The Swiss association, Helvetic Vape published on January 1st its first official press release for the year 2017. A committed speech from the president, Olivier Theraulaz who wishes to continue to work for the new era to become obvious to all and that the relevance of vaping for public health is a permanent part of policy.
THE HELVETIC VAPE PRESS RELEASE
Dear members, dear vapers,
We have entered a new era. An era where nicotine consumption no longer necessarily rhymes with suffering, illness and death. Unfortunately, still too few people realize it fully. The dark clouds of ignorance and profit are still obscuring the future of vaping all over the world, the zealous henchmen of ordinary coercion are becoming more and more abhorred every day at the water of cynical misinformation and inaction continually belch their visceral fear of change. But in front of them, the vapoteurs hold good, support, inform and internationalize.
We are fighting against the tobacco industry, against the pharmaceutical industry, against the fight against
retrograde tobacco and against governments. They are opposed to us because we represent a simple solution to a problem that generates billions of benefits for all these actors. The status quo that has prevailed so far suits everyone, even the media. Some, reluctant to invest in information that is too reflective, take pleasure in the copying and gluing and lentifying others, obediently obedient to their advertisers or owners, carefully peddle the most vile misinformation. Vaping, a popular and revolutionary tool for risk reduction, upsets the established order, so it disturbs. Between mercantile recovery, partisan instrumentalization and dogmatic demonization, there are still too few voices that are publicly concerned about the health of nicotine users.
The obsolete paradigms of the previous era die hard. It's so much more comfortable to rely on pseudo-certainties that effectively protect your position, your resources or your ideology: “stupid users are secondary, they just didn't have to start and they just have to. 'to stop ". But at a time when, in Switzerland, one in four people consumes nicotine, mostly through smoked tobacco, despite years of paternalistic anti-smoking prevention, it is time to consider other avenues. Total abstinence at all costs costs billions of francs and thousands of human lives each year. This is clearly no longer a sufficient solution. We vapers are another way, spontaneous and in tune with our era. We are nicotine users who have taken charge of our health and that of those around us by abandoning an extremely dangerous mode of nicotine consumption in favor of a benign mode of consumption developed by the users, for the users. We did not do it thanks to the tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the fight against
tobacco, the media or governments, but despite them. It is our strength and our pride, it is what drives us to continue relentlessly to change the situation despite the obstacles created by years of pro and anti-tobacco polarization.
The debates of the 2016 year in the federal Parliament on the Tobacco Products Bill expose the extent of the damage of polarization. The impoverishment of thought and political concerns is staggering. In a shy and sterile joust, we are concerned, on the one hand, with advertising and young people, on the other, with jobs. But nobody cares about the users, who are nevertheless the first concerned. The argument of the number of premature deaths related to the consumption of tobacco fuel (9'500 / year) is used to all-out to justify nice measures more or less ineffective in terms of public health. On the other hand the reduction of the risks and the damages related to the nicotine consumption is not mentioned once by the parliamentarians in the hemicycle. At the same time, the bill is being flouted in a ridiculous attempt to equate risk and risk reduction. Fortunately, the Legislative Commission on Social Welfare and Public Health of the Council of States (CSSS-E) showed its interest in the issues we presented to it. His position ultimately led to the rejection of the assimilation bill by Parliament. This reinforces our belief that our work is bearing fruit and that a life-saving paradigm shift can finally take place in our country.
The year 2017, free of the project of assimilation of vaping products to tobacco products, may finally see the birth of an effective, moderate and pragmatic regulation of vaping. The National Strategy for the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases, the National Addictions Strategy and the recent Ascona Call of the Addictions Academy all support the empowerment of users and their active participation in risk reduction and damage. Gradually, our association is a serious partner in the landscape of risk reduction and gets positive support from open-minded actors. With your support and help, we will continue to work to make the new era a reality for everyone and that the relevance of vaping for public health is a permanent part of policy. Dear members, dear vapoteurs, I wish you all, as well as your loved ones, health, joy, happiness and courage for this new year.
The President
Olivier THERAULAZ
Source : Helvetic Vape
