WHY THE AMERICAN
VAPE CRISIS WILL
AFFECT US ALL
In this article Vapouround Managing Director Paul Caplin gives
his personal view about the current vape crisis in America.
America has become a powerhouse of innovation in the vape
industry. Where it has led, the rest of the world has followed.
Now - in the space of just a few short weeks - the US industry
has been brought to its knees by greed and corruption and this
is sickening to witness.
In 2016 the US e-cigarette industry generated $2.4 billion and
last year that had jumped to around $3.6 billion.
But now politicians jumping in with their flavour bans and the
near constant attacks on vaping have tarnished the US vape
industry’s reputation, possibly beyond repair.
What they have done will have terrible consequences. An
entire industry could collapse, thousands of businesses could
be forced to close and tens of thousands of individuals could
be left without jobs.
All this is even before we pause to consider the inevitable
increase in deaths which will happen when vapers are forced
to switch back to smoking.
This is madness and we are already seeing this spread across
the rest of the world. India has announced a vape ban backed
up by jail time for offenders and China is also looking towards
new e-cigarette regulations with several Chinese cities
extending smoking bans to include vaping.
This could be the tip of the iceberg which could see the
greatest aid ever to helping people quit smoking being
gradually abolished. Millions of lives will be lost because of
corruption and greed.
To rub salt into the wound, the US illnesses and deaths are
the result of people vaping illegal THC-based products and
not the legal e-cigarette products for which we are all so proud.
I have made many friends in this industry over this years and
now they face the prospect of their lives being turned upside
down and their livelihoods lost.
It is with this in mind that we launched the #TogetherWeAreVape
campaign to stand up for what is right. We are showing
the support of the international vaping community to this
abhorrent and unconscionable injustice.
Even if you don’t smoke or vape you will know people who
are smokers or who will be smokers because of this.
We must stand up to injustice and unite as an industry in
support of our friends and colleagues in the USA.
Together we are stronger
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