STATEMENT ON ALTRIA
PRESENTATION TO CAGNY

Last week, Howard Willard, Chairman & CEO of Altria Group, Inc., presented to the Consumer Analysts Group of New York (CAGNY). During the presentation, Mr. Willard succinctly described Altria’s planned actions to address the increase in youth experimentation with electronic cigarettes, including:

“Encourage FDA to take industry-wide action by banning retail and vape store sales of all non-traditional flavors until the youth issue is otherwise addressed, such as by the use of advanced age verification technology or pre-market authorization.”

Altria’s position that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”) should ban the sale of all non-traditional flavors at retail and vape shops marginalizes harm reduction and does a disservice to adult smokers seeking lower risk alternatives to cigarettes for several reasons. In particular, (1) scientists have concluded that flavors assist smokers in quitting smoking cigarettes; and (2) current scientific literature demonstrates that flavors play little role in attracting teens to use vapor products. Altria’s view fails to adequately assess the net public health benefits of flavored vapor products and ultimately serves only to harm adult smokers while doing little to solve the concerns around youth usage.

For these reasons, the Vapor Technology Association (“VTA”) disagrees strongly with the Altria’s planned course of action.

VTA’s Position – Flavors are Essential for Smokers Seeking to Quit Combustible Cigarettes

For the past three years, VTA’s position on vape shops and flavors has been clear and consistent:

1. Flavor Bans and/or Restrictions are Unwarranted:
   Banning or restricting the sale of flavors is the wrong approach. Until science demonstrates otherwise, neither FDA nor any other governmental entity should act to ban or limit the availability and accessibility of flavors on the market to the detriment of adult smokers seeking to quit combustible cigarettes.
2. Appeal of Flavors is Subjective: 
   The appeal of particular flavors is subjective and not the reason most youth choose to initiate electronic cigarettes.  Sound science does not support a plan that tries to categorize flavors as offerings which “should” or “should not” be sold.
3. Focus Should Be on Prohibiting Inappropriate Marketing of Flavors:
   Prohibiting inappropriate marketing should be the focus of efforts to address the increase in youth experimentation with electronic cigarettes.  VTA has introduced legislation in several states to affirmatively impose reasonable marketing restrictions.
4. VTA Marketing Standards:
   VTA has repeatedly encouraged industry to adopt the VTA Marketing Standards for Membership which would serve to limit both access to and appeal of vapor products to youth.
5. Flavors are Critical to Smoking Cessation: 
   Adult smokers looking to vapor products as an off-ramp from combustible cigarettes deserve access to a wide variety of flavored products to allow for individualized choice in finding the product that works best for them. VTA presented a clear and unequivocal scientific case to FDA showing that flavors help adult smokers quit.
6. Flavor Bans Directly Threaten Vape Shops:
   A decision to ban flavors from brick-and-mortar vape shops, even temporarily, will eliminate over 10,000 small businesses and un-employ tens of thousands of Americans that work for them.

VTA’s Board of Directors follows the aforementioned principles, and VTA intends to continue to fight for flavors at all levels of government.  Our membership has too much invested in the vape shop and retail store channels to equivocate on these issues and we will challenge any efforts to ban flavors at vape shops and retail stores.

VTA’s Board of Directors is comprised of 16 companies that manufacture, supply, distribute and sell a variety of open and closed system products, including thousands of flavors.  Our policies have always and will remain true to defending all segments of the industry.

– VTA Board of Directors

From USA TODAY:

Public health officials’ goal should always be to build awareness of the risks associated with smoking and educate the public on the products that can help smokers quit. Yet the public health community has failed to build awareness of how switching to e-cigarettes can reduce the harm associated with smoking by as much as 95 percent, according to the Public Health England and multiple independent reviews.

This is a public health tragedy.

See the entire article HERE.

I’m 67 and started smoking in high school (in the 60’s). It wasn’t until the 80’s whenever I’d catch a cold it would turn into pneumonia, or double pneumonia or walking pneumonia. This pattern continued. I’d visit my doctor, he’d order xrays then a nebulizer treatment & write a script for antibotics.
My final visit to my doctor, he included a script for albuterol. That was my wake up call. I was ready to quit cigarettes and now it was 2012. I tried patches, chantix and acupuncture, none of which worked. A co-worker had a vape pen, so I asked her about it. The following day, Sept 4, 2012 I went into a vape shop and left with a bag full of products. I haven’t looked back. A week after vaping I felt like a new person. I have to get a shot every 5 yrs to prevent pneumonia; but it’s all worth it knowing cigarettes will never again be in my life.
I refuse to let anyone get in between me and a healthier lifestyle!
#iamanadultletmedecide
#savevaping
#keeptheflavors

Thank you & Dimitris for all you do.
Love ya both!

Spirit Moon (Debbie)

The Smoker’s Show Episode # 26

Tonight we are joined by our special guest Aaron Biebert to discuss and answers questions about his new film, “You Don’t Know Nicotine”.

“You Don’t Know Nicotine” websites:

• Official Website: https://knownicotine.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KnowNicotine/
• Kickstarter (ended Feb. 25, 2019):  https://tinyurl.com/y2ly8k58

The Smoker’s Show is a vape show not for vapers, but for smokers.

A show to get information about vaping, to debunk vaping myths, to discuss vaping terminology & technology, and to look at and review starter kits for the transitioning smoker.

We urge all vapers to invite those they know who still smoke to watch the show!

#SMOKERSWANTED

Thank you all for your support and let’s convert more smokers together!

THANK YOU TO AND PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!

COUPON CODES FOR YOU…

• For 10% off Innokin/Platform Products at MyVaporStore use coupon code: MTL10
• For 15% off your Lunar Rover order use coupon code: smokersshow

The Video:

*NOTE: Any use of these videos in part or in their entirety without Phil Busardo’s and Dimitris Agrafiotis’s expressed written consent is strictly prohibited.

See everything Smoker’s Show Related HERE!

Don’t miss the Smoker’s Show tonight at 9PM EST when we’re joined by Aaron Biebert to answer your questions and discuss his new movie, “You Don’t Know Nicotine”.

Click on the banner below to be taken directly to the show at 9PM EST.

A big congratulations to Terry!!  He was the winner of the 2018 Stocking Contest!

Phil:

I received the stocking contest winnings….WOW a box of so much wonderful vaping gear. I am so grateful and excited you would not believe.

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

I went out and bought  a wall shelving system to store and display it all… lol

I will be working on converting more smokers now with some PIF goodies. Thanks for all you do for the ex-smokers / vaping community.

It’s my pleasure Terry!  Thrilled you’re going to use some of your winnings to convert more smokers!  What you don’t PIF, use in good health!!

Terry can be seen here with his winnings in his new shelving system!  🙂

DEAR JEROME ADAMS:

I have some suggestions… get your head out of your ass, get big tobacco and big pharma out of your pocket, ignore the special interest groups that don’t have a clue, do your job and save some lives.

DO NOT take vaping away from adults who can make their own decisions and prefer a 95% (at least) safer alternative to traditional combustible tobacco cigarettes.

Hey Phil (Pete…),

Just a quick (well…) message about the Zenith. I started vaping back in January
2014 and went from smoking 70 (yes, seventy) cigs a day to vaping 3-4ml of
9mg a day. I followed all the trends, new devices, learned to make my own
juice, was active on the forums etc. All in all, apart from saving my lungs,
I also saved ???37.400 (I’m counting, 1870 days…) despite being a bit of a gear slut.

But this is not about me. For me the switch was rather instant in that it
took me 2 weeks to completely transfer to vaping (with a simple eGo/C4).
However, my wife, who smokes a lot less – 10 cigarettes a day – didn’t find
it so easy. She really wanted to, but there was always something wrong.

I tried everything. Name a device, and I bought it for her. Did the coils,
wicks, cleaning, keeping them filled. Nope. After a while she fell back to
smoking. Too big. Too small. Too complicated. Too much nic. Too little nic.
Too harsh. Too smooth. Too much leaking. She doesn’t care about the
technology. It just needs to work. And it didn’t do the trick for her.

At some point I was deep into advocacy, giving presentations to politicians and
health care professionals. “Vaping works!” I really managed to turn some folks
around. Yet I always had to think “except for my wife”. So I doubled down on my
efforts.

Maybe the DNA40 or the DNA75 will do it. Or the SX Mini. Maybe the Juul. The Kayfun
3 & 4. The Von Erl. The Lemo II. (that almost worked). The Siren. Nope. I tried
everything under the sun, but the last 6 months she was back to 100% smoking.

I did a last ditch effort 2 weeks ago. She had a bad cold, and the smoking *really*
didn’t help. I saw an opening, did my research (again) and bought her the Coolfire
Mini 4 with the Zenith and Plexus coils.

You may be familiar with that Platform…

I talked her through it (again). She’s a busy person, but I forced her to sit down
and try all the air & power settings. I finally set it on one single air hole and I
saw a kind of “aha” in her eyes after trying. We settled on 11W.

Haven’t heard her since but she’s vaping away happily and not buying cigs. She also
knows she doesn’t need me to fill it, or to change coils. She can buy replacement
items in every vape shop in the world. Not having to ask me anything is a big part
of the deal for her. (I obviously bought her 10 Plexus coils just to be sure)

Is it the final word? I don’t know. But my gut feeling tells me it is. Who would
have thunk that MTL designed for the smoker would work eh! Or factury made coils
that don’t taste like ass the first 20 puffs (they truly are amazing).

I’ll keep you posted in a couple of months, if that would interest you. One could
say she is a bit of a tough test case.

Cheers,

Theo

Hi Phil,

I really really just want to say thank you for all you do for the vaping industry!
I have been cigarette free for 5 months, and i am thankful that i found your site,
products and the Smokers Show. You see me often as PSS in the comments section, and
I try to participate as much as possible. I have been hosting a couple of vape
parties….I host a dinner with a bunch of smoking moms in their 40s and 50s to
provide some information and perspective to (hopefully) encourage others to switch
to a better and less harmful alternative. Would you mind if printed/copied some of
your slides (with credit to you of course) to help my cause? You wouldn’t know if I
did it, but thought I would ask out of respect for the effort you have gone through
to create the information! Thanks again, to you and Dimitris for everything.
VAPING SAVED MY LIFE (with the help of the Zenith tank 🙂 )

Kind regards,
Pam