Friday 3 November 2017

Vaping Solutions: An Easy Brexit Win


In recent weeks I've written about the ridiculous unintended consequences of the TPD towards vaping.

In August it was noteworthy at Vapefest that vendors were not selling pre-mixed e-liquid, but instead - because no-one wants to buy a whole load of 10ml bottles - were shifting large amounts of flavour concentrates to be mixed at home.
Instead of pharma-grade nicotine being mixed in sterile conditions with professional equipment, it is now being mixed in houses and flats using a Kenwood Chef and nicotine stored in domestic freezers, in whatever bottles are available, by people with varying levels of competence at mixing DIY juice.
And just the other day, I pointed out that the TPD had also led to an explosion in flavours which are free of scrutiny.
My spies at Vape Expo tell me that there has been a noticeable uptick in nic free short fills from countries like the USA and Malaysia where no standards apply and there is absolutely no control on what is in them. So what the fucking morons who devised the TPD have created is a market where vapers are buying black market nicotine from China and mixing in their kitchen, or walking around with a bottle of nicotine and a bottle of flavouring - the contents of which they have no clue about - and mixing themselves when they never wanted to before. Precisely what the myopic cretins in 'public health' wanted to avoid.
It is pretty clear that far from making the market safer, ideological and pathetic meddling by tobacco control - towards a product which they knew the sum total of fuck all about - has led to the potential for more harm rather than less.

The instinct of regulators like the cretinous faux 'experts' in tobacco control will no doubt be to install even more pathetic regulations which, in turn, will inevitably lead to even more unintended consequences. There is a better way though, and it will present itself in March 2019 thanks to Brexit.

Today the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has released a report entitled "Vaping solutions: An easy Brexit win" stating exactly that. I highly recommend you give it a read as it is a beacon of common sense emerging from the carnage of 5 years of retarded interference from tobacco controllers who don't know one end of an atomiser from the other.

As author Chris Snowdon sums up in his report ...
The TPD was a solution looking for a problem that did not exist. The vaping market functioned better under the relatively laissez-faire regime that preceded it than it has since. The sooner it returns to its previous state, the better for the health, prosperity and liberty of the nation.
Indeed. It's important to note that the vacant policy that vaping manufacturers and retailers have to abide by is not only restrictive, anti-competitive and wasteful, it is also damaging to the health of the public.

It is exactly such EU stupidity and over-reach that Brexit should be fixing. Repealing these dangerous and incompetent regulations - created by ideologues and career anti-nicotine hate-preachers - should be one of the first things that we do once we leave the EU.

It is easy to do, doesn't require primary legislation, and is backed by sane politicians and pragmatic health practitioners alike. It will certainly be met with a collective "meh" by the vast majority of the public and the only objections will come from screaming bigots, anti-social snobs and clueless fat Irish professors or Marxist moon-howlers from the north west.

It's an easy post-Brexit win and we should grab it with both hands. Do go read the IEA report here



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