Tuesday 3 August 2010

Truce.

I'm still miffed at the Electronic Cigarette Company for siding with ASH against smokers. However, now the Electrofag is in the Righteous sights too, it's time to put aside such differences because we can't afford the luxury of fighting amongst ourselves. Anti-smoking drinkers take note - if you want to hate smokers, that's up to you, but you're going to lose those pubs anyway. You'll lose them faster if you continue to hate smokers.

Anna Racoon has dug into the threatened Electrofag ban and found that is it not a ban but a power grab. The MHRA wants to control the devices and cream off profits by charging for licencing. This will be expensive enough to put the smaller companies out of business, so while it might not turn out to be a ban, it will certainly increase prices and reduce choice. On the plus side, it will then be hard for pubs to justify refusing to allow their customers to use a 'medical device' and we can demand them on the NHS too. Well, I pay the NHS for nothing much so far, they might as well supply me with smokes for the money I give them. It does suggest a possibly interesting future scenario -

Doctor - 'Do you smoke?'

Patient - 'No.'

Doctor - 'Well, try one of these.'


Moribund Senior claims he is going to save the British pub without even mentioning the smoking ban. Mr. Eugenides has already articulated my thoughts on hearing this. There are many comments on Moribund's site for now, until he does what all politicians do and 'listen' only to those he agrees with while silencing those he does not agree with.

One comment on that page is particularly interesting. Pat Nurse spotted it and recorded it, so it can't now vanish into the memory hole. Is this in any way connected to the crackdowns on smoking, drinking etc. we are seeing? More appeasement perhaps? Well, two million might be appeased but a somewhat larger number are far from appeased. Very far from appeased. In fact, as far from appeased as it's possible to get even if there was a real place called 'appeased' and it was on a different planet. It seems to be the mission of Government to enrage the maximum number of people. Perhaps that's the reasoning behind the Cameroid's current Infuriation Tour of the world.

It's not just Moribund and his band of fully accredited liars at fault here. The Cleggeron Coagulation lied about listening to people when they shut down any dissent on the smoking ban and stated that it would not be relaxed in the slightest. They are all exactly the same. None of them have any interest in any of us beyond polling day. We are just here to work, earn money and hand it over to the man with the whip. If we die while doing that, they'll just import some more to replace us.

Therefore it is time to forget small disagreements. Electrofag is likely to come under Righteous control, although how they plan to control the sale of battery-driven little heaters and a bit of padding is not yet clear. Sure, they can try to overtax the juice but if smugglers can sneak in half the population of Somalia without the border agency noticing, a small bottle of juice won't get their attention. Anyway, there's going to be a bit of a mess soon, so I have decided to stock up both for Titan and Njoy and the Titan makers have a sale on.

So if you have been considering trying Electrofag but think it's too much money to risk, you can get a trial pack for £12.50 until the end of August. One battery, one heater, a few cartridges and a USB charger. Just enough parts to see if you're going to like it. With £2.99 postage, that's still cheaper than three packs of 20 smokes or about 75 g of rolling tobacco, I think? Assuming you're not a Man with a Van customer.

In fact, everything is currently half price on that site. You can get a full Titan starter kit for £20. If you know a smoker who keeps trying to quit, get them one for Christmas. Don't buy one for a smoker who doesn't want to stop because you'll only annoy them, and those batteries are the right size and shape for Certain Orifice Insertion. Smokers are in a permanent state of barely-suppressed rage already. Annoying a smoker is unwise.

Yes, I am still miffed about TECC doing a CAMRA (who are, incidentally, at it again) but I don't think it's good to sustain any form of internal argument while the control freakery is in full flow. We can't afford infighting between smokers, vapers, drinkers, photographers, fat people and ...well, every one if us is in the firing line for something. Even those pensioners on the end of the sex-chat lines. As long as we are all hating each other as directed, the money-laundering fakecharities and quangoes will continue to take money from us. All of us. They take your taxes and tell you they will use it to control me. They take mine and tell me they will use it to control you. The result is that we are all under control and they get all the money. Clever, eh?

I'm going to have to work on those pamphlets I mentioned in an earlier post. It won't be easy to condense it all into one A4 sheet but I think it has to be done. Sure, a fat antismoker somewhere will sneer at the idea of not beating up smokers for a while, and a tea-total smoker somewhere else won't have anything to do with drinkers, but I think most people can be shown that their hate is based on lies and propaganda.

It just has to be in straightforward, basic language. In as few words as possible (maybe I'm not the best person for this job) and it has to be memorable. This could take a while. I think I'll call it 'Truce' because that is what all the marginalised groups need to do now.

In the meantime, those who might be havering about trying the Electrofag will soon find it will become more difficult to source and more expensive. Try one of those Titan cheap deals. It's not smoking, it's different, but it's an interesting experience.

For those who don't want all the gadgetry, try the Njoy. More expensive at the moment (normally about the same price when there's no sale on) but still cheaper than the equivalent in cigarettes. That will survive because it's backed by a large American company who are already engaged in battling the Righteous in the US.

So, when it kicks off here, the Njoy company has experience in fighting these people.

That will come in handy.

15 comments:

bella gerens said...

All right. At half-price, I'm going for it.

I've followed your link, though, and there's about 50 thingies on here. I like the look of the 510 Titan in platinum for £20. What say you? I need a more specific recommendation before I can proceed...

Leg-iron said...

I have the Titan in black. Same Electrofag, different paint job.

It's a good one. Stick with the manual battery (where you press the button). The auto one (the just-inhale version) wasn't very good. With the manual, you can pre-heat the juice before taking a puff.

Unless they've improved with time. Certainly the Njoy auto battery works just fine.

With any Electrofag, watch out for the first puff from a new cartridge. Especially if it's high strength. It can be a bit overpowering.

Anonymous said...

A few months back, over on Taking Liberties, quite a few die-hard smokers were jeering at e-cigs. "Toys", they called them. It created a bit of a rift.

But now that it looks like e-cigs are going to be banned too, they all seem to have changed their tune. We're all in together, suddenly.

Frank Davis said...

That anonymous was me.

Mummylonglegs said...

I spotted the post at AR and couldn't decide whether to post there or wait till you picked it up.

Here is my theory. Not many people know about E-Cigs as they are not heavily promoted, mostly word of mouth or word of Leg Iron. There are quite a few firms out there supplying them, however they are quite small. Anna made a good point that if these firms have to pay for the licencing, approx half will go out of business. That leaves an even smaller pool to pick up the increasing demand.

Now we all know the way to get your niccotine replacemnent marketed for free and sold to the masses (and paid for) is to buy government approval. These small firms don't have that amount of money. Big pharma does. I think big pharma has a helluva lot of money invested in patches, gum etc but they will already be producing and testing e-cigs. They are going to let the small guys take the fall(licensing fees, testing fees etc) and when competition is all but wiped out they will step in with their e-cig alternative.

Patches and gum are promoted as quitting agents (quit = no more monies for either big pharma or the Government) where as e-cig is an alternative to smoking, aka you can keep doing it forever (spondoolies all round).

There is no way big pharma is going to miss the boat on this one, they are just going to let the Government take out all the competitors on their behalf.

I predict that in a year to eighteen months (may be less) one of the big pharma will be marketing an e-cig and the Government will be backing them. The tax on tobacco will be changed to include a tax on niccotine and the government will get it's revenue either way. E-gigs will be offered on prescription (which the tax payer will pay for either way), the government will continue to promote it's anti-smoking propoganda (to please the righteous) and big pharma will be able to move into this new market via the see saw effect, aka selling a new product that replaces an old product with no ill effects to their profits.

It's just an idea

Mummy x

p.s I could of course be talking shit.

BROODING MALEVOLENCE said...

I bought a Njoy recently and I'm impressed with it.
I sill smoke because I want too. But I also like sitting indoors reading/writing etc and having a drag on the Njoy.
Best of both worlds now.

Anonymous said...

"None of them have any interest in any of us beyond polling day"

Not a recent discovery, I hope

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking of buying these for my dad.

He's been trying to quit for as long as i can remember (patches gum ect), but he doesnt really have the willpower.

Now he smokes rollies with liqurice flavoured paper (which so smell nice i think).

Are these things going to satisfy such a smoker, or at least help him cut back on the real thing?

Anonymous said...

We call rail about it all that we wish. However, at the end of the day, the depressing thing is that they still have the political power to pass these foul pieces of apartheid. There is no progress made, thus far.

northern smoker said...

thanks for the heads up Leggy.
The only problem I see is getting hold of the liquid once its banned.
How complicated would making your own nicotine solution be,do you think?I still have my copy of 'Dr Atomics Marijuana Multiplyer' - a diy manual for turning cannabis plants into hash oil.I never tried it out because it involved boiling either alcohol or sulphiric/hcl acid under pressure.Probably a doddle for you in your lab with the proper tools,but a bit risky for me with my mams pressure cooker in the kitchen.
If you come across a method on your web travels,I'd love a link.

Leg-iron said...

Electrofag won't suit every smoker. Especially if they are expecting, as I was when I first bought one, that it would be exactly the same.

It's not. It's as different from a cigarette as a cigar or a pipe, but it's not like those either. It's a different way of smoking. I like it, but it has not completely replaced tobacco for me. Some like it more than tobacco, some don't like it at all.

That's why I highlighted the cheap trial packs. You can give it a go without risking much cash. If it doesn't suit you, you've spent the price of two or three packs of fags. Not a fortune. And you can sell the battery and charger.

It's a low-risk way to investigate a different type of smoking.

Leg-iron said...

MummyLL - a logical scenario, unfortunately.

Brooding malevolence - It's the same for me. I have a lab I can't smoke in (it wouldn't be wise to put unwashed hands near your mouth - for any reason - in there anyway) but there's a kitchen. There is no shelter at all outside so when the weather is horrible, I have Electrofag and coffee.

When it's nice, I have tobacco and coffee outside.

Leg-iron said...

Anon 14:44 - no progress is evident, that's true. But then, there was no evidence of the current situation when those first no-smoking compartments appeared on trains.

They salami-sliced their way to this. We can salami-slice our way back.

It won't happen overnight.

Leg-iron said...

Northern smoker - nicotine is water soluble. Early in the tobacco process, the wash water takes out a lot of the nicotine and it's sprayed back onto the shredded leaf later in the process.

Getting the nicotine out isn't hard. Purifying it might not be so easy but even unpurified extract won't have tars or organics in it. They don't dissolve in water.

Flavouring might be an issue but then zero-nicotine flavours shouldn't be subject to control because that would make no sense.

Giolla said...

Hi,

thought this might amuse you, I'm just ordering an e-cig for a friend of mine who's asthmatic, and works with epidemiological data. they had a go on my zero strength coffee and want one for themselves :)

Also for people that want to give e-cigs a go but are put off by the cost I just came across this:
http://www.liberro.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=120&products_id=1842

I think I may have to get a couple to have on hand.

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