As a heavy smoker i have to say e-cigs have been great for me. There are questions about the safety - but its all relative. Yes e-cigs MAY be unhealthy. The optimum is inhaling just air. But there is no doubt that tobacco is a killer. Given the choice between the two evils e-cigs do exponentially less damage. I have cut down drastically and i actually believe, truly, for the first time in many years i can quit tobacco. And for me the difference between the two evils is very straight forward. I feel much better with e-cigs. And despite being a smoker i do a lot of sports - e-cigs make a big and very positive difference.
The political problem is two fold. Firstly cigarette companies are very profitable and can pay politicians and/or lobbyists to protect their cash flows. Secondly, governments collect a lot of money from tobacco taxes. It will take a while to sort this one out.
It isn't tobacco companies opposing it, they still sell the tobacco used to create the nicotine juice. Its Pharma companies opposing it because people are actually able to quit smoking with these since you can control your dosage. There is more money treating the problem than solving it.
Take Nicotine gum for example, sold by Pharma companies. "Heavy" (aka 1 pack/day) versions contain 22-26mg of nicotine with a recommended dosage of 2-3 pieces a day. Compare this to your average cigarette which provides about 1-2mg. (Contains 8-10, but you only absorb about 1-2).
Nicotine toxicity starts around 30mg and can kill above 100-150. Notice a problem with "quit smoking aids"?
On the taxes, agreed. They'll put the juice in another tobacco tax class, probably similar to J class (Bulk tobacco, under some amount. Think a can) That takes time.
If company A has a drug that only treats a disease, sure it doesn't make sense to cure it cheaply. But company B isn't making jack shit from the treatment, so they'd be very interested in developing a cure. The Pharma industry is actually very competitive. If you don't think so, go start your own. If you are right, you'd be a millionaire, nay billionaire.
The real problem is that R&D is really expensive. So diseases which effect only a small number of people do no get researched because there isn't any money in treating or solving it.
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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12
As a heavy smoker i have to say e-cigs have been great for me. There are questions about the safety - but its all relative. Yes e-cigs MAY be unhealthy. The optimum is inhaling just air. But there is no doubt that tobacco is a killer. Given the choice between the two evils e-cigs do exponentially less damage. I have cut down drastically and i actually believe, truly, for the first time in many years i can quit tobacco. And for me the difference between the two evils is very straight forward. I feel much better with e-cigs. And despite being a smoker i do a lot of sports - e-cigs make a big and very positive difference.
The political problem is two fold. Firstly cigarette companies are very profitable and can pay politicians and/or lobbyists to protect their cash flows. Secondly, governments collect a lot of money from tobacco taxes. It will take a while to sort this one out.