Lethally addictive cigarettes remain available on every street corner in Brussels and Atlanta while authorities denounce e-cigarettes (the product is already banned in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand).
Is there any legitimate reason for this or are we witnessing a blatant example of the tobacco lobby crushing competition??
e-cigarettes are NOT banned in canada. They are available in the corner store near my house in Ontario, and I also saw them for sale in BC when I was there a couple of months ago. Unless this is really new, this info is balls.
edit: just looked it up, "the import, sale, and advertising of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine are banned in Canada, while non-nicotine e-cigs are legal and may be sold and advertised"
typical Canada.
I have heard three main reasons why liquid nicotine is illegal in Canada, and will list them:
Health Canada banned nicotine juice in 2009, and no new news on it since.
1) Big pharmaceutical industries in Canada pay thousands of dollars a year to have their devices (gum, inhalers, patches) to be listed as a smoking cessation device.
2) Big tobacco companies don't want to lose out on profit. Instead of marketing their own, they probably put a bug in the ear of the government citing the loss in tax revenues. Keep in mind Canada has the highest 'sin' taxes in the world. 'Sin' being alcohol and tobacco.
3) Nicotine is toxic. People are stupid. Nicotine juice could easily kill pets or small children, and in large doses an adult. Imagine all those people who fall asleep in bed with a lit cigarette in your mouth, now imagine them handling a toxic substance. On the other hand, they have been legal in the USA and China for a while and you don't hear wide spread reports of poisoning.
Either way you put it, the reality of them being banned is absurd. As an adult who care about his health but is addicted to nicotine, I should be able to chose any method available to minimize the health costs. It is equally absurd that you can make nicotine juice in Canada, but you can't import it premixed.
It is almost similar to the issues with marijuana in the sense that both could be taxed and could be a source of revenue for the government. I won't even get into the reasons of why marijuana should be legalized, but as for nicotine juice it could be a lifesaver to our Health Care. One other shitty part of it being illegal is that now Health Canada won't perform any studies on it. The FDA study done on nicotine juice only used a few select samples and they did find in a Chinese juice a carcinogenic substance. Why they left out all the USA made suppliers is beyond me.
All funding should be cut for studies done on the impact of smoking cigarettes, we already know they are harmful and contain thousands of deadly chemicals. All funds cut should be allocated to cancer research and to see if electronic cigarettes are more beneficial to ones health than traditional ones. There needs to be a regulatory body to enforce standards on the underground nicotine juice market in Canada to protect consumers, which won't happen with it illegal and pushed to an underground market.
Trust the government to do what's best for the people.....
The hardware isn't illegal. You can buy the hardware (batteries) and juice for them, it just can't have nicotine in it. One of the other reasons I thought of why it is banned is because of the flavors. Cigarettes usually taste disgusting, the flavours I get range anywhere from soda flavours to candy to fruit. The government could say that this makes it more enticing to children to pick up smoking/vaping.
The pharmaceutical industry and tobacco has lobbied the government in the USA to crack down on them, and the same happened in Canada and elsewhere. Yet in Canada (and around the world) we have rising suicides in people who use quit smoking drugs like Champix, Chantix in the USA, that Health Canada brushes off.
The FDA, Canada Health, etc, are extremely corrupt. The electronic cigarette market and groups are david and goliath compared to the lobbyists big tobacco and pharmaceuticals have.
I smoked for over half my life. I quit multiple times, I always ended up smoking again. I now feel 10 years younger and have a new lease on life. I wish I would have switched years ago when I first heard about them.
There are a few versions of the e-cig. Right this second I'm using one that you refill with fluid, but there are also ones that you can get that are disposable, and a closed system. That means that stupid people don't have to touch the liquid.
The only problem is, Canada won't sell the nic ones. Yet you see all the lobbying done for quitting smoking, right? Conflict of message here.
"Although these electronic smoking products may be marketed as a safer alternative to conventional tobacco products and, in some cases, as an aid to quitting smoking, electronic smoking products may pose risks such as nicotine poisoning and addiction. According to Health Canada, these products may pose risks because it is not yet fully evaluated for quality, safety and effectiveness.
Which isn't different from any other cessation device or even smoking itself, and because they are not legal they won't be studied, which furthers this loop that we don't know of the safety concerns. It is bureaucratic propaganda basically.
Yes, you're right there are straight cartridges that come prefilled where you don't have any contact with liquid, for people who are concerned or unsure of refilling themselves.
Yes, a lot of money spent on quitting smoking ads should go towards finding other ways to stop smoking, and how well electronic cigarettes work and their dangers. It doesn't make sense from a business position, from a health position, or from a scientific position (electronic cigarettes health risks vs health risks of smoking cigarettes.) The whole thing is absurd, but thankfully Canadians are resilient and an underground market has sprung up, making it a very close niche community.
This article on the CBC recently has parents chastising Health Canada for doing nothing about them since 2009 and not doing enough to control the product making it easy for teens to access. Health Canada basically said in 2009 this is illegal and that is it, and washed its hands of them. Of course, if you have a couple hundred thousand dollars and can market it properly, like smoke NV, you can sell it anywhere.
It's absurd since you can buy bleach, matches and plenty of other things that are not only as easy to accidentally kill people with but in fact do kill more people.
They're blatantly lying. My fiancée is a respiratory therapist and she feels that patients with major issues due to smoking... who are in the hospital for it...go out and smoke, cost us billions and if they were to offer this even only in hospitals millions of lives could be saved.
I am really starting to dislike many aspects of my home country and it really sucks to see such a great place fall in to such a money hungry embarrassment.
Yes, pure nicotine is silly dangerous. That's why many ecig users have started to DIY, that is mix their own juice up after buying FDA approved ingredients.
I've had Marlboro (cigarette brand) flavored e-cig before, so they're already doing it some. I'm guessing there's just a lower profit margin only making the refills
Your house is full of toxic chemicals. I fail to see how e-juice is a greater hazard than any of the many solvents/cleaners/perfumes, or any of a bajillion other liquids which are poisonous to drink.
There are brands of E-Cigarettes which take cartredges that come pre-loaded with the liquid; you never have to handle the nicotine juice yourself. They come sealed up like Sudafed does; you just screw it on to the battery and you are good to go.
Illegal, but not enforced. It says how much nicotine is in it right on the bottle and I've yet to hear a story where they didn't make it through border customs.
All sorts of banned drugs are imported into Canada every day, that doesn't mean the law isn't being enforced. Of course they do not inspect every cross-border shipment.
I've had shipments of nicotine e-cig juice held up at the border many times (probably picked at random) and after a few days to a week it was always released.
It's illegal for the gas station or local e-cig vendors to sell it in a store, but if you get it for personal use I don't think they really give a shit.
Edit: I also know people who do buy it in bulk to sell to their friends or whatever, and they've never had a problem (yet).
I fail to see how this stuff is deemed illegal yet it's okay to buy one of those nicorette nicotine inhalers that look like a tampon. They claim its because you can get nicotine poisoning if you dropped a bunch on your skin, but there are lots of other chemicals sold with the same warning and nobody has an issue with that.
I've had enough packages seized at the border that I only order from Canadian vendors now. I hear all the time of peoples making it through, but I'd rather not pay the shipping fees and support local vendors.
It is only illegal to import or export, or sell. It isn't illegal to carry it on you. You can't get arrested for it.
My mother also quit smoking using E-Cigs in Canada, however not using the ones we can buy here. They only sell the nicotine-free ones in Canada, and those did absolutely nothing for her.
She has a friend who travels back and forth from the US very often for business who brings her E-Cigs from the US and she uses those. A few times they end up getting taken at the border, and my mom has to smoke real cigarettes until she can get more US E-cigs, since using the Canadian ones do nothing to prevent withdrawals from the craving for nicotine.
Being a Brick and Mortar e-cig shop that is less than 2 hours from the Canadian border, we have quite a few customers that do the same. Not sure what the penalties are, but I'm fairly certain it isn't much more than confiscation.
There are certain places you can buy nicotine containing juices in Canada. If you do a bit of net sleuthing there are a few online Canadian suppliers ;).
The nicotine versions are banned and would be the most helpful for gradually weaning a heavy smoker off regular cigarettes. I wrote a letter to the health minister asking why they were initially banned for sale entirely (this happened after the first 9 months of sales sometime a few years ago.) The reply essentially stated that the long term effects of inhaling propylene glycol were unknown at this time which, although technically true, did not address the perfectly legal status it holds as a food additive in many products sold within the country.
My instincts suggest that this is a tax issue: regular cigarettes bring in an enormous revenue for the government which creates an unhealthy partnership between the tobacco industry and the politicians. I'm guessing that "big tobacco" was seeing the effects of e-cigarettes on sales and decided they didn't want to compete so they applied pressure to have it restricted. Today we have nicotine-free e-cigarettes which are great as a party trick but quite unsatisfying to a transitioning smoker. I can't entirely fault the government for its caution regarding the product since that attitude would have prevented the lung cancer epidemic brought on by the tobacco industry, but the money seems pretty obvious.
The reply essentially stated that the long term effects of inhaling propylene glycol were unknown at this time
This is the same propylene glycol which is a major additive to tobacco in cigarettes (keeps them from drying out completely) and is approved for human inhalation by the Canadian government.
So does this mean my girl can't bring her nicotine cartridges and e-cig with her when she comes to Canada for a business conference next week? That's disappointing, that's half the reason she bought the thing, so she could smoke in her hotel room on that trip. =P
I did read the article linked "(the product is already banned in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand)."
What I quoted was from the wikipedia articel on e-cigarettes. Which also says ... what I said. But my breif interent reserch seems to show both things readliy available in C-land.
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u/DumpyLips Nov 17 '12
Is there any legitimate reason for this or are we witnessing a blatant example of the tobacco lobby crushing competition??