N.B. I am not Davy

electrofag

The sale of any nicotine containing products (NCPs) may be banned in the UK from June, except for those certain products that contain tobacco of course. The sale of electronic cigarettes for medicinal purposes is already prohibited, but the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is moving to classify nicotine as a medicine itself in a twisted effort to ban electronic cigarettes completely. In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already banned their sale pending further research.

Although I am not a smoker myself, this recent attempt at product regulation by the bureaucratic bansturbators of this country affects me personally. You see, my mother is a heavy smoker. Now in her fifties, she has been smoking since she was fourteen and she practically chain smokes all day, every day.

Being interested in new technologies, she had read about the invention of electronic cigarettes in China several years ago. This was enough to pique her curiosity, but it was still a while before they found their way into the global market. For those who are unaware, the electronic cigarette is a device that simulates a real cigarette very effectively. Inside the device, a small lithium-ion battery is used to vaporise a liquid nicotine juice so that it can be inhaled. Some devices are activated on suction, but most are operated with a small button on the side that is held down just before inhaling. Crucially, there is no tobacco or tar in the product and the smoke itself is actually not smoke at all but is mostly just harmless water vapour.

About a year ago, an accident in the family meant that my mum had to spend extended periods of time in the hospital where she was obviously not able to smoke. Purely by coincidence, it was inside the NHS hospital itself that she saw an advert for the sale of electronic cigarettes in the UK. It was being heavily marketed as a way to legally smoke indoors due to the recent ban on smoking in public places.

My mum had already tried all of the government licensed alternatives to smoking, such as nicotine patches and nicotine gum. These are even available over the counter, but needless to say they don’t work very well. From her own accounts they don’t even help to alleviate the craving, let alone help to kick the physical habit of holding a cigarette between your fingers, inhaling the smoke and feeling it hit the back of your throat. The gum apparently tastes absolutely disgusting too.

It is important to note, however, that my mum had no intention or desire to give up smoking. She bought an electro-fag mainly out of curiosity, but also as a potential means to alleviate her craving for a cigarette in those areas where she is not allowed to smoke. Imagine her own surprise then at having barely even touched a real cigarette since. In-fact, the only time she has smoked a real cigarette since buying an electo-fag was on the run up to last Christmas when the postal strike occurred and she did not receive her replacement nicotine liquid. At that time she also mentioned to me how horrible the things tasted to her now, compared to the flavoured nicotine juices you can buy.

My mum still doesn’t think of herself as a non-smoker though. After all, she has gone from chain smoking real fags to chain smoking electro-fags. But now the government is going to force her to switch back to chain smoking real fags after having not even touched them for over a year. This is all supposedly for her own benefit, of course; she can’t make that decision for herself. They will argue she can still use nicotine patches, but she doesn’t even want to quit smoking in the first place! That was not the reason she bought an electro-fag!

Electronic cigarettes have been picked up by a few UK libertarian bloggers, like Leg-iron. As it happens, Leg-iron started using them because of my mum, who left an anonymous comment on his blog. Leg-iron, however, still smokes real fags in addition to smoking electro-fags; the one merely complimenting the other for use in different circumstances. And unlike with my mum, this seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

So these devices are not being principally used by those wishing to give up smoking. They are mainly being sold as a reaction to the government ban on smoking in public places. The real reason the government is moving to ban electro-fags is because they are being used to openly flout their bullshit act of bansturbation in the first place. The government doesn’t like that one bit; they are all about instilling obedience and controlling people.

Of course, the bureaucrats in charge don’t think of this in terms of an outright ban but instead as a public safety measure. Only until the manufacturers of such products jump through their hoops, spend millions of pounds and undertake years of excruciating research will they be licensed as safe for general consumption. Because you see, you don’t own your own body; the government does. You can’t decide to take that risk for yourself, so you’ll have to go back to smoking. Again, it’s all about having control.

Of course, it’s effectively a ban because no company can afford to jump through these arbitrary hoops right now. Watch John Stossel: Stay Out of my Meds! for more examples of how these types of insane policies affect millions of people negatively. The individuals in question are the only people who can decide what risks they’re willing to take.

That’s why I sympathise with these small companies in the UK who are selling electronic cigarettes and nicotine juice. The government is effectively forcing them out of business. But when they make retarded statements like this, you really have to wonder what side they are on. The side of freedom or the side of authoritarianism? How about we all just put down the fucking gun for a change, instead of arguing amongst ourselves over who it should be pointed at? Because the reality is that the gun is pointed at all of us.

— Jack Whitehead