Reclaiming Vaping - Rise of the Adults
By MIT Brickman
We win, that’s what now.
Between Governor Jerry Brown signing the controversial tobacco bills into law in California – which opens vaping up to unsustainable regulation, criticism, and taxation in the most vape-active state in the country – and the FDA injecting a slow-acting but definitely fatal poison directly into the jugular of the nation’s vaping industry, it seems that we may have lost the battle to ensure longer lives and better health for millions of cigarette smokers.
If I can interrupt your wailing and gnashing of teeth for a moment, I beg you to consider a different perspective. It’ll be worth it.
What I see in the middle of this platter of steaming garbage (that has been served up on both the state and federal levels) is a big, glittering diamond. We have been given a gift.
In making no concessions to the vaping industry, and subsequently raising a tall middle finger to the citizens of this great country who have found improved health, happiness, and quality of life by moving from cigarettes to vaping, the government has guaranteed two things.
One. That the adults will now take over the vapor industry. Millennials, hobbyists, hipsters, and high school kids trying to push the 300 watt barrier just don’t have the intestinal fortitude for what’s coming. Many shops will close, convention centers will sit empty, vape trick competitions will disappear, and there will be the odd hissing sound of wringing hands coming from parents’ basements nationwide. The end of the current vaping industry is at hand. But if you read my post here – then you already know that it’s not a bad thing.
I worked for many years in the air medical industry; those brave folks who fly critically ill and injured people on helicopters. And I can tell you that the only industry more heavily regulated than healthcare is aviation. So why not mix them together and see what happens! I’ll tell you what happens – it becomes a constant (daily) struggle between governmental intrusion (usually fueled by ignorance and/or greed) and trying to make enough money to keep flying. You talk about protracted PR and lobbying battles – the e-cigarette and vaping world actually has had it easy. Well, until now.
So why do people in air medical keep getting up every day and fighting – after all, you can make significantly more money in numerous other industries? Because it’s the right thing to do. Human lives matter and fighting against bureaucracy to keep people alive and with their families is a damn compelling mission.
But it takes adults who can play the game. And I can tell you, those folks only show up when there is a compelling mission endangered by inappropriate, ignorant, and destructive resistance (sound like anything else you know?).
Truly successful people relish ‘unwinnable’ challenges, especially when the outcome is ultimately beneficial to humanity.
And two. The eighty-five plus percent of Americans fatigued by continuous governmental intrusion are now primed to come around. Start pushing the messages that I recommended here and hammer the social proof of the benefits associated with vaping over cigarette smoking, and you will find exponential traction in the critical public arena.
If you are depressed or defeated over the massive anti-vaping developments in these past couple of days, I’d suggest you either get over it quickly or get out of the way. The people who are going to win this fight for the benefit of public health worldwide are about to step up, and this is going to get ugly, frustrating, expensive, and amazing from this point on.
In conclusion I will go back to what I said in part 1:
There is good news though. Great news, in fact. Victor Hugo once wrote, On résiste à l’invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l’invasion des idées – commonly paraphrased as no one can resist an idea whose time has come. No government, no politician, and no industry.
It just got real.