Dear Sir,
A number of months back my wife was diagnosed with a
serious complaint that requires major surgery and, this tending to focus one on
matters of health, we both decided it was time to give up smoking. However,
having made numerous attempts in the past and simply failing, we weren’t
optimistic.
Some friends, who had given up a few years before,
handed over their stash of NRT including patches, gum, microtabs, inhalators and
some electronic cigarettes. All of these worked to some degree but the e-cig was
the most effective, even though the ones we had were a few years old and
malfunctioning. We then, to our surprise, found them for sale in Tesco and
bought a Vapestick each. These, with their ‘cartomizers’ and more modern design
were even better. Better still, thereafter, was an e-cig with a small glass
tank that can take various flavours of e-liquid. It was the moment I started
using one of these that I had an epiphany, realising that I would never ever
again smoke a cigarette.
Incidentally, since I’m a known SF writer (ask David
Davis) who also blogs a lot, this has led to six of my fans finally taking the
plunge and giving up smoking using the same method.
It is now the case that even if I cannot give up ‘vaping’
my chances of dying from all those smoking-related maladies have just dropped
through the floor. These devices are massively harm-reducing. Ignore all this mealy-mouthed
nonsense that starts with ‘but we don’t know enough’. We know that a ‘vaper’
breathes in nicotine, a vaporising substance found in asthma inhalers, and
water. Nicotine is certainly addictive, but is no more harmful than caffeine. Yes,
some further supposedly harmful substances have been found, but no more than
are found in conventional NRT – trace amounts – and of course the merest fraction
of a per cent of two or three of the thousands of chemicals and 60 or so known
carcinogens in real cigarettes.
So, imagine my surprise and horror to learn that
there are people who want to ban these devices, and that bans have in fact
already been introduced on some trains and in some pub chains. Imagine how
annoying it is for me to discover that legislation is being introduced, much to
the delight of drug and cigarette companies, that will kill innovation in this
new industry, make these devices difficult to sell, impose limits on the
strength and flavours of e-liquids and, in essence will drive many ‘vapers’
back to smoking; many of the 1.3 million
people now using e-cigs in Britain today.
This is madness. This reveals that activists at the
likes of ASH are more concerned with activism itself rather than the purported
reason for it. This reveals that such is the hatred of anti-smokers that they
would rather people died than use something that looks like a cigarette. This
leads to complete Twilight Zone situations like one recently, when an NHS
quit-smoking manager was complaining about a lack clients, because they were
using e-cigs.
Now, as my MP, what are you going to do about this? Here
is something you can get behind that will actually save lives.
Yours Sincerely,
Neal Asher