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really quickly as more and more smokers discovered that they could help them quit tobacco for good . David saw the potential in these early , rather crude devices , so set out on a little experiment to see if they really worked to help smokers quit . He gave out 30 of them among his circle of smoking friends and within a week 17 of that group had quit tobacco in favour of vaping . David said : “ I thought that result was amazing . And remember this was with the early quite horrible e-cigs that weren ’ t really perfected back then but it was still better than smoking a cigarette . “ All of a sudden three or four years down the road we are seeing a million people quit smoking , then two million and so on . “ By 2009 and 2010 vape shops were opening up , there were new , innovative devices on sale and there was an explosion in demand for e-cigarettes . “ In addition e-cigarettes didn ’ t hurt your lungs because there were only five ingredients instead of 4,762 in a traditional cigarette , of which at least 67 of those cause cancer . “ Now I am not a rocket scientist but if I am going to do the math I would rather use something with five ingredients than 4,762 . “ Nicotine is an addictive substance but it does not kill you . It is about as harmful as caffeine .” And so with the advent of e-cigarettes , David , once again , found an industry that he could get behind and promote as a way to get smokers off tobacco . He is angry that governments have chosen to regulate the vaping industry in the same way as the tobacco industry even though there is no tobacco in vaping products . David went on : “ Scientists have proven that the toxicity of a vaping device is minimal and yet Big Government calls this tobacco and says they are going to regulate it like tobacco . “ If the government , under the guise of public health , found anything that was better than tobacco they should have thrown tons of money into research and fast-tracked it through the FDA . “ Why should it take ten years to go through the pre-marketing tobacco application at $ 500,000-a-year which is that the FDA is forcing this community to do with every liquid , every device , every coil and every mouthpiece ? “ They want them out of business because Big
David Goerlitz at the ‘ World Series of Vaping- Miami ’ Oct 2016
Tobacco is the only one that can afford the pre-market tobacco application . Big Tobacco has billions of dollars to fast-track their products because they have them already .” David is particularly critical of the two main arguments which are often repeated about the safety of e-cigarettes : that we don ’ t know the long term effects of vaping and we need to do more testing . He said : “ We know the long-term effects of tobacco and yet we still allow that to be sold . “ The other narrative is that we still need more testing . Well do it because you have the money . How long does it take to check five ingredients ? He said the vaping industry needed to be regulated but insisted that regulation needs to be both sensible and reasonable .
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“ There are some people in vaping who just got into it for the money and they are making a lot of money making their liquid next to the urinal in the back room of their shop and we don ’ t need people like that in the industry ..”
“ Let the bad vape shops and the people making lousy juice which is not lab tested get weeded out ,” said David . “ Vaping should be reasonably regulated and reasonably taxed and it most certainly should not be regulated out of existence . “ You either have a product that is safer than smoking or it is not and everything indicates , including the people who are opposed to it , that vaping is safer than smoking . “ We don ’ t know how much yet but we do know that for every cigarette a smoker does not smoke it is better to replace it with vaping than continue to inhale the chemicals , tars , poisons and gases in traditional cigarettes . “ I went to the casino the other night . You can smoke cigarettes at the table but you can ’ t vape . Now is that not the most obnoxious , obscene thing ? It is for me because it just doesn ’ t make any sense . “ I can ’ t fathom it . I now feel like I am stupid . What am I missing here ? We know what we know . The proof is there . Look at the science . Somebody is lying . The Royal College of Physicians in the UK is pretty solid and they are recommending vaping and e-cigs so this is why I say my government doesn ’ t care and that is upsetting to me .” David also features in the pro-vaping movie A Billion Lives and has been very active in promoting the film to as many audiences as possible in the USA and Europe . He may have angered Big Tobacco and been labeled a traitor by the anti-tobacco movement but one thing is certain ; nobody is going to stop the former Winston Man preaching his anti-smoking and pro-vaping message .
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 09 63