensure that non-smokers understand that nicotine, if properly used, is not harmful and is absolutely nothing to do with smoking tobacco,

Butterfly On A Wheel (Again)

Having been a relatively new convert to 'Vaping', since January 2014, the good news of my release from a 50 year sentence of smoking cigarettes (I wus innocent, 'onest Guvnor!), has been shattered by the swift realisation that my long awaited parole will shortly be scuppered by the 'Establishment'.

It appears that there are dark forces abroad that are determined that I will be returned to the slammer for the crime of 'gaining early release without prior authorisation'. My Probation Officer (Stan Glands) has informed me that by the illicit use of an e-cigarette (or vapour tank, in my case), I have contravened a number of The Regulations, namely:

1. Obtaining a pecuniary advantage in extending my life by a good few years
2. Fraudulently 'normalising' the grossly indecent act of SMOKING in public by not smoking
3. Deceptively using certain harmless chemicals in combination to produce a visible mist that closely resembles SMOKE but does no harm to anyone or anything. However, because it does resemble SMOKE it therefore must 're-normalise' the grossly indecent act of SMOKING in public by not smoking
4. Committing the obscenity of using FLAVOURS within the aforesaid harmless chemicals, which will attract The Children to look upon the SMOKE and corrupt them away from their sado-masochistic computer games, online porn, internet gambling, underage binge drinking and soft/hard drug use towards a 'Gateway' into not smoking cigarettes and avoiding early death and disease
5. Stealing money from The Tobacco Companies, The Pharmaceutical Companies and HM Government by not: buying cigarettes, using nicotine replacement therapy, paying tobacco duty and dying early

So it seems that if I continue to Vape my fate will be sealed by the full force of the Establishment bearing down on me and treating me as a criminal junkie and modern day Pied Piper. The use of nicotine is apparently as addictive as crystal meth unless, strangely, the nicotine is in a medically regulated product, whereupon it transforms itself to become safe for long-term use as an expensive and ineffective harm reduction tool.

So who is this Establishment that I speak of?

The Establishment then includes the following (but not exclusively):

• The World Health Organisation
• The European Union
• The Pharmaceutical Companies
• The Tobacco Companies
• The 'Doctors': MRHA, NICE, BMA etc. (i.e., the ones who have taken the 'Hypocrites Oath')
• The Nice Tobacco Control People in Public Health
• Dept of Health
• Caerphilly Council
• My Probation Officer

These particular people/institutions above are preparing to end my nascent Vaping adventure by bringing their, not inconsiderable weight (especially that of my Probation Officer), to bear on me and approximately 2.1 million other UK citizens.

Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?