Wow, I am amazed how we have got from additional regulation to drink driving!! So, I will make this my last post on the matter.
Do you really think drink driving has decreased due to testing?? It was illegal in the 70s but happened a damn site more than it happened today, because it was socially acceptable. The reduction is due to it not being morally acceptable now, and that is because of pressure from other UK citizens, not the government or government regulatory bodies. Oh wait, its called self regulation.
I highly dispute this opinion, I have seen no great leap in the moral behaviour of humans, but I have seen in different countries how the severity and strictness of the enforcement of laws in the case of drink driving, such as revoking of driving licences and and actual prison sentences have effected mortality rates.
Now, morality does come into play, as does the media, media focused morality
, don't underestimate it, the media likes causes.
It can latch on to small concerns amonst sections of the community hither and thither and create a greater social cohesion of righteous feeling than can make politicians notice on a superficial yet substantial level, hooray for elections, bi-elections, bi-curious elections and what have you.
This can have good results, but also bad, as a part of the media's arsenal is fear, which the powers that be do not mind, as fear is a great form of social control, it is part of why I think religion has been such a long-running horse in many a race, it is why our privacy is invaded at every turn from CCTV on the streets, to Google at your fingertips.
Fear is related to distrust, self-regulation is a term that invokes distrust, I know I am not inspired by it, but on the other hand, I am not adverse to risk, experimentation, or moreso in the past, and for want of a better term in the present, self-medication
But I am quite a vaper, a serial vapist, and I have the cunning and wherewithal to get away with doing more than some others would should I desire to if things change, actually, it is probably because I am more unshowoffingly stubborn than anything else, but anyway, enough tooting my own horn.
I don't care to be a member of any club really, and I do not see a problem with a negotiation on regulations, part of that is discussing all the things that some of the people do not want to discuss, to listen to the negative as well as the positive, what peoples concerns are, without mockery or sneers, we are not the MRHA after all.
What we are trying to justify to the public at large is the legitimate use of products that are crutches, we are asking them to trust that our collective weakness will not make them weak.
We do not do that by throwing all out toys out of the pram, we do it by looking like a better proposition than a controlling, big officialdom, big pharma, and big tobacco forming an axis of big bullying evil wanting to quash the rights of folks indulging in an innocent form of stress relief that is more beneficial than not.
To be fair, also, I personally want behemoths to have regulations imposed from beyond the body itself, and if we the vapers are to come out of this on top, the ecig industry is already in the process of developing its own behemoths.
I think if we stand like oaks, instead of developing a bit of flexibility and compromise (without selling out/laying down/etc), we stand a rats chance in a cat colony.
Why am I talking about drink driving, what the hell, what year is this?