If you’ve been keeping up with the recent news, you’d probably know about all the heat going on against vaping. There are news stories of teens dying off a mysterious lung disease caused by it. There are also results of several investigations stating that the “e-liquid” used in vapes may not be harmful to ingest but can turn lethal when inhaled.
All of this may have turned the general population, possibly including you, against vapes. However, things aren’t as simple as they seem to be. Sometimes it’s better to stay skeptical to get a proper view of the wider picture and today, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
What is a Vape?
Let’s start with the introduction to vaping and why people do it. Vapes or “e-cigarettes” were introduced back in 2003 as an alternative to smoking. They were primitive at first but over the years, they got more sophisticated and gained popularity exponentially. The primary components of a vape include a tank/pod with e-liquid, an atomizer coil, and a battery.
The coil takes power from the battery to heat up and vaporize the e-liquid, which is then inhaled by the user. The battery, in most cases, is rechargeable and the e-liquid is supposed to be refilled after it goes below a certain minimum level. The specific features may vary from vape to vape but the basic principle and working is the same. The vapor from the e-liquid replaces the smoke of burning tobacco while smoking cigarettes.
However, unlike tobacco smoke, the vapors did not contain tar or carbon monoxide that were responsible for most of the health hazards linked to smoking. The vapors do have nicotine but that’s only if you go for an e-liquid that has it. There are options available to get nicotine-free e-liquids as well. However, it was the e-liquids with nicotine that helped most smokers to quit smoking, in favor of a more “healthier alternative”.
Effect of Vapes on Cigarette Sales
The rising popularity of the vapes, that we talked about earlier, paired with people quitting smoking in favor of them, led to an inevitable decline in cigarette sales. Now, in the US, each state collects large sums of money, via taxes and Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) from Tobacco companies. The original intention of this state revenue was for anti-smoking campaigns but over the years, most states strayed from this intention.
The decline of cigarette sales impacted greatly on the state revenue, which poses a risk of most states going bankrupt. This does mean that the states would do anything to gain back their major revenue source and that might just be what’s happening now. This is where they start to take help from non-profit health organizations. These organizations include Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Truth Initiative, American Cancer Society, and American Lung Association. They are viewed as trustworthy promoters of evidence-based policy.
However, like all other non-profit organizations, they require funding to run. The primary sources for funding of these organizations come from the government, private foundations, tobacco taxes, and the MSA. These organizations are also known as Tobacco Control Groups that appear to be unbiased health authorities but they ironically need tobacco funding to survive. In case they don’t get enough funding from the MSA, these organizations may cease to exist. I’m sure you may have guessed where this is going.
The Conspiracy
These organizations, along with the state and even federal government, work together to achieve their political agenda. In this case, that is getting their fair share of MSA money that is provided by Tobacco Companies. This might just be the main reason why these organizations worked together to officially endorse the government to ban vapes in the US. Since they are viewed as trusted agents, their endorsements prove to be persuasive over media outlets and the general public.
Now, such an action will result in the removal of vapor products subsequently resulting in most vapers going back to smoking. This proves to be a contradictory move considering that these “health groups” are actually promoting smoking over vaping. Pair that with the fact that the aforementioned organizations were created to do the exact opposite of this. Instead of reducing the number of people who smoked cigarettes, they are indirectly increasing them, which just isn’t right.
If you add all that up, it seems as if the states and anti-tobacco organizations can’t let the tobacco industry die just because of their own personal benefits, which results in them directing their energy towards defaming vaping with cases of lung disease caused by only e-liquids with cannabis oil. The regular nicotine and even non-nicotine e-liquids, that most people used, had little to no cases of any disease. If you think about all of this, it all makes sense.
On the contrary, the UK is doing the exact opposite and is encouraging people to go for vapes instead of cigarettes. This has resulted in the UK having the second-lowest smoking rate in Europe. Since things like MSA don’t exist in the UK, no one seems to have a problem with vapes gaining popularity and potentially replacing cigarettes for good.
This should make you wonder what could possibly be it that is making one country turn its people against something that can get them off a harmful product. While another country does the exact opposite and we see positive results. This does make us question the former country’s true intentions behind the vaping ban. It has to be the MSA that the states and organizations need to survive and it’s only provided by the Tobacco Companies with their sales.
Verdict
Even after all this, we still can’t be 100% sure if that’s exactly the case. Considering everything that we discussed, however, this can be a plausible argument and is worth keeping in mind before believing what’s true and what’s not. That being said, I can’t guarantee that vapes or e-liquids have zero side effects on your health. That still needs to be proven and till then, it’s best of you to avoid it if you weren’t a smoker, to begin with.
In my opinion, this isn’t as much of a far-fetched conspiracy as most people believe it to be and if you really think about it, it all makes sense. It’s funny how organizations that we think are here for our betterment can capitalize on our lives for their own personal gain but that’s just how the world is. As mentioned earlier, it’s better to see all sides of the story before making a judgment. Now that you know this, do feel free to conduct further and provide your opinions down in the comments below.