Time For Action

Time For Action was a harmless call to arms for people to go out at night-time, dress up smartly, and issue the bizarre extra-terrestrial demand “Take me to your leader”. The band showed the world what a call to action looks like, in their video, and it mainly consisted of standing around bored on staircases or in front of shops. It is highly likely that adopting this type of action contributed for the lack momentum in their revival.

When it comes to being a time for action for vapers, a slightly more energetic protest might be called for.

If you’ve been on holiday, living in a box or one of those vapid people on Love Island, you will have missed the news from San Francisco. No, they haven’t renamed it Trumplandia, in honour of the President – no, they’ve done something really stupid.

How stupid?

Banning all vape flavours apart from tobacco stupid. That’s how mind-numbingly stupid they were. Almost all vapers tend to kick off with tobacco juices and some choose to stay on them, only a minority mind you. Our survey last year showed that less than 10% of vapers regularly use tobacco flavours. We love custards, we love sweets and we love fruits.

The reason is obvious: shortly after switching from smoking tobacco cigarettes, our sense of taste begins to return. A world of sweet delights that had been closed off to use blossoms, taste buds explode with delight. And, because some of us are that way inclined, we love to vape juices that taste like Tooty Frooties.

This doesn’t matter to the fervent puritans bent on banning all forms of smoking. It looks like smoking to them and, what they hate even more, vapers appear to enjoy what they do. “Heavens to Betsy! You can’t actually enjoy vaping,” they holler. So, they have come up with a way to make sure you don’t.

“For too many years, the tobacco industry has selectively targeted our young adults with products that are deceptively associated with fruits and mint and candy,” lied the authoress behind the imbecilic legislation.

Will it make a difference?

Obviously not to current vapers, those who know what they’re doing will simply drive across the city limit to somewhere that sells what they used to buy. Others will hop online and order a delivery. What this does do is send a clear message that despite the advances being made in winning the argument in Europe, there is a stronghold of crass irresponsibility in California. There is a cohort of liars and charlatans who won’t stop in their mission to ban vaping in all forms, and they will take any measure necessary to achieve that end. We may be an ocean away but their influence spreads over to the UK.

Maybe you can go stand in a concrete stairwell, maybe you can loiter outside the front of a shop, or maybe you could give some support to the New Nicotine Alliance.