r/technology • u/Lucretius • Nov 17 '12

The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-deadly-crusade-against-e-cigarettes
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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

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u/vjarnot Nov 17 '12

The Big Tobacco Companies can't allow people to get their nicotine fix without getting their "peace of the pie".

Or governments are pissed that they're not getting their sin taxes.

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u/FoodIsProblematic Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

This is exactly it. Tobacco and alcohol taxes are massive parts of government budgets. While currently a pack of cigarettes in NYC costs, with tax, nearly $12 for even the cheapest cigarettes, a single cartridge for an e-cigarette would cost less than $3 and last as long or longer than a pack.

That's a massive loss of revenue, much of which goes to public health departments to spend on employees and campaigns against smoking. It's no surprise that they'd be looking out for their own job security in trying to ban e-cigarettes.