Monkeys At The Switch

There is a man by the name of Bill Godshall (God Shall, WTF?). Bill is the Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, and as you might guess is 100% in favor of every human being being legally denied the right to smoke... for their own good of course. Well, it might surprise you (as it did me) that Bill isn't against nicotine. He is what I refer to as an honest anti-smoking zealot, and they are few and far between. See, Bill is privy to lots of inside information, especially Food and Drug Administration inside information. He recently got a message from the FDA's Office of Legislation (hmmm, exactly where in the Constitution is the FDA empowered with the ability to pass legislation?) regarding an announcement being made on Tuesday May 2nd. Here is the info he's passing along: Subject/Headline: FDA Takes Enforcement Action on Electronic Smoking Products Planned Release Date: May 5 Driving Event: Compliance action Rollout Plan: Extensive rollout planned including press conference at HHS, press release, fact sheet, video for upload to YouTube, podcast, consumer article, consumer Q &A, key message points, internal media Q & A, Op-Ed, photos of products for posting on Internet. Other background, hidden factors: Action involves three largest distributors. One of the distributors has just sued FDA seeking a restraining order to prevent us from holding their product at the border. There is keen interest in this subject. E-cigarette kiosks are all over town, including Montgomery Mall. They're being advertised as a safer alternative to cigarettes. Our concern is that this might introduce nonusers to nicotine use. This is a drug delivery device. The content of the products have not been analyzed by FDA. To be sold, they would have to be approved by the agency. Bolding above is mine. Really? These E-cigarettes might introduce people who don't use nicotine RIGHT NOW to actually using nicotine? OK... I guess these "people" must have never walked into a Walmart and seen the Nicotine gum or patches that you can purchase over the counter. With no age limit. Actually, they aren't even "behind" a counter... these products produced by the big pharma companies are out there in the aisles, along with baby wipes, shampoo, and suppositories. WHOO HOO, PARTY! I have to give props to Mr. Godshall. He has written to the FDA to oppose the ban, "denying 45 million cigarette smokers access to exponentially less hazardous smokefree nicotine alternatives would result in millions of preventable deaths among smokers, millions of nonsmokers continuing to be exposed to tobacco smoke pollution, and tens of thousands of e-cigarettes users reverting back to smoking cigarettes." But it would seem the monkeys running the FDA can't grasp that simple concept. Not surprising. Sadly, not surprising at all.