Thar's gold in them thar cigarettes!
"FDA e-cigarette plan brings complaints from both sides" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe staff April 26, 2014
“Keep Calm and Vape On,” a sign behind the counter in David Bershad’s Newton electronic cigarette store proclaims. But proposed federal regulations for e-cigarettes have him fired up.
“I hope there’s going to be some uproar,” said the co-owner of Vape Daddy’s, who plans to encourage customers to contact the Food and Drug Administration. “I’m sure going to stir it up.”
I'm trying to quit, thanks, and I'm certainly not going to get it over this. I reject attacks on smoking rights, but looting and the wars consume most of my outrage, sorry. That and $hit media flag$hits of the region. Must be what the stink is in here.
The FDA proposal unveiled Thursday would bring e-cigarettes and their ingredients under the agency’s review for the first time and ban sales to minors. Bershad, who already imposes age restrictions, supports the FDA on both counts.
But in the five years since Congress empowered the FDA to draft the rules, e-cigarettes have surged from a niche product to a nearly $2 billion annual industry. Unlike conventional cigarettes, they are tobacco-free and smokeless; most deliver nicotine and flavoring by heating liquid into a nearly odorless vapor that only looks like smoke.
The kids call it vaping.
Organizations such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids criticized the FDA for foot-dragging and for not doing enough to keep e-cigarettes from children.
Thousands of smokers have embraced e-cigarettes as an alternative to tobacco-cessation aids or as a cigarette replacement where smoking is banned or frowned upon.
I've seen the television advertisements, yes.
But critics say e-cigarettes can keep people from quitting altogether. They also contend the wide range of e-cigarette flavors, such as bubble gum and cotton candy, are intended to hook young people on nicotine.
Drug and vice companies would never do that to make a profit. This is AmeriKa, and I resent that implication! AmeriKa loves its kids! We lie them into war! Can't love anyone more than that!
The FDA stopped short of restricting advertising and online sales or banning sweet flavors. Bershad and other supporters say the variety of flavors is key to the appeal of e-cigarettes among adults, much like flavored vodka.
That comes after the cigarette gateway.
After Bershad replaced his cigar-a-day habit with “vaping” last year, he found his sense of taste and smell returned, and he now has an easier time catching his breath. But the 54-year-old advertising industry veteran did not know where to begin when he first considered the options for “e-juice” online — concoctions like apple-blueberry, cappuccino, and peppermint, as well as esoteric flavors like Grand Master and Shamrock.
No, I'll pass on the hit, cough.
Now he curates flavors at his store, which opened in December and caters to customers who would rather sample first than blindly shop online.
***************
With the rule pending, Bershad was still free Friday to offer samples to customers like Steve Halligan, a pack-a-day cigarette smoker since age 14 who has been unsuccessful at quitting cold-turkey or with nicotine-replacement products.
Was it Joe Camel who got you hooked?
“The only thing I haven’t tried is really trying,” said Halligan, 37, an audiovisual specialist by day and a stand-up comedian by night.
Is this a joke?
Halligan hopes the electronic version can take the place of smoking, if not curb his nicotine addiction, keep him from continuing to duck out into the cold, and help him take the stairs again without getting winded. And he liked being able to test products in the store, trying flavors and sampling different models to find one that was discreet-looking enough but still provided the right “throat feel” when inhaling.
It isn't going to curb your addiction; it's just a different way of delivering it.
Skeptical at first, he took home a strawberry blend as well as a flavor that mimics tobacco. “I was sort of on the fence about whether I’d enjoy a flavor,” he said. “I found it to be surprisingly pleasant.”
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The gi$t of the rest of the article is that "smaller players in the industry could be driven out of business because of the cost of earning FDA approval for new or existing products," proving once again the government works for big bu$ine$$.
"FDA looks to regulate electronic cigarettes" by Brady Dennis | Washington Post April 24, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will for the first time regulate the booming market of electronic cigarettes, as well as cigars, pipe tobacco, and hookahs, under a proposal to be released Thursday.
The move would begin to place restrictions on the nearly $2 billion a year e-cigarette industry, which for years has operated outside the reach of federal regulators. If adopted, the government’s plan would force manufacturers to put restrictions on sales to minors, stop handing out free samples, place health warning labels on their products, and disclose the ingredients. E-cigarette makers also would be banned from making health-related claims without scientific evidence.
Does anyone even trust $cience evidence when it comes from government and $elf-interested corporations? How ironic that a government that lies about the weather to get you to pay carbon taxes is banning something based on science.
The FDA’s proposal stops short of broader restrictions sought by many tobacco-control advocates. Regulators at this point are not seeking to halt online sales of e-cigarettes, curb television advertising, or ban the use of flavorings such as watermelon, grape soda, and pina colada — all tactics that critics say are aimed at attracting young smokers and which have been banned for traditional cigarettes.
Those restrictions may come eventually, FDA officials said, but not before more rigorous research can establish a scientific basis for tougher rules.
And yet we can't get medical marijuana.
‘‘Right now, for something like e-cigarettes, there are far more questions than answers,’’ said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
Thursday’s action is about expanding the FDA’s authority to products that have been ‘‘rapidly evolving with no regulation whatsoever,’’ in order to create a foundation for broader regulation in the future, he said. ‘‘It creates the framework. We’re calling this the first step. . . . For the first time, there will be a science-based, independent regulatory agency playing a vital gate-keeping function.’’
I don't know if I like that anywhere at the federal levels these days given the FDA's track record and the vast corruption at that level.
Zeller and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg discussed outlines of the proposal with reporters Wednesday under an agreement that no details would be published until Thursday morning.
Talk about being gatekeepers, huh?
She doesn't mind you taking a pill, though.
E-cigarettes vary from brand to brand, but they generally resemble the size and shape of traditional cigarettes. Instead of burning tobacco, the battery-powered devices heat up flavored, nicotine-laced liquid, turning it into a vapor that the user inhales. Supporters argue that makes e-cigarettes an attractive alternative to their cancer-causing tobacco counterparts.
**************
Whatever changes are coming will not happen overnight....
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
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Related: Hamish Maxwell, 87; former CEO of Philip Morris
Some sort of ironic justice there.
And you know what goes good with a smoke?
"Several newly opened restaurants and bars report that customers have been filching their cocktail glasses and mugs."
I forgot these, and you would have to be smoking pot to not see why:
"Colo. tries to take marijuana holiday mainstream; Some smoke in public defiantly as rallies held" by Nicholas Riccardi | Associated Press April 21, 2014
DENVER — Once the province of activists and stoners, the traditional pot holiday of April 20 has gone mainstream in the first state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana.
Tens of thousands gathered for a weekend of Colorado cannabis-themed festivals and entertainment, from a marijuana industry expo called the Cannabis Cup at a trade center north of downtown, to concerts at the Red Rocks Amphitheater that included Slightly Stoopid and Snoop Dogg.
A massive festival was held at Civic Center Park, in the shadow of the state capitol, with clouds of cannabis smoke wafting through the crowd. Revelers raised joints, pipes, and vaporizer devices to the skies in a defiant toast.
(Blog editor smiling; must be the contact high)
Public consumption of marijuana is still illegal in Colorado, and sales are regulated.
There were no mass arrests Sunday, but Denver police said they issued 37 citations, 31 for public consumption of marijuana and the rest for unspecified violations. A day earlier, they issued 21 citations for marijuana-related offenses and arrested one person accused of attempting to distribute the drug.
No VIOLENCE?
The park event is the most visible sign of the pot holiday’s transformation. It started as a defiant gathering of marijuana activists, but this year the event has an official city permit, is organized by an events management company, and featured booths selling funnel cakes and Greek food next to kiosks hawking hemp lollipops and glass pipes.
I'm already starting to come down.
Gavin Beldt, one of the organizers, said the event is now a ‘‘celebration of legal status for its use in Colorado and our launch of an exciting new experience for those attending.”
Denver is just one of many cities across the country where 4/20 marijuana celebrations were held Sunday.
I should be thankful for this one-hit wonder that is not that bad.
In Trenton, N.J., speakers urged a crowd of about 150 gathered at the State House to push state and federal lawmakers to legalize or decriminalize marijuana and called on Governor Chris Christie to do what he can to help medical marijuana patients.
Thousands celebrated in Washington, the only other state to legalize marijuana. Events included a Snoop Dogg show Saturday night as well as an event sponsored by Seattle’s Dope Magazine, with a $99 ‘‘judge’s pass’’ available that included 10 marijuana samples.
In San Francisco, Police Chief Greg Suhr said his officers would be cracking down on illegal parking, camping, drug sales, underage drinking, and open alcohol containers at Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill. Officials didn’t want the unofficial pot holiday to disrupt Easter activities in the park.
And I thought San Francisco was liberal and tolerant.
In Boulder, University of Colorado officials closed campus to all but students, faculty, and staff on Sunday to ensure no 4/20 celebrations were held.
Spokesman Ryan Huff said the tactic was working, with no arrests reported Sunday. The university says marking 4/20 is contrary to its mission of research, teaching, and learning, and in the past, has seeded a main lawn with fertilizer to keep revelers away.
Yeah, exploring your mind is contrary to indoctrination and inculcation.
That as the problem with acid. The CIA found it gave the test subjects a "pox on both your houses" mentality instead of the slavish programmed killer they wanted. Then, when the student peace movement was really having an effect, they infiltrated the movement and dumped loads of acid into it which effectively destroyed it.
On Saturday, the first day of a two-day festival in Denver, only a few people lingered on the steps of a Roman-style amphitheater where marijuana activists spoke angrily about bans on the drug in other states.
Pot smokers angry?
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Thousands instead lingered on the park’s broad lawns, listening to hip-hop music blasting from the sound stage and enjoying the fresh, albeit marijuana-scented, air.
I recognize that smell, and when i sense it somewhere I always say "Oh, wooh. Somebody stoned around here."
‘‘It’s a lot mellower this year,’’ said Cody Andrews, 29, of Denver. ‘‘It’s more of a venue now. More vendor-y.’’
Meaning money is cooping it, and how could it be mellower with angry activists?
While the weekend was for celebrating, recent events have brought serious scrutiny to Colorado’s experiment with legalizing marijuana. Denver police say a man ate marijuana-infused candy before shooting and killing his wife last Monday, an attack dispatchers heard during a 911 call the woman placed. Her death followed that of a college student who traveled from Wyoming to Colorado with friends for spring break, ate more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumped to his death from a hotel balcony in Denver.
He didn't just pass out and become immobile or just get sick and puke, huh?
Related: Pot Cookie Killed Colorado Kid
Yeah, pot is a killer so let's not legalize or medicalize, I agree.
Now about those prescription pharmaceuticals being forced down kids throats their whole lives....
State lawmakers are debating how to increase safety regulations.
Marijuana festivities got off to a slow start Sunday.
(Blog editor smiling and chuckling)
But as the clock counted down to 4:20 and crowds surged into Civic Center Park, festivalgoers noted the big changes from previous years — more merchandise and more police.
The whole scene was wonderfully surreal for Bud Long, 49, from Kalamazoo, Mich., who recalled taking part in his first 4/20 protest in 1984.
‘‘Nationwide, it’ll be decriminalized,’’ he predicted, ‘‘and we’ll be doing this in every state.’’
In a United States far in the future if we survive that long.
The two recent deaths in Colorado have raised concerns about the recreational marijuana industry and the effects of the drug, especially since cookies, candy, and other pot edibles can be exponentially more potent than a joint.
The AmeriKan media is really killing my buzz.
Al Bronstein, medical director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, said the center is seeing cases of hallucinations, nausea, dizziness, and anxiety.
Pffft.
Studies are mixed about whether there is any link between marijuana and violence.
(You don't have to be stoned to recognize the overpowering smell of whoreporate bull$hit.
I will say this: there is certainly a link between the agenda-pushing, war-promoting newspapers blaring lies and mass-murdering violence of war criminal leaders. Even stoned people can see it)
Still, pot legalization opponents said the deaths are a sign of future dangers.
I thought we had a heroin problem, but I haven't seen hardly anything about it in the last two weeks.
Twenty-six people have reported poisonings from marijuana edibles this year, when the center started tracking such exposures. Six were children who swallowed innocent-looking edibles, most of which were in plain sight.
Yeah, if you are for recreational marijuana you are a baby killer.
Five of those children were sent to emergency rooms, and two to hospitals for intensive care, Bronstein said. Children were nauseated and sleepy, and doctors worried about their respiratory systems shutting down.
Time for me to shut this down.
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Also see: Patients urge Governor Patrick to let marijuana dispensaries open
Yeah, “patients and their family members are now suffering unnecessarily,” but he will have to check with his corporate money-masters before he gets back to you.
Freetown police seize marijuana found at Stop & Shop warehouse
I'm sure there is some sort of joke in there about the perfect pairing for one-stop shopping but I'm too stoned to think of it.
UPDATE: Seven rushed to Fall River hospitals following carbon monoxide leak
