Greetings world! We are The AEGIS Alliance! We do not condone underage nicotine, alcohol, or drug use.
The year is 2019, and U.S. States and cities are calling for, or have already implemented a ban on vape flavors, including both nicotine and legal cannabis types of vaping.
Many States had previously accepted money in the form of bonds from cigarette companies as tax revenue in advance. Then, vaping came along, and cigarette sales steadily declined. The States were no longer able to make up for the bonds with cigarette tax revenue.
More than half of the U.S. Congress has accepted money from cigarette companies, along with big names in the 2020 presidential election.
This may very well be the reason why the U.S. government hadn’t immediately begun researching vaping when it became a thing back in the late 2000s. However, some of the vaping research that did happen in the United States was funded by big cigarette companies, which led to bogus studies with fake results, meant to spread propaganda and disinformation about vaping, all to benefit the cigarette industry. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, its government has already accomplished vast research and studies on vaping.
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Take Michigan as an example of a state that’s implemented a nicotine vape flavor ban, in which the state’s same laws are being proposed to become law in the entire United States. Approximately 500,000 legal nicotine vapers are now thrown into the black market of vaping, the same black market where illicit street THC oil vape cartridges come from via drug dealers, which have toxic additives.
Numerous vape shops are shutting down, leaving dead commercial real estate, since storefront retailers in the United States are having a difficult time keeping up with online retail giants such as Amazon and eBay. Numerous vape shop employees are now out of a job. Some of them may take to the streets and sell bootleg e-liquid, or produce it for their own personal use.
Lawsuits are filed in an effort to stop the vape ban because vape shop owners are unable to stay in business with 80 percent or more of their products and sales now banned.
People continue to get ill in Michigan from illicit forms of vaping, and the frequency of sickness only increases after previous legal-aged vape shopgoers are taken to the black market streets.
The DEA and local law enforcement step in to investigate, and there are vape raids to bust alleged illicit vape product producers. The DEA and local law enforcement now have the task of linking illicit vape products to the cause of someone falling ill, so criminal charges can be placed. However, what if someone who’s fallen ill has recently bought vape products from four different street dealers, there are now four vape busts, with only two being linked to the illness. Teenagers are getting caught up in the vape busts and face criminal charges.
What’s more, it’s illegal to carry more than three bottles of flavored nicotine e-liquid in Michigan. Say police officers stop one adult, and one teenager for suspected over-carrying. The adult and teen are searched, the adult has three 120-milliliter bottles of e-liquid, which is legal, but the teenager is caught with four Juul pods. Now the teenager is arrested and charged with misdemeanor distribution, faces jail time in juvenile hall, and is fined $200 for every bottle over three. Now that youthful teenager has a misdemeanor on their criminal record, for the crime of vaping.
It is now November 8th, 2019, and the nationwide vape flavor ban is signed into United States law by the President. Jumping forward to March 2020, when the ban takes effect. In 2014, there were an estimated 35,000 vape shops in the U.S., but now most of them have to shut down, leaving 100,000 to upwards of 140,000 vape employees out of a job. An estimated 13 to 15 million legal-aged nicotine vapers are now thrown into a thriving vape black market. More than 35,000 retail store locations are no longer in business, and there’s an empty void in the retail real estate market, because of the previously mentioned retail competition with the likes of Amazon, and perhaps eBay.
The 13 to 15 million legal-aged nicotine vapers are now subject to e-liquid from street drug dealers, and now they’re all at risk of falling ill. Some will go back to cigarettes, which are the cause of around 480,000 deaths each year, in the United States alone.
If lab-tested and legal THC vape cartridges from cannabis dispensaries are also banned, illnesses linked to street THC vape cartridges that have toxic additives would skyrocket.
Meanwhile, the DEA and local law enforcement are now on a nationwide vaping raid rampage as previously described with the example of Michigan. Teenagers and adults are both subject to being arrested for the crime of vaping across the entire country.
Ah, but there’s a catch, the FDA allows vape companies to file to approve a vape flavor for $100,000 and a one-year wait. However, vape companies not linked to the big cigarette industry are scarcely able to afford to pay that much and wait that long. Who could afford that, and wait that long? Big cigarette companies of course!
As time passes, big cigarette companies begin to release flavored vape products, and they aren’t playing nice. No more 100 or 120-milliliter bottles, oh no, you’d have to just buy pods and small amounts at a time, for a higher price. The big cigarette companies would then take control of most of the vaping market, leaving it out of the hands of those businesses not linked to cigarettes.
Then, a police officer stops a vaper on the street, and asks, “Is that flavor FDA-approved?” Meanwhile, consumers may still be limited to only carrying a certain amount of vape bottles, so the officer searches the vaper as they suspect the vaper is carrying more than the legal limit. That vaper might still be charged with a crime.
Overall, a vaping ban would be far worse for public health. The answer isn’t banning vaping, nor is it increased law enforcement. What the United States could use most, is taking one-third of the entire country’s police budget, and putting it towards nicotine addiction programs, need I also mention drug treatment programs? Also social programs, and public housing. I’m sure more crime-reducing monetary uses could be added to the list.
AEGIS, in The AEGIS Alliance, stands for, The Activists – Alliance for the Exposure of Government Intelligence and Secrets.
We do not claim to be a leader of the Legion, The AEGIS Alliance has Anonymous Allies.
“We traffic in the blackest of markets.” – The Black Market by Rise Against:
