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We Support the Lords
Just over a week ago, in the House of Lords, Tory Viscount Ridley sprung a debate on his fellow peers and there was almost universal cross-parrty condemnation of Article 20 of the TPD. Following on from this this, at the eleventh hour, vapers and vape companies had been thrown a lifeline. Tory Lord Callanan has tabled a motion demanding that Article 20 “be annulled on the grounds that its restrictions on product choice and advertising of vaping devices were devised before evidence had accumulated that vaping was enabling many people to quit smoking, run counter to advice from the Royal College of Physicians to promote vaping and are so severe that they could force vapers back to smoking and create a black market with harmful products.”
We believe that responsible self-regulation in the vape market has helped small businesses like ours to grow, and while we acknowledge some regulation is necessary Article 20 is not it. It is our opinion that reputable small companies are facing a grim future, jobs will be lost, tobacco & pharmaceutical companies are being given free reign and vapers are having their choices limited for reasons not based in logic or sound science.
We fully support the petition that has been created on Change.org in order to demonstrate the strength of feeling within the vape community that welcomes the Conservative peer’s call for Article 20 to be rescinded.
We strongly encourage our customers to support this petition (that gained over 20,000 signatures in the first 12 hours). Yes, we all have a bit of petition fatigue but given the mood of the House of Lords this one really does have some traction. This petition doesn’t need to be signed by vapers – friends and family can lend their names. Or maybe you know someone who would just like to upset David Cameron? Or someone who would like to stick it to Europe? Every name will help to sway wavering peers.
Some vapers are choosing to share it on social media using the hashtag #LordsVapeVote, which is good for raising awareness but ageing members of the upper house aren’t known for their grasp of modern technology. Harm reduction expert Gerry Stimson has suggested writing directly to individual Lords using the TheyWorkForYou website.
Please join us in this huge, coordinated push to overturn an unjust, ill-considered and impractical law. Support common sense and join us in signing the petition 🙂
