My letter to the Ontario Governments proposed regulation of the Vaping industry

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Well I would first like to thank you for taking what, might be considered an independent stance on the decision making with regards to the regulatory process. But the real concern here is not the fear of harm but rather the actions so boldly taken in that fears name. You see by take a shaky legged position on vaping you are allowing to much room for insecurity to creep in. This allows those that would to sprinkle headlines around and cause doubt and thus death. I Say you take the rational stance and think each of the fears that the public has through listen to the science learn from failed initiatives in the past, take action and then with a confident and proud heart communicate and educate the people who have asked you to do just that. You're concerned about youth smoking, what is the the statement made on the first line of the Uvic news release page? “Fears of a gateway effect are unjustified and overblown,” says principal investigator Marjorie MacDonald. “From a public health perspective, it’s positive to see youth moving towards a less harmful substitute to tobacco smoking.” Oh I know you can rationalize a poor decision in such light by saying things like “We made a mistake once, we are merely taking a cautious approach”. You know what that is actually saying to the public? It says that A: you do not trust any research advancements in the last 60 years thereby negating anything they have to for the good. And B: your telling the public that they will have a big I told you so coming at them if they cross that barrier of trust that we honor you with holding up. You may think that it’s just more efficient to handle matters in the regulatory process. If you haven’t figured it out yet civil rights and liberties must never be taken away with the reasoning of convenience in mind. I understand that as a country who provides the medicine needed when we harm ourselves costs money and this prevention is not only a humanitarian pursuit but an economic decision as well. Here’s the issue though by what measure are you holding these rules to and what harm are you measuring with these means that you must have. Other wise you potentially caused more people to second guess a good decision, cost our healthcare system billions more than is preventable. Removed family members from their loved ones early and seeded a great distrust in the ability to be the rational guiding body that the government was created to be. Remove the ability to create a safe and trusting atmosphere from the vape shop owners and you remove half the effectiveness of this to work. I will let you in on a little secret that nobody like to talk about as this secret can not be boxes, bottled or bandaged as a remedy. Imagine your most cherished lifes partner is a smoker and has been since they started around 15 years old. (these 19+ laws are proven to be a HUGE deterrent as we have clearly learned over the last 30 years). Over the years your partner as tried everything that is on the market and touted as an effective means to aid in the cessation of cigarette addiction and, on top of that, they simply just thrown away countless packs in an attempt to will them selves through. Usually to meets the same filtered end that is always available and waiting for a lite. Now after each time they lite a cigarette can you imagine what they are saying to themselves inside? I’ll bet you a Sudbury nickel that it isn’t, “Way to conquer this!” or "Awesome work!”. No it’s usually something like “I just can’t deal with this right now” “ Life is to busy I need this to clear my head” “ I’ll go ask the doctor again next week, I’m glad i decided not to tell the crew at work i was trying to quit”. Imagine that. . . imagine that a product that can cripple the self esteem of even the most staunch business person is available at nearly every commercial pocket in every city in Canada. Now imagine our medical system providing medicine that is known to be made for treating other disorders, which they were not succesfful at. Medicine that happened to have a side effect of making the emotional turmoil of addiction a little more bearable by removing the very sould of a person. Imagine begging a doctor to give you a prescription that fundamentally alters your brain chemistry while it’s being used. One that promises at best around an 8% rate of success. Imagine how that must feel and how low a person must feel about themselves to beg for such “Medicine”. Certianly doesn't sound slike a practice I would be bragging about as a human treatment. Now I promised you a secret and here it is. You know why nothing thus far has even come close to vaping in the efficacy to aide in cigarette addiction cessation? It sadly quite simple, it’s because every remedy promoted in the current market is nothing more than a false hope. One designed to aid a personal battle each smoker has with an entire lifetime of justifications ,allowances, excuses, and dependance brought by tobacco. You know why vaping works? It’s the vape shops! It’s the people! It’s the simple fact that after you fail, if it doesn’t do it for you the first time, it’s no problem! Because we have thousands more variations and recommendations from other smokers who like you, have managed to beat this demon that has lived on our backs for so many years. The mere Hope that there’s an arsenal and an army of support there for you to rely on is everything! And when you take even the smallest amount of that away in the name of nothing more than political sloth convieniently disguised as “Public will” you're intentionally causeing harm. How many people do you think won’t live as long as they might thanks to this cowardice form of leadership? How many might get another day of hugs because you had the courage to take a product that has been completely set up for you, that can even help with the economics of the transitional health care costs and educated a public that will honestly be happy to just stop with the whole debate and be healthy? You See this is much more than what one rule should or shouldn’t be because these rules are already here based on a fiction that you have allowed to happen. Now if there is solid evidence that we know of to justify the current actions lets take a step back and address this as we might everything else. Measure, mitigate and prevent. If you can not even identify something to measure then how do you justify taking actions that have been proven to cause harm to the overall health of your citizens? Please, if it’s the most you can muster in the face of an unruly public. Grant us the freedom to not become criminals in our pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. Fear is a tool for the desperate and it’s for that reason that I and trying in the most polite manner possible to scare the heck out of your conscience and remind you that there is enough science to back you up. And their is enough mistrust to damage the whole idea of government should you stay your current coarse