Pressure concerning regulations.

[Mikey@Vaporized]

I many suggestions and questions all kind of rolled into one. May seem a bit of a far out in my thinking here, but reading through the wealth of information we have available here I feel there is huge scope to affect change concerning EU regulations that are probably coming in the near future. These are all ideas or questions that I have that may have been asked already
1. Would people be willing to cover geographical areas and put on information evenings regarding the corruption that is taking place between big pharma, big tobacco and the EU. This is a hard thing to get people interested in to some extent but word travels fast, and if each person is speaking to even a small group in the right way, showing the statistical impacts on public health, lining pockets of companies who have been responsible for hundreds of millions of people dying for the last 70-80 years, the impacts could be hugely beneficial for the whole of society not just the vaping community
2. How many of us are pressuring our local MPs to take a stance and voice an opinion on this situation? Can more be done here to get this situation into the political realm from the ground up? How informed are they and do they really understand the significance of what is going to happen because of the TPD? Do they know the damage it will do to public health? We have to offer more than "it helped me quit the fags". We have enough to create strong logical arguments. Its getting them heard though. I think rallying mass amounts of people requesting to speak about this with MPs could make a difference (preferably a mix of both vapers and non vapers).
3. How many of us have or are considering ways to make the NHS take a stance on vaping? Can we offer anything in the way of knowledge and experience to ensure the opinions of our doctors and hospitals are not biased towards bad press, lack of understanding and making presumptions based on fictions. Again, requests to speak to important medical figures in the community, small groups offering informative talks and presentations to hospital staff etc.
4. How much connectivity is there between communities? By this I mean the forums, and not just the UK ones. Yes we have ECITA and the EFVI, but what are we doing to be connected as individuals and communities and how would greater connectivity between the UK and rest of EU users affect the ability to work together to be heard and make a difference? With the right organisation well timed executions could create much bigger impacts that rippled over Europe if people were collaborating more with ideas, enthusiasm and working together. After all, UK users are a small percentage of the total within Europe.
5. What can be done to get media attention concerning these matters, namely the negative impact regulation is going to have? How can we create a positive stir in the media about vaping. For all the bad press it has recieved, any reporter loves a good story - why aren't we feeding our opinions and ideas about what is really going on, and why, to the media from the ground up to stimulate as much shit as we can for big tobacco? Are we really making a conscious or consistent effort to embarrass the politicians who still support regulation? Again, with the wealth of information we have available here in terms of statistics, consumer research, proof of efficacy etc, we should be really trying to humiliate politicians opposing us : what amount of reason has lead them to do so? None, only £££.

All of this may have been thought of or talked about before, but while ECITA consider the pursuit of legal action against the EU, and the EFVI continues to grow, should we not be making waves to get public opinion on board with us? Show the rest of the public this is as much about them as it is us at all opportunities! Make waves in the media, get radio coverage, local papers on board. Lets do everything we can. As someone on the ECITA website commented, e cigs are the best thing to happen for public health in a century. To lose this chance to change the way we approach the massive problems that arise from tobacco use would be more than a shame. I empathise with all of you and can feel your anger. But I also see so much enthusiasm and positivity on these boards. Everyone has a talent to be put to use to fight for our rights as informed and free individuals. Lets figure this shit out starting now and we can affect massive change by 2016. Lets communicate about how we stand up for ourselves, each other, and really make a difference to the world we live in and how it is run. Apologies for the late night rant, hope at least someone will understand what I am getting at peace and massive vape clouds to you all! Mikey x

[Mikey@Vaporized]

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas as to how we can go about any of the above please share them. I would love for more people to get involved!
Today has provided me with a great opportunity. A friend of my mothers has been advised by her GP to stay away from e-cigs making a very blunt claim that they are more dangerous than analog cigarettes!!!! What the hell?! How is this man a doctor?
Anyhow, I now have the name of the GP in question and the practice he works at. I will be writing him a letter today to present him with some real evidence and strongly challenge this viewpoint, making requests to be made aware of what this claim is backed on, and challenging him as to whether he is really interested in the health of his patients... I will be polite and concise, yet firm and scientific. And I will let you all know of the response.
These are the moves I am talking about making challenge everything from the ground up.