I don't believe that the sudden rash of vaping illnesses and deaths was random. The timing and short duration of the outbreak has a pattern. Vaping has been around for a long time - more than a decade. The recent tragedies-with the media and government hype, has been used as a weapon against vaping. The outbreak was very short, but hurt a lot of young people. Not one long term smoker turned vaper was affected. And almost all who were sickened were young and admitted to using eliquid from black market cartridges with THC from Dank Vapes to try to get high. But the media didn't release that important fact for months. Meanwhile, they and the government - including the CDC - actively warned against all vaping, and have implemented more laws against vaping.
I find it odd that after finally getting to the common denominator of the cause of the deaths and illnesses, the government and media still has not identified who owns Dank, and how that company managed to distribute for only a few months the deadly THC eliquid vape that harmed so many people in such a short amount of time? And Dank was the only company identified? Then it suddenly stopped? And it was national news? If this was a systemic epidemic in the vaping industry, then all distributors would be front and center. But it was only Dank. Out of the hundreds of eliquid vendors, it was just one?
I'm pretty good at tracking down owners of corporations and businesses, but I've had no success in identifying the owners of the one supplier mentioned. And if there were multiple suppliers of the deadly THC vape liquid, it would be published.
VAPING TESTIMONIAL
I smoked for over 50 years and it got to the point where I could barely breathe. I knew I had to quit but I also knew I had no will power to do so. Then 6 years ago I tried vaping and it literally saved my life. I still got my nicotine fix and could finally breathe easier and I was not inhaling all those harmful chemicals. I know taking anything into your lungs is harmful but vaping really is the lesser of two evils. And speaking of evils look at these statistics:
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year
68,557 people died in 2018 of an opioid overdose
in 2017, 39,773 people in the US lost their lives at the point of a gun
In 2016, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes
30,000 deaths were the result of domestic abuse world wide in 2018.
There are 2,200 alcohol poisoning deaths in the US each year.
so in the last year 631,027 died of unnatural causes, extrapolated over six years that is 3,786,162 deaths
1978 to 1995 a total of 37 Americans were killed by falling vending machines
There have been six confirmed deaths connected to vaping across the US
of these two were from lithium batteries exploding and not the vaping itself
and two were from people experimenting by adding dangerous chemicals to their e-cigarettes.
So in reality only two people died due to vaping.
and you pick vaping as a just cause. Really? where are your values and priorities?
more people die each year from choking or acts of stupidity than vaping.
Of all these causes you could get behind why are you picking the least dangerous and offensive one? I think it's time people learned to pick their battles.
so, 480,000 deaths by cigarettes and why doesn't the government care? Here's why, because for every smoker that dies a new smoker starts. And tobacco is such a cash cow the government doesn't want it to disappear. In Canada the average taxes on a carton of cigarettes is 65%, in the US the taxes are around 45%. That's a lot of free cash. But, if people switch to vaping there are no taxes associated with it. There are no health concerns, it is purely greed.
Here is the thing about statistics: you can make up anything you want or manipulate the facts to get your point of view across. Why? Because they can't be verified. So all the government does is use scare tactics and people are gullible enough to believe it. They have no scientific proof to back up their claims, it is all BS.
Vaping is a much safer alternative to smoking, so why don't they shut down the tobacco industry? MONEY!! MONEY!! MONEY!!
I will defend vaping over cigarettes forever.
Contaminant found in marijuana vaping products linked to deadly lung illnesses, tests show - The Washington Post https://apple.news/A-wW5xT3FSeiVgNBMOrbVew
Someone needs to produce a detailed documentary about the documented research about how safe vaping is. Hopefully that will give the general public as well as potential new vapers some education about what is safe and what isn't.
The contaminated products that are circulating on the black market are what's killing people.
Something of this magnitude needs to be put out in the media otherwise I'm afraid that this industry will die out and a lot of shops will go out of business. It's time to take action, the media has demonized vaping. It's come to a point where most folks can't vape in public in peace.
What are your thoughts on how to combat this issue? It's terrible what has happened to everyone that has been sickened or died as a result of vaping bad products. The CDC and FDA can't seem to get a handle on what's really the culprit and the media isn't giving us any details.
I feel perfectly fine as I've been vaping for almost 10 years now and I feel great in fact never better since I quit smoking cigarettes. Now I'm a bit paranoid and wonder if I should just give up vaping. This whole this is getting to me and I can't even vape around my family in peace now.
Last night I seen the 1st TV commercial where a Lawyer is saying. If Vaping has caused you health problems call us. This is ridiculous, the people dying and getting sick from Vaping is caused from the Drugs they add to the juice.
I am so upset that the NEWS MEDIA is running this every day and they fail to add that in a resent poll of these deaths, illnesis, etc. 75% of the people admit they add THC to the juice and 25% admitting THC is all they vape with.
If the GOV. was getting tax revenue from all Vaping products you would have no GOV WAR ON VAPING. Its all about the FEDS loosing tax dollars and Tobacco companies loss of sales.
First vaping deaths in Florida and Georgia bring nationwide total to 11 - CNN
Death toll climbs from vaping illnesses as Florida, Georgia report new fatalities
First death linked to mysterious vaping illness confirmed in Georgia
The state agency said the patient was a man over the age of 35 who did not live in metro Atlanta. He had a history of heavy nicotine vaping, but no history of vaping THC
The best strategy according Demetris and PBusardo is to hire a professional PR company to combat the false information that the news media and anti-vaping crowd has been churning out every day/nite on TV and social media. That will take a LOT of money (millions according to D & P). The US vaping industry doesn't have that type of money, but the big manufacturers in China do. China manufacturers will be affected by this if the US vaping industry fails, because it will fail if a flavor ban is successful.
Trump is the key person in all of this. He's the one who will make the final call by using his John Hancock, and he's been known to go against the grain of "The Swamp" in Washington. He is basically only interested in satisfying his voter base. All vapers need to personally contact Trump via the White House and tell him, as a voter, that if he is going to get your vote in 2020 he needs to NOT go forward with a flavor ban. Regardless of how you feel about Trump, or whether you'll actually vote for him when the time comes, this must be done and would take each of us only about 5 - 10 minutes of our time.
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Contact the White House | The White House
WHITE HOUSE: Comment line 202-456-1111 | Switch board 202-456-1414 (the switch board is the best approach as it will put you on hold and give you a chance to speak)
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Trump probably doesn't have a clue about vaping. He doesn't understand how important the use of flavored e-liquid is to the success to stop smoking. Having only "tobacco flavors" to choose from just won't cut it for the majority of vapers.
What he must understand is that a flavor ban will likely destroy the vaping industry in the US. Vape shops will not be able remain viable and will close - a loss of thousands of jobs and small businesses. This will affect his "sterling" numbers of the lowest unemployment in recent memory. There has to be at least 10,000 potential voters who have something to do with the vaping community (probably more), about the number of votes that gave him the presidency. He's not going to want to lose that many votes in the next election.
A flavor ban will result in creating its own Black Market. Many vapers will resort to making their own flavored e-liquid. How did that work out for the homemade black market THC vials that killed 6 people and put over 400 people in intensive care?
Smokers looking to quit smoking will no longer have vape shops or US based online vendors to purchase e-cigarettes. Many vapers will return to smoking, which will increase the 400,000 smokers who died last year.
Please tale a few minutes of your time to contact President Trump.
I live on the East Coast USA.
Walking down the street, it's hard to notice that vaping is taking off in any meaningful way, because most people that I see still smoke analogs, that includes both young people and older people too. I'm not going to judge them, because it wasn't that long ago that I was still puffing on an analog, and I had failed to see the awesomeness of vaping.
Besides myself, I don't really see too many people vaping outside on sidewalks. I vape outside in the same way that I'd smoke analogs before, so that means practically all of the time, and especially when I'm walking outside. I'm using a thin e-cig, so I don't usually get too many strange looks. I can imagine what kind of looks somebody walking down the sidewalk must get if they're using one of those big, fancy and shiny looking mods to vape with.
Just 6 months ago, there were no vape shops at all in the immediate local area where I live, and now there are 4 that have opened up, all within a very short walking distance of me (10 minutes or less). I'm pretty sure that a lot of non vapers who live here are walking past those stores every day and wondering, what the hell kind of store is that and why are so many of them opening up in this neighborhood?
One of those four stores will probably fail though, because their sign says tobacco/vape store, while the other 3 are dedicated to vaping only. A store can't be both in my opinion. That's a bit of a contradiction and a stupid combination to put it bluntly.
I've been to a couple of the vape stores so far, and in the short time that I was in those stores there were always new customers there who were smokers who were looking to start vaping.
So while I might not notice how popular vaping is by walking on the sidewalks, I think that it's safe to say that vaping is taking off big time with so many small vape shops opening up, and the amount of people vaping will only increase, because there's still a lot of smelly smokers out there who haven't yet given up on their cancer sticks.
And if this is happening where I live, then I bet that similar things are happening all across the country. Every small town should have at least one dedicated vape shop! I like the quick and easy access to all sorts of liquids and brands.
Just today, I was reading online about some premium liquids, and instead of ordering it online (I didn't want to wait), I had acquired a bottle of that exact liquid five minutes later, after sampling it quickly, and I was already at home and vaping it 10 minutes later.
I always wanted to make this thread. Here I go, 'cuz I've had it up to "here"..........
I'm a member of a lot of different forums that aren't vaping (or even smoking) related. And let me tell you, people freakin' HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE vapers.
It's seems like out in the real world it's not nearly as bad because people aren't anonymous. But on the non-vaping internet, it's totally different. Smokers and non-smokers alike believe and parrot all the stupid lies the media has spread over the years...all of them. They did a great job at brainwashing (as they always do).
On occasion, when it fits, I'll either mention that I'm a vaper or, if someone brings up being a smoker and having to/wanting to quit, I'll throw a suggestion their way to consider switching to vaping and hooooly COW you would think that I mentioned the most terrible thing a person could ever mention, ever!
People will attack with all the usual lies...
That 'll kill ya! What're you stupid?!
Those batteries blow up ALL.THE.TIME! Are you crazy?!
Didn't you hear about all those people dying from vaping! (referring to "EVALI" and black market cartridges....LAST YEAR).
That's just as bad as smoking, probably worse! You better quit NOW!
Didn't you hear? That stuff has antifreeze in it, stupid!
...on and on and on. And it's no use arguing, their minds are set and it's all "facts" because why would the media lie? Right? And after all, it looks like smoke, so it's gotta be at least just as bad, right?
Meanwhile here at ECF we're vapin' away, some of 10+ years, most of us probably at least 5 years, without issues at all. Many of us even with stories of how vaping either saved our lives or improved them greatly (with some doctors even agreeing ins some cases).
But you can't tell them that. NO SIREE! THEY KNOW the truth! You're just an idiot who knows nothing and inhales poison! They heard it on the news, the talk shows, social media, blah, blah, blah. That makes them experts!
They would probably be a lot more open to me talking about and suggesting illicit drug use than [GASP] vaping nicotine
It's a real shame and I just don't see this changing because it's not just misinformation, it really is brainwashing.
So I gotta hand it to ya, American Media,
you did a GREAT..JOB! Congratulations!
You earned every dollar you made from it, I'm sure, you losers.
Well, that's the end of my rant.
Thank you, and have a happy 2021
VAPE 'EM WHILE YA GOT 'EM
Hi all, it's been 5 months I quit smoking and switched to vaping, I want to thank you all for helping with my questions during my early days and suggesting me a good kit. Here is how I feel now.
As we are hearing lot of vaping related sickness issues I was in a dilemma for last 2 months if this is really gonna hurt me or I am fine. I get small pain on left front rib cage side when I vape recently. I am not sure if I am over thinking about news and that's causing me doubts.
And also i used to sleep fine for first 4 months of vaping, for last 1 month I did not get a good sound sleep. Is this anything to do with vaping or am I stressed about some job/other issues.
As always thanks for your suggestions.
With so many debates about public vaping raging here, I started to wonder how many people around us are stealthy vapers?
People who vape at home and in their cars, but not out in public.
People that vape with a stealthy setup indoors - around the corner, in the rest room.
People that go outside and vape with the smokers.
People that use small devices with less vapor.
It was common to see posts here about people never having seen another vaper out and about only a short time ago. Now that vaping is much more mainstream and available, I wonder how many people around us are stealth vapers, getting their nic fix right under our noses? Thousands of ego and evod setups are being sold every day, yet very rarely do I see another vaper, unless I'm in a vape shop.
My guess is that stealthy vapers make up more than 75% of all vapers. They just go unnoticed. They might be standing right next to you.
The Invisible Majority?