Electronic Cigarette Company Call For Cigarettes to Be Banned

In an advert Jason Cropper of the electronic cigarette company has called for tobacco products to be banned during the MHRA’s consultation.

Will the RT Hon Andy Burnham ban all Tobacco products on 21st June 2010?

The MHRA, the Nation’s Health Regulators, have created for Mr Burnham a golden opportunity to ban ALL tobacco products for good on the 21st June.

This would save 1 life every 6 minutes in the UK.

The MHRA’s consultation paper MLX 364 claims that every product containing nicotine should be classed as a medicine, and therefore should fall under their regulatory framework. In essence they want to regulate for only one reason, to ban electronic cigarettes.

The Electronic Cigarette’s increasing popularity as an alternative recreational delivery system seems to offend the MHRA’s pay-masters, the Large Pharmaceutical Companies.

The public is unaware that the revolutionary electronic cigarette, a fantastic recreational nicotine delivery system, is to be banned on the 21st June.

As an act of appeasement, they have cobbled together a seriously flawed consultation document MLX 364. This document attempts to class all nicotine containing products – whether recreationally or medicinally used – as medicines. And ban the lot on the 21st June.

Tobacco Cigarettes do contain nicotine. Andy Burnham should ban them while he has the chance.

Banning Cigarettes?

I am not sure whether Jason seriously thinks cigarettes should be banned.

Our position on the Ashtray Blog  is that in a free country people should have the right to do what they choose, even though what they choose is harmful to themselves. That’s individual liberty. If we start banning things based on the fact they are dangerous we’d have to ban fast food, skiing, crossing the road and so on. Life’s dangerous and the risks we take should be decided by ourselves and not by our government.

Problems with the MHRA Consultation Document

However, Jason makes one very good point. If the MHRA is able to regulate products as medicine based on the fact they contain nicotine, they will also be able to regulate cigarettes. Cigarettes, of course, would not achieve medicinal status as they are too dangerous, and would hence be banned.

Interestingly, the same move would see some vegetables classed as medicine. A 100 grammes of aubergine, for example, contains the same amount of nicotine as you would get in three hours of passive smoking!

The potential regulatory implications on cigarettes, of course, was one of the reasons that Judge Leon struck down the FDA’s attempt to regulate the electronic cigarette in the US.

(When I pointed this out to the MHRA in a telephone conversation, they said but of course what happens in America has no effect here. However, they had no problem in using the FDA’s flawed press release as evidence for the need for regulation as a medicine in their consultation document!)

Tags: cigarettes, electronic cigarette company, mhra

Related posts:

1. Why do the MHRA want to regulate the electronic cigarette? (And why fags are next!)
2. UK Government: Electronic Cigarettes Save Lives & Money
3. The MHRA, Judge Leon and the FDA
4. The FDA, The MHRA and the Electronic Cigarette
5. Banned

cigarettes, electronic cigarette company, mhra news