This is actually a reference to the CASAA call to action for Maine regarding Maine’s HP 670, but it does make an important point.
What we have been seeing more and more, especially with the general nature of “equivalency” applied to e-cigs and combustion (analog) cigarettes in places like California, is slowly but surely coming to be a reality. Since e-cigs are inherently, and obviously, different from burning tobacco the only way to force the equivalence is to pump-up the demand for taxes that change the legal language at its most vulnerable.
As taxes are pushed a particular way, they set a particular precedent for the interpretation of things. Tax law, especially in the United States, can literally convert sh*t into gold if worded properly — or even the other way around.
Stop this nonsense! And be on the lookout for similar legislation in your state. The political problem of vapes and e-cigs isn’t purely one about money or health. Likely there’s a deeper issue. I don’t know about the addiction aspect being the driving force behind all the hand-wringing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has more to do with public display of enjoyment.
For more on political correctness, and even a neat mention about e-cigs, check out renowned philosopher Slavoj Zizek here…
For example, one example that I like and let’s not have a misunderstanding here. I don’t smoke and I’m for punishing tobacco companies and so on and so on. But I’m deeply suspicious about our phobia about smoking. I don’t buy it that this can be really justified just based on scientific knowledge how cigarettes hurt us and so on and so on. Because my first problem is that most of the people who oppose smoking then usually are for legalization of grass and so on and so on. But my basic problem is this one. Look, now they found a more or less solution – e-cigarettes, electronic cigarettes. And I discovered that now big American airline companies decided to prohibit them. And it’s interesting to read the reason why. The reason is not so much that it’s not yet sure are they safe or not. Basically they are. The idea is that if you smoke during the flight e-cigarette you publicly display your addiction and that is not a good pedagogical example for others and so on and so on.