Saturday 23 January 2010

Smoky-Drinky time!

Off to the Smoky-Drinky place for the evening so there'll be no more rants tonight unless something terrible occurs and I'm still in control of my fingers when I get back. Electrofag is coming along but unless we decide to visit the pub, I won't be using it. The whole point of the Smoky-Drinky places is that I don't have to.

Via Frank Davis, I came across a bunch of what can only be considered 'fundamentalist smokers'. A blog asked for experiences of Electrofag users, some answered, and were derided roundly for not being real smokers. Some were accused of being ASH trolls trying to force Electrofag on the proper smokers. Quotes out of context, insults, the old 'if you think that, then you must be a...' lines - it started to look like a typical den of Righteousness and here I was thinking that smokers and the Righteous must be mortal enemies. Seems we have a few too. I suppose it was inevitable. Electrofag users are now seen as second-class smokers by smokers. The divisions get ever finer, day by day. Soon Marlboro smokers will have nothing to do with Benson and Hedges smokers and ASH will love every minute of it.

Well, now, what on earth happened to the concept of personal choice? Isn't that what opposition to the smoking ban is all about? So some people actually prefer Electrofag to tobacco. Personally, I don't. It's a fun gadget and it's the only way to combine a beer in a pub with a nearly-smoke. It's also fun to watch the Righteous recoil in terror and complain to the bar staff, only to be told I'm not doing anything illegal. It's not the same as tobacco but I can't have a tobacco smoke indoors and I can't take the pint outside. It's the best available option for combining them in the pub.

It's also handy at the lab when it's bucketing down outside because there's no shelter out there.

There is no 'force' coming from Electrofag users. Mine has been passed round the pub once or twice. I'm not selling them and get no commission so it only gets passed if someone wants to try it. Some think it's okay, some don't like it at all. That probably depends on what's in it - usually mine contains cigar or virginia flavour. The tobacco flavour tastes like a readymade, nothing like a rollup, so smokers of readymades won't like the virginia flavour.

Electrofag is an option, nothing more. For the moment. ASH are already pretending that a non-smoker will die from one whiff of the steam from one of these things even though there's nothing but steam, nicotine and a pharmaceutical grade thickener to make the steam look like smoke. Nobody will die or suffer any harm at all from standing next to an Electrofag puffer any more than they will from walking past a smoker in the street (and if you want to complain about smokers in the street, think for a moment about who forced us out there).

There is some concern that Electrofag could be used to enforce a ban on real tobacco. To which I will echo the only quotable thing Ed Balls has ever said - so what? Few of us are buying tobacco in the shops anyway. Hide them, make the packs plain, we don't care. Our packs have health warnings in German or Portuguese and we don't know what they say so we don't worry about it. Ban tobacco entirely and 100% of tobacco sold in this country will be black market. No more tax.

They won't ban tobacco because they need the money. ASH won't ban tobacco because if they do that, they're out of a job.

They will try to ban Electrofag 'for the cheeeldren' because it looks like smoking. They'll push those patches that bring me out in red welts and the gum that tastes like a tramp has peed in your mouth. Until a child gets hold of some of the funny-tasting chewing gum, which they are more likely to try than an Electrofag and which will do them far more harm than a real cigarette. Especially if they swallow it.

Electrofag users are smokers. They aren't burning tobacco but they are still smoking and many would love to go back to smoking real cigarettes indoors. Some now prefer Electrofag and there are many reasons for this beyond getting past the ban. You can take one puff and drop it back into your pocket. There's no ash at all. It won't make your fingers yellow. There's no worry about a dying lighter or running out of matches - although a dying battery can have the same effect. I can see why some prefer it to real smoking.

But not me. If the smoking ban were repealed tomorrow I'd be smoking the real thing in the pub. Currently I can't, but Electrofag at least keeps the idea of smoking indoors alive. That's why ASH will try to ban it and will probably succeed using lies and fake data. As they did before.

Electrofag comes in a zero-nicotine option, you know. Non-smokers can try it too. It also comes with non-tobacco flavours so you can take a puff of banana-flavoured steam with no nicotine in it and no real smoke - nothing harmful, no lasting smell and no nicotine. Just flavoured steam. ASH must be scared to death that that idea could get out.

Anyway, real smoke and whisky awaits. Better go and get some food first. It's often a long night.

20 comments:

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

Of course people aren't buying fags in shops. They're off to France to buy them free of ZanuLabour taxes.

Or out of the back of white vans, ditto.

Sue said...

I think Electrofag is a great compromise! If I was put in a position where I had to use one, I would and I'm a seasoned smoker!

Have a good evening at the "smoky drinky place" :)

Frank Davis said...

I completely agree with everything you say, of course.

...unless you smoke Marlboro, that is.

Captain Haddock said...

Each to their own & all that, but ...

I fervently hope & pray that I don't live long enough to see something similar being aimed at we Pipe Smokers ..

Dick Puddlecote said...

"Ban tobacco entirely and 100% of tobacco sold in this country will be black market. No more tax."

Bring it on. We can't smoke them anywhere anyway, so let's have the same tax free privileges as cannabis users.

Top article, the ranting at 'vapers' was as unexpected as it was short-sighted.

Pogo said...

Well, now, what on earth happened to the concept of personal choice? Isn't that what opposition to the smoking ban is all about?

Absolutely. I'm totally against the smoking ban and I'm a life-long non-smoker!

Ed P said...

A zero-nicotine version? That's like decaffeinated coffee, or alcohol-free beer, both of which seems rather pointless.
If this trend continues, we'll have content-free government policies next!

westcoast2 said...

An interesting commentary.

In the US there is a subset of the Vaping community who seem more anti than an anti. It seems to have toned down abit recently because one of the reasons the FDA couldn't regulate the e-cig as a drug delivery system was because the sellers did not make health claims. You do still see the 'they saved my life' type statements. I am sure, given all the anti-smoking ads on TV/Radio, the last thing people who smoke need is another group advocating the same. This holier than thou attitude seems far less prevalent in the UK.

Division between smokers and vapers doesn't help either group. Both need to realise that there are effective other groups, that want both smoking and vaping eliminated, that should be tackled together. People who smoke have already encountered these groups and saw many were duped by their claims. Maybe they see Vapers being duped in the same way and not listening.

Perhaps they see the anti-groups initialy giving general support with only some (apparently) small issues. Remember they only wanted a separate section for non-smokers, that's all.

There is a complete difference between the US and UK anti-smoking groups, though their undelieing aims seem to be similar. The fact that US anti-smoking groups have out and out trashed e-cigs shows that these groups are not about health and more about social engineering and using people for there own ends.

To me, the charge of snoking 'fake cigarettes' buys into the social engineering agenda as nuch as the 'they saved my life' claims do.

"A zero-nicotine version? That's like decaffeinated coffee, or alcohol-free beer"
Herbal vapourizers and cigs? Smoking/Vaping isn't just about the nicotine. I can understand the comment though.
----

woman on a raft said...

Then there are those scabs and heretics who use nicotine patches.

woman on a raft said...

I don't smoke, but I'm one of those hippies who love incense and I've always got an oil burner going. I'd be interested in an electro fag which dispensed say, peppermint and tea-tree I would like to cut down on sugary throat sweets.

I manage with various herbal thoat sprays, but an electro-fag vapourizer is a very attractive idea. I'd certainly try one.

Anonymous said...

Hello Mr Leg-Iron.

I must live in a cave, or splendid isolation of some sort, as your post is the first I've heard of this electrofag thingy and no doubt everyone is doing it apart from the peasants like me here in ruralbackofbeyondshire.

I am curious, as like your good self, I too am a nicotine addict. I have spent the last 8 years chewing 4mg nicotine gum. I tried going down to 2mg, but ended up chewing 2 at the same time.

If I were a single man, I would be straight back to happily puffing away on Marlboro Lights in no time, but unfortunately her indoors objects.

Now, as you are probably aware, times are hard, and my income has fallen off a cliff over the last year, and I have been dreading the day, which is fast approaching, when I may have to consider giving up buying several packs of 4mg gum a week. A fellow addict such as yourself, will have a good idea of the horror and dread that this possibility fills me with.

I am interested in electrofag for economic reasons, can I still get my wonderful nicotine hit several times a day and yet also save up to 80% of the cost as is claimed at electronickits4less.co.uk?

Anonymous said...

Funny thing is, I don't equate being forced to change my habits by adopting less satisfactory substitutes as any form of freedom of choice.

The Government have mandated that because I smoke I am now a non-person, and I see taking up sucking on a battery operated plastic tube as a sell-out to Government intimidation and not a defiant gesture against this oppression.

In the same way, should the Government decide to ban butter as advocated by a heart surgeon last week, I will not eat the inferior plastic spread which is being promoted in its place.

My defiance will be to continue witholding my custom from where it isn't wanted, while I grow my own tobacco and deprive my oppressors from any income they have formaly enjoyed from my habit.

Bowing to corporate fascism is a tad unhealthy in my book....

Anonymous said...

Uptill July07(smoking ban)my wife
and I used to frequent pubs seven nights a week,we had a car and we bought our Bensons&Hedges from the corner shop. We stopped going into
pubs,we sold the car and with the
savings I go to the continent to buy my baccy ,10 times a year.
Pubs stuffed ,corner shops stuffed
and the Exchequer down about £20000
Cant fault it
No tax
No rent
No rates
No excise
Winter allowance £325

keep the good work up,,suckers


Sea view appartment

Leg-iron said...

Anon 20:09 - I'm not the best one to advise you. I'm a part time Electrofagger. You'd be better off asking a full-timer. It's surprising how many people - including publicans - who still don't know about it though.

Leg-iron said...

WOAR - So far all that's in Electrofag is flavour. There's nothing to prevent that litle heater being used for herbal stuff, I suppose, but I don't know of anyone who's tried it. Some have suggested an extract from a certain 'cough' herbal leaf might be a possiblity.

I couldn't possibly comment.

Leg-iron said...

Anon 21:46.
The smoking ban is an example of being forced to stop doing something we like, just because others don't like it.

Electrofag represents no force at all. It's a market response to a demand. No smoker is obliged to try it, whereas every smoker is obliged to go outside to smoke. There's a big difference.

If smokers who switch partially or wholly to Electrofag, and those who prefer to stay with tobacco, fight amongst themselves, what do you think the antismokers will make of that? Further division and further away from repealing the ridiculous ban.

Frank Davis has the story of Macedonia on his blog. They brought in a particularly severe ban a month ago. Half the population smoke. The effect on businesses is already hurting and that ban will break because of the force of numbers against it.

Don't drive the Electrofaggers away, because opposition to the smoking ban will never succeed without numbers.

Leg-iron said...

Anon 22:10 - I'm not able to go to the continent very often, but certain drinky-smokers do.

The way things are going, they'll soon be making more than the treasury.

Anonymous said...

LG:"Electrofag represents no force at all. It's a market response to a demand. No smoker is obliged to try it, whereas every smoker is obliged to go outside to smoke. There's a big difference."

The trouble is, this market response keeps the tills ringing with smokers' money, keeps pubs and clubs in business who haven't given a flying f*** about their customers being thrown outside onto the street (unlike their continental counterparts, who have and are fighting tooth and nail against smoking bans).

Electrofag lulls smokers into pretending that everything's OK again, when it patently is not.

The best way to beat this thing is for you to withold your money, all of it.

Leg-iron said...

Or look at it the other way.

As Woman on a Raft suggested, the exact same device could be used to deliver those herbal inhalations. The thing can be loaded up with no-nicotine, any flavour you like juice and a non-smoker can use it for a laugh without any 'risk' whatsoever. Not even an imaginary risk. They could be made into asthma inhalers. They could be made safe enough for babies to use. They would all look exactly the same.


Remember those sweet cigarettes, now long since banned? They looked like fags but they weren't. They even had red ends. Those would be a great pub protest if they were available now.

Electrofag has the potential to make everyone a 'smoker' and nobody can tell whether you have zero-nicotine roast chicken flavour or Capstan with added tar flavour in there.

If that happened it would make a nonsense of the smoking ban. The pseudoplods would have to stop absolutely everyone to see if they were smoking Electrofag or a real one. With some, you can't tell from a distance.

ASH want them banned. Not because they're dangerous but because they are so safe that anyone at all can try them. They could popularise the act of smoking again, while being immune to the claims of the fearmongers.

You're right about the businesses though. They're just folding without protest and not publicising why they're folding.

They should do what the Macedonian ones did. Just shut completely for a day and make it very clear why.

That's if there are enough left.

View from the Solent said...

re Anon @ 20:09

After reading about it here, I've been using electrofag for about 2 months. It's a different experience to smoking, but I like it.
I smoke Drum tobacco. Haven't got quite the right combination yet, but a 4:1 mix of virginia:cigar flavoured fluids is similar.
No problem with me using it at my local. A coffee/cognac mix is quite good, and popular amongst the other smokers there. A couple of them have bought efag as a result.
It's useful in that I also use it at home. A couple of puffs at frequent intervals, and the real thing less often than I used to. Won't be giving up smoking though, they're different and I like them both.
Can't comment on the relative costs yet, it's too soon.

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