In recent times we have been witnesses to a curious development in Tobacco Control - anti-smoking advocates attacking each other. What is going on here?
First let's be clear. The proponents of vaping as a tobacco cessation method are being attacked by the traditional Tobacco Control advocates. And the attack is vicious and uses the tried and tested methods used against smokers - junk science, denormalisation efforts, lies, statistics, ad hominem attacks etc.
The pro-vaping people are surprised, outraged and incensed that they are being attacked by their former colleagues. They complain bitterly that their opponents are using junk science against them and set out to prove their point. The irony is that these very same methods are the methods they were using against smokers, until they had their" pro-vaping as a smoking cessation tool" epiphany. Now they find these tools galling and insulting and disingenuous and they want to stop their former colleagues attacking them with these tools.
The consequence of this is that we are now seeing articles by the pro-Vapers debunking the TC junk science, revealing the conflicts of interest among the researchers, highlighting the fraud that is being perpetrated - and written by these very same former anti-smoking advocates who wielded these same tools to great effect.
It is a shame that these pro-vaping advocates are not more open minded and able to connect the dots. If they were, and after showing just how junky is the junk science being trotted out against them, they might stop and think about the science that has supposedly proven tobacco smoking to be the spawn of the devil. If the TC advocates would use lies and junk science against their former colleagues, maybe they used it against smoking. Maybe it is time to revisit all of the so-called proof that smoking is harmful, re-examine the science and find out where the truth really lies. Unfortunately that is a step too far for these people. They are still anti-smoking, just read most pro-vaping blogs and articles.
What they don't realise, and what they seem incapable of contemplating, is that we are in the same fight, us fighting for free choice to smoke and them fighting for vaping as a tobacco cessation method. And that fight is about controlling and ultimately monetising nicotine delivery systems. The move to de-normalise and stigmatise smoking is pretty far developed and the last thing Tobacco Controllers want is for another inexpensive delivery system to be accepted and popularised. And that is what vaping offers.
As a side note, there are two other groups who also don't realise they are on the same team - and they are cigar and pipe smokers. If one visits the various forums devoted to either of these tobacco systems, one finds lots of anti smoking bigots who express their hatred of smoking and who support the bans on smoking inside and out. They believe they are different. Different because they don't inhale, different because their habit is using tobacco which is more exclusive, better tasting, more refined and generally just better than smoking cigarettes. They don't realise that Tobacco Control does not differentiate. To TC, we are all the same and we all need to be stopped, one way or another, either by being shamed out of it or priced out of it or legislated out of it.
In my analysis of the people involved in Tobacco Control, I have deduced the existence of two distinct classes of people. First are the fundamentalists, those who hate smoking with a passion, hate the smell of it, hate that people do it when so much propaganda has been broadcast about it, cannot believe that anybody smokes because they enjoy and benefit from the habit, and believe that anybody who still smokes does so because they are addicted or are weak willed and hence need to be forced to stop. We find very many authoritarian followers in this group, and it is amazing the amount of intolerance and hate that is generated in this group.
Second are the professionals, those who earn their living from Tobacco Control. This group includes the many Public Health professionals and the scientists who generate the huge amount of junk science that has proliferated in this area. I saw an interesting quote on the internet recently
"A true scientist is motivated by curiosity and a desire for truth. A political scientist is motivated by power, grants, publication and attention."
And that nicely sums up so many of the scientists involved in Tobacco Control. What is important to them is getting research grants, being published and cited hence influence and power and being the centre of attention.
According to a document I was reading the other day, Big Pharma has been funding the Anti-Tobacco movement since the early 1990's and have been official partners with the WHO in their anti-tobacco network. The global public health establishment now dances to the tunes the pharmaceuticals play:
1. Increase tobacco taxes to make the price of the pharmaceutical products more competitive with tobacco products.
2. Demonize the tobacco industry and prohibit the advertising of their products.
3. Enact smoking bans to force smokers either to attempt to give up smoking using the pharmaceuticals’ products or to use “nicotine replacement” products as substitutes for when they cannot smoke.
4. Promote smoking cessation and “treatment” for nicotine addiction.
5. Promote full coverage for treatment of nicotine addiction by public and private health insurers
A friend of mine recently told me that her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Figuring there was nothing to lose, I told her about the research proving a positive association between smoking/ nicotine and the disease and promised to send her some research papers to look at. While I was searching on the internet I came across websites for the Alzheimer's association, as well as the Schizophrenia Association. In my naivety, I expected these associations to be focused on achieving the best outcomes for sufferers, regardless of whether the treatments were pharmaceutical, alternative or through smoking. How wrong can one be!
And here is where I was able to connect some dots. The websites were quick to disparage smoking, while acknowledging the beneficial effects of nicotine for the various conditions. Elsewhere, in the news posts there were details of various nicotine based drugs that were under development.
So it all comes together. If Big Pharma is to successfully monetise nicotine, it is important that there are no cheap and easily available methods for people to dose themselves with nicotine. The plan to neutralise smoking is far down the track, with most people accepting it is hideously dangerous and something people should never do, even to attain a health benefit. The sudden emergence of vaping must have caused consternation, as vaping delivers nicotine without any of the supposed harmful effects of cigarette smoking. No wonder there is a huge effort to categorise vaping with smoking, to ensure it is also de-normalised. At stake are the huge profits Big Pharma plans to reap through nicotine based drugs that exploit all the health benefits of tobacco and nicotine. The very LAST thing Big Pharma wants now is another cheap, easy to use and effective way for people to be medicating with nicotine, especially as they have been so successful with tobacco smoking.
First let's be clear. The proponents of vaping as a tobacco cessation method are being attacked by the traditional Tobacco Control advocates. And the attack is vicious and uses the tried and tested methods used against smokers - junk science, denormalisation efforts, lies, statistics, ad hominem attacks etc.
The pro-vaping people are surprised, outraged and incensed that they are being attacked by their former colleagues. They complain bitterly that their opponents are using junk science against them and set out to prove their point. The irony is that these very same methods are the methods they were using against smokers, until they had their" pro-vaping as a smoking cessation tool" epiphany. Now they find these tools galling and insulting and disingenuous and they want to stop their former colleagues attacking them with these tools.
The consequence of this is that we are now seeing articles by the pro-Vapers debunking the TC junk science, revealing the conflicts of interest among the researchers, highlighting the fraud that is being perpetrated - and written by these very same former anti-smoking advocates who wielded these same tools to great effect.
It is a shame that these pro-vaping advocates are not more open minded and able to connect the dots. If they were, and after showing just how junky is the junk science being trotted out against them, they might stop and think about the science that has supposedly proven tobacco smoking to be the spawn of the devil. If the TC advocates would use lies and junk science against their former colleagues, maybe they used it against smoking. Maybe it is time to revisit all of the so-called proof that smoking is harmful, re-examine the science and find out where the truth really lies. Unfortunately that is a step too far for these people. They are still anti-smoking, just read most pro-vaping blogs and articles.
What they don't realise, and what they seem incapable of contemplating, is that we are in the same fight, us fighting for free choice to smoke and them fighting for vaping as a tobacco cessation method. And that fight is about controlling and ultimately monetising nicotine delivery systems. The move to de-normalise and stigmatise smoking is pretty far developed and the last thing Tobacco Controllers want is for another inexpensive delivery system to be accepted and popularised. And that is what vaping offers.
As a side note, there are two other groups who also don't realise they are on the same team - and they are cigar and pipe smokers. If one visits the various forums devoted to either of these tobacco systems, one finds lots of anti smoking bigots who express their hatred of smoking and who support the bans on smoking inside and out. They believe they are different. Different because they don't inhale, different because their habit is using tobacco which is more exclusive, better tasting, more refined and generally just better than smoking cigarettes. They don't realise that Tobacco Control does not differentiate. To TC, we are all the same and we all need to be stopped, one way or another, either by being shamed out of it or priced out of it or legislated out of it.
In my analysis of the people involved in Tobacco Control, I have deduced the existence of two distinct classes of people. First are the fundamentalists, those who hate smoking with a passion, hate the smell of it, hate that people do it when so much propaganda has been broadcast about it, cannot believe that anybody smokes because they enjoy and benefit from the habit, and believe that anybody who still smokes does so because they are addicted or are weak willed and hence need to be forced to stop. We find very many authoritarian followers in this group, and it is amazing the amount of intolerance and hate that is generated in this group.
Second are the professionals, those who earn their living from Tobacco Control. This group includes the many Public Health professionals and the scientists who generate the huge amount of junk science that has proliferated in this area. I saw an interesting quote on the internet recently
"A true scientist is motivated by curiosity and a desire for truth. A political scientist is motivated by power, grants, publication and attention."
And that nicely sums up so many of the scientists involved in Tobacco Control. What is important to them is getting research grants, being published and cited hence influence and power and being the centre of attention.
According to a document I was reading the other day, Big Pharma has been funding the Anti-Tobacco movement since the early 1990's and have been official partners with the WHO in their anti-tobacco network. The global public health establishment now dances to the tunes the pharmaceuticals play:
1. Increase tobacco taxes to make the price of the pharmaceutical products more competitive with tobacco products.
2. Demonize the tobacco industry and prohibit the advertising of their products.
3. Enact smoking bans to force smokers either to attempt to give up smoking using the pharmaceuticals’ products or to use “nicotine replacement” products as substitutes for when they cannot smoke.
4. Promote smoking cessation and “treatment” for nicotine addiction.
5. Promote full coverage for treatment of nicotine addiction by public and private health insurers
A friend of mine recently told me that her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Figuring there was nothing to lose, I told her about the research proving a positive association between smoking/ nicotine and the disease and promised to send her some research papers to look at. While I was searching on the internet I came across websites for the Alzheimer's association, as well as the Schizophrenia Association. In my naivety, I expected these associations to be focused on achieving the best outcomes for sufferers, regardless of whether the treatments were pharmaceutical, alternative or through smoking. How wrong can one be!
And here is where I was able to connect some dots. The websites were quick to disparage smoking, while acknowledging the beneficial effects of nicotine for the various conditions. Elsewhere, in the news posts there were details of various nicotine based drugs that were under development.
So it all comes together. If Big Pharma is to successfully monetise nicotine, it is important that there are no cheap and easily available methods for people to dose themselves with nicotine. The plan to neutralise smoking is far down the track, with most people accepting it is hideously dangerous and something people should never do, even to attain a health benefit. The sudden emergence of vaping must have caused consternation, as vaping delivers nicotine without any of the supposed harmful effects of cigarette smoking. No wonder there is a huge effort to categorise vaping with smoking, to ensure it is also de-normalised. At stake are the huge profits Big Pharma plans to reap through nicotine based drugs that exploit all the health benefits of tobacco and nicotine. The very LAST thing Big Pharma wants now is another cheap, easy to use and effective way for people to be medicating with nicotine, especially as they have been so successful with tobacco smoking.
