The E Cig Phenomenon
The Charlotte Gore blog has a great post entitlled the E-Cig phenomenon. In the post she argues that e-cigarettes are likely to be banned for three reasons:
- they are against the entranched interests of the tobacco companies
- they will cause a loss of revenue for the government, which makes a fortune from the sin tax on tobacco
- they ‘send the wrong message’ – the goverment wants smoking to be seen as bad, not a method of smoking which is ‘not as bad’
The whole libertarian aspect is very interesting. We actually agree with Charlotte that the e-cigarettes will be banned. However, the justification for banning them is not as strong as banning cigarettes in a public place.
Cigarettes can do harm to other people. However, as soon as you take away the issue of passive smoking, you are impinging upon people’s rights to do as they wish as long as they do not hurt other people. Electronic cigaretes are unhealthy – the negative effects of nicotine are sometimes underestimated in the e-cigarette debate – but they do not do harm to other people. If they are banned, the Government will be reducing smokers of their freedom of choice, and the only benefactors will be the Government’s coffers and the tobacco companies’ share prices.
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Hi there, only just found this link to my blog!
I finally have one of these devices and I have to say I think they’re marvellous. I can’t imagine going back to tobacco now.
To be honest the best defence for this industry would be to get as many people using them as possible and start the horrible work or political lobbying. The companies selling them should seriously consider putting money aside for this battle.
If enough people are using them then the ‘if you ban this product you are condemning people to lung cancer to score a political point’ may be enough.
I think it’s worth considering how much people *hate* passive smoking, too – anti-smokers may actually be useful. By banning e-cigs and keeping tobacco, they’re taking the side of ‘the smokers’ – that’s pretty much all you need to say to put them in an impossible pickle.
Organisations like Liberty may be interested in this if Government tries to introduce any legislation. I think they’d rather just keep things quiet for now, but if Philip Morris donates money to any political parties, start to worry.
In the meantime I say make the most of it while it lasts and I wish this industry the very best of luck.
Thanks for your comment, Charlotte. We see this as a short term thing – I think they will probably be banned in the next few months. As for putting aside money campaign, I don’t think a few small companies can take on the tobacco giants!