Vapers will be laughing on the other side of their faces if smoking and vaping are ONE.

This is a strange expression, often heard in the form: "You'll be laughing on the other side of your face [when X happens]."
Its meaning is straightforward enough. To laugh on (or out of) the other side of your face (or the wrong side of your face, or mouth) is to experience a humbling reversal of fortune – to have your happiness or amusement change to sadness, annoyance, hurt, disappointment, etc. There is often an implication that the change is deserved.

Maybe its because I am old and a child of the smoking age and I have watched how the world has changed from an optimistic, relaxed place, to a society that is tense with fear, that I have been fast tracked through my vaping euphoria. Like every other vaper, I felt SO delighted when I first found I loved vaping. I realised that vaping allowed me to "smoke" anywhere. In those days, Vapemail came with little cards that actually said "It is legal to vape anywhere".

I got fast-tracked the very moment I was told (by my daughter) that her local pub would not allow vaping because "it would normalise smoking". I realised that others saw vaping as smoking and I was not free from the righteousness of those who disapproved. Smokers and vapers are one and the same thing.

I feel like a smoker that vapes. I am an ANGRY smoker. Standing outside with smokers and vaping with smokers, only offends me in so much as smokers are treated shamefully.

Following vaping blogs and comments on the internet, I saw stuff appearing there that really depressed me. Vapers were re-gurgitating all the crap that Tobacco Control wanted them to believe. They thought of themselves as "non smokers" and complained about second hand smoke, the smell of cigarettes, the smell of smokers and called cigarettes "stinkies".

Warning bells started ringing in my head. I realised that WE didn't think of ourselves as smoking when we vaped. But others could see that smoking and vaping was ONE.

I have written many posts pointing out that no respect/consideration for smokers is OUR problem.  In my life, I have seen, how evil the Tobacco Control Movement has developed into. I think we can see, as vapers, that they are able to twist anything anyway that suits them. Am I right? Well, THAT is what they have done about smoking and smokers.

I personally am cynical about any "statistic" that has ever been published about smokers and smoking. I know that when my husband dies, or I die, because we smoked - once - our deaths will be recorded as a smoking-related deaths. This is evil. It is not science. Smoking related death statistics are simply a guesstimate.

The science on Second Hand Smoke is even worse. The first report to the World Health Organisation was concealed, because it was not what was expected, In fact it showed benefits, especially for asthma in children living in smoking homes. Since then, the SHS issue has still not been settled. Last year a new study on cancer and SHS was published in USA without conclusive results they were wishing for.

The whole banning of smoking indoors was introduced to "protect" workers from SHS. It was introduced on extremely dodgy science - what one could say, sacrificing science for ideology.

Tobacco Control have progressed to even advocating bans outside - that can have nothing to do with SHS. Tobacco Control is not about health - it's about having a "smokefree" world. It has foamed itself into a fervour - a religious cult even. It has money, wealth and power. It is NOT our friend. Don't buy into the cult!

If you are anti-smoking you are destroying us vapers - you are sleeping with the enemy.

I had a chuckle reading this spoof article -

Smoking in public before 8 p.m. to be illegal starting July 1

But THE ACTUAL legislation is this - and it's not very funny....

Reminder: Changes to smoking legislation take effect July 1

Effective July 1:

Under the Smoke-Free Places Act smoking and vaping will not be permitted:

• on patios and all similar outdoor public facilities where food and/or alcohol is served and within three metres of the patio’s boundary;

• within nine metres of doorways, windows and air intakes of enclosed public places and indoor workplaces;

• on or within 20 metres of children’s equipment and sports areas located in an outdoor public place;

• on or within nine metres of a public walking or jogging trail in an outdoor public place; and

• within the boundaries of provincial parks except within the boundaries of rented campsites, golf courses and designated areas within the park.

Under the Tobacco Sales Act the following measures will come into effect:

• a ban on the sale of e-cigarettes and their liquids to persons under 19 years of age;

• vapour shops will have age and promotion restrictions;

• the sale of smoking supplies to minors will be prohibited and these supplies will be hidden from sight. This will include rolling papers, blunt wraps, cigarette filters, cigarette holders and pipes; and

• product displays and advertising inside a tobacconist shop or a vapour shop will not be allowed to be visible from the outside, and outside advertisement will be prohibited.

Effective January 1, 2016, flavoured tobacco, including menthol, will not be sold in New Brunswick. Waiting until January gives store owners time to sell flavoured tobacco products they currently have in stock.

The changes will affect restaurant owners and other businesses; municipalities; landlords; government buildings; establishments that sell tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and their liquids; and individuals who smoke or vape.

Operators of businesses and facilities that are frequented by the public and affected by these changes are encouraged to use signage to assist with this transition. The following No Vaping/Smoking Posters are available for download:

You will see that Smoking and Vaping are legislated as ONE.

Smokefree is Vapefree too.

Big Tobacco - friend or foe to vapers?

I recently was sent a device to review from Blu, called the Blu Pro. A 950 mAh lithium battery, a safe charger and a tank. A TANK! The whole thing was nicely made, well packed and idiot proof - and not expensive. They are on sale in many shops and tobacconists across the UK. I felt they were a most reasonable introductory device for smokers buying their cigarettes at the thousands of tobacco outlet counters that exist here.

Blu has recently been obtained by Imperial Tobacco, who have placed the brand into their Netherlands based subsidiary Fontem Ventures. It is Fontem which flies Hon Lik round the world to talk about his inspiration for the e-cigarette. Fontem promotes electronic cigarettes in opposition to Imperial Tobacco. So many "experts" in the public health community in the UK believe Big Tobacco is using e-cigarettes with the covert objective of renormalising smoking.

I have thought that the devices produced so far by Fontem, the Puritane in the UK, and Jai in France, cig-a-likees - first generation e-cigarettes were what Big Tobacco have been lobbying to have "medicine status" for. Big Tobacco seem to be working against vapers by supporting med-regs. We have felt they are as against us as the anti-smoking groups are. It's a plot. 

So I was surprised to get a 2nd generation device in the mail.

Article 20 of the Tobacco Control Directive soon under discussion in the UK, will stop vaping as we know it. The E U's revised Tobacco Products Directive coming into effect May 2016 for e-cigarettes includes a ban on advertising, limits on liquid container sizes, warnings covering 30% of the pack, and the strong concentrations of nicotine that some of us use, will require authorisation by MHRA as over-the-counter medicines in the UK. The new regulations will affect all aspects of vaping and, despite our protests, I expect the worst. Some regulations show that Big Antis are dreaming - like -

Uniform Dosing -  Users should receive consistent nicotine delivery when they use an e-cigarette. Devices should be designed to ensure that the same puff, for example 5 seconds consuming 0.003ml liquid, always delivers the same amount of nicotine. Link

I felt that the device put out by Blu was quite different to any of the other "electronic cigarettes" Big Tobacco have offered to date. It's a Second Generation vapouriser. I felt that a smoker topping up with cigarettes, would easily buy one to try. It is good enough to be satisfying. For smokers that won't go into a Vape Shop, or for those who spontaneously feel the time to quit is "NOW", a well made device on the counter promotes a good thing.

I disagree with Hon Lik who said “By using the existing distribution channels of the tobacco companies to tobacconists, maybe it is the best way for consumers to access e-cigarettes.” 

But I would say “By using the existing distribution channels of the tobacco companies to tobacconists, IS the best way for current SMOKERS to access nicotine vapourisers.” 

Unlike many people, I do not hate Big Tobacco and blame them for making me smoke, nor blame Big Alcohol for turning me into an alcoholic, or Big Food for making me fat. I think the dishonesty about smoking from Big Tobacco has just about been equalled by Tobacco Control about the harms of of SHS and now, of vaping. 

If Big Tobacco is moving out into proper second generation devices, they too will have to conform to Article 20. They will either be a vaper's friend with clout, and money (useful in a corrupt system) that might influence the mess coming out of the European Union, or foe, by nefariously usurping the vaping status quo. 

What do you think? Discussion welcome!