Meet The Smoke Ring That Morphed into The Vape Ring: A Real TrickHave You Heard About the Smoke Ring?Have you ever heard the term smoke ring? What may come to mind is that of a trick, one that involves taking a draw from a cigarette and artfully exhaling an open circle.However, this is not the kind of smoke ring that I am talking about. Instead, I'm referring to the term coined by Peter Taylor, a British television reporter, at the BBC. He used the term to describe the insidious relationship between the media, government, and the tobacco industry. Fast forward to present day, it seems fair to say that smoke rings have morphed into Vape Rings. And, if you would like to know why, the answer can be had in three words: Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). While it cost Big Tobacco million, the real cost was, and remains, human lives. Although the MSA seemed like a good idea at the time, reality is such that it brought together an insidious relationship between certain multinational companies and state-level governments. Indeed, an alliance was formed. Further, it created a dependency syndrome; one in which government relies on the funding opportunities that the MSA provides. Albeit since the MSA agreement was reached, such provisions have been decreasing due to market conditions.MSA funding was earmarked, at least in part, to support public health organizations to cover the costs of smoking related illnesses. However, instead of patiently waiting for the MSA funding to come through, state-level governments purchased bonds against what they thought would be their funding allocations. Problematic is that many of these bonds went belly-up (See Truth About Vaping Video Below by Not Blowing Smoke). Plain and simple is the fact that the states found themselves in a pickle. Yet, at the same time, the electronic cigarette, a disruptive technology that has not yet been classified as a tobacco product and we do not think that it should be, was serving to reduce the sales of conventional cigarettes that, in turn, served to reduce the funding allocations to the states through the MSA.So, if you have ever wondered why there is so much negative hype about electronic cigarettes or why certain stakeholder groups would like to classify ecigs as a tobacco product, all you have to do is think about the term coined by Peter Taylor: smoke rings! Fast forward to present day, we think that the term is no longer narrow in scope; thus we call it Vape Rings!The Not Blowing Smoke Campaign has worked tirelessly to create awareness on the Still Blowing Smoke campaign's efforts to denormalize electronic cigarettes. They put together a fabulous video on the topic that we wanted to share with you here. And, we hope that you will join in our crusade to bring such issues to light, so feel free to share this post with friends and family through our social media share icons and spread the word about Vape Rings!
