Requested cross-post - What should we do?

[AnnaLaw]

A member of UKV started a thread calling for all vapers on all forums to get together and try to come up with a way that will put the good points about vaping in the public eye so that nobody can ignore us, including MEPs.
There is a request to post to other forums.
http://ukvapers.org/Thread-What-should-WE-do-EU-TPD-and-e-cigs

What should WE do - EU TPD and e-cigs

We can all see ECITA are doing an amazing job on behalf of this industry, there is no question about that.
But we really do have to work out what part we can play in raising awareness and coordinating our numbers.
A portion of us have and are writing letters, with some success. However, it seems that the media doesn't want touch this with a barge pole and I find that troubling.
If certain MPs and MEPs are going to unusual efforts to ignore us, then how do we highlight that? How do we put them in a position where their behaviour can't be ignored?
If it comes to it, is there the appetite to congregate in public, en masse, to at least draw this into the open and not just on the forums? How do we make ppl care or at least talk about this?
I know that many of us have a real fire in our bellies about this and with good reason. How do we utilise it?
This isn't going to go away and is still looking like ending in a way that is unpalatable to anyone who sees the value in a device which could save millions of lives.
So. Public awareness. What do we do?

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

Sign the ECITA petition is my best guess. Maybe a combined effort to make informative leaflets to flood the government houses with. A protest?

 

[steffijade]

A vaping meet on College Green outside the houses of parliament?

Not that it'd do much good if they've already made up their minds... a million people marching against war in Iraq got ignored.

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

I should probably elaborate a bit more.


The Majority of users are simply NOT on forums...or actively looking online for like minded people. Most users pick up a kit in their local shops or from a place they saw advertised while browsing the web and thats about as far as they go.

The awareness is going to be groups of people out and about making themselves known in public places, pubs, meeting halls, at their local places of government. Being active and speaking to as many people as they can. A generic flyer with information about Ecigs, the ban, the benefits ect, without ANY association to a company or forum, put through peoples doors, passed out in town centres, things like that, are going to be what impacts the "real world". Then all you need are the volunteers of people who are willing to do it and someone to fund the printing of the leaflets.

 

[EthelKing]

I think you have hit the nail on the head there KMS - us forum users are actually the minority in the scheme of things - and I believe that is why MEPs, MPs and Anti's seem to miss the point all of the time - they are unaware that those of us who have progressed a little bit further than the kit that is widely available in a lot of corner shops, garages and kiosks are experiencing what could be argued as a "more effective" method of vaping - whether it be via an eGo or something that costs a couple of hundred quid.

When my last order of batteries came through from ecigwizard, there was an information leaflet in with the paperwork urging me to contact my MP, GP and MEP regarding the potential "ban" (my words, not theirs). Maybe a small flyer like that could be produced in template form and individuals could print them out and supply a few to face-to-face suppliers in their local areas?

Like you, my experience is that Joe Public is totally unaware of the potential changes - and when they do find out, they are quite baffled by them.


10000 A6 flyers (single sided) cost around £55 (£57 double sided), and I'd be willing to put a few quid in the pot.

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

I've got two boys that could learn a lesson or two and if there arent any restrictions on putting flyers through doors, this town is pretty big

 

[AnnaLaw]

That's true KMS.
Very few are on forums and few buy from vendors that send hand-outs.
ECITA has a PDF that anybody can print, and if I could afford to print them I'd hand out hundreds, leave them in the local garages and corner stores where most people buy their cigalikes.

I have the time to hand out leaflets and I could donate a little to properly printed ones.
I think that we probably have over a million in the UK now bou probably 997,500 know nothing about forums and nothing about the TPD.
True, there have been a few, rather slanted, pieces in the mass media recently, but I've not seen or heard anything even suggested that the EU plan to take it all away, not in media that reaches enough people.
A grass roots movement has to start at the grass roots with the people who buy disposable cigalikes. The fact is they are the most popular. Also people who use an ecig in pubs and smoke the rest of the time, they could be numbers on our side too.

I knew of no threat until last summer, and I learnt of it very soon after I started vaping because it became a hobby. But the majority just want something that just works only uses a battery instead of a match. They are the people who could really make a difference.

As things stand now the majority of vapers will just be slightly annoyed because they can't buy what they want if the TPD goes through as it is and just buy smokes instead. The only annoyance about the rest of the TPD will be finding it harder to find the brand you want, same as now in supermarkets, because they're hidden, only worse because at the very least there won't be much space for branding. But the tobacco companies are getting ready for that, any body noticed brands are mostly just a little coloured flash?
This is something we should have started four years ago, only most of us weren't vaping then.
In 2008 Pharma sent an Impact Assessment stating their concerns that electronic cigarettes, if they became popular, would have an unfair advantage over NRT because they could be sold anywhere and didn't need an MA.

That is when Pharma started their lobbying.

So I have a very small stockpile and I've started smoking again, just a few, so that when I'm forced back to cigarettes I won't find them tasting as horrible as RYO always have to me. I wish I could get used to RYO because they're a lot cheaper.
I don't want to quit, I've never wanted to quit, which is why NRT never worked at all for me, but I've found a safer (and cheaper) way than dying. I have a friend who now has COPD and doesn't want to quit so uses NRT lozenges, RYO, a pack of fags and a disposable ecig.
If I hadn't found vaping that could have been me, and if the e-cig part of the TPD goes through as is, it probably will be me.

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

Yeah thats from Black Water, I'm following the thread

 

[whipitup]

Write to the BBC/ITV/Channel4/5 explaining the situation and ask if they would highlight it in one of there daytime/early evening programs.

Explaining vapeing/Ecigs are going to be banned/restricted for no good reason and will force people back into smoking???

 

[AnnaLaw]

Write to the BBC/ITV/Channel4/5 explaining the situation and ask if they would highlight it in one of there daytime/early evening programs.

Explaining vapeing/Ecigs are going to be banned/restricted for no good reason and will force people back into smoking???

I've been trying to do that for months. Having no media contacts, all I've managed to do is complete web forms and most of those are of the Points of View type. I've also applied to go to QuestionTime in Mid-April when it's local, been on the list for that for months but made a new application.
Not long to go and I've heard nothing.
I'm also tweeting a few journos and media people but only one is following me, and as I do sometimes tweet on other things that may be why.

We need something like Panorama or Newsnight, but how can we ever get there, or get a good front page spread in the tabloid papers?