FDA Attacking The First Amendment: Is The Constitution Going Up In Vapor?

Is The Constitution Going Up In Vapor?

According to the Pacific Legal Foundation, it most certainly is, literally.

PLF has filed a lawsuit against the unconstitutional Food and Drug Administration over what is being promoted as a healthy alternative to smoking.

It’s a product that has been sweeping the nation for a couple of years now, and it called vaping.

Part of the claim is that the FDA devised a rule against vaping that appears to clearly attack the First Amendment by regulating what can be said about a product, even if those claims are true.  Take a look at this short video.

According to PLF:

Electronic nicotine delivery systems—vaping devices and e-cigarettes—first hit U.S. stores in 2007. It didn’t take long for vaping to jump from zero to a $5 billion domestic industry, as entrepreneurs quickly recognized a market hungry for an alternative to traditional cigarettes.

In 2016, just as the burgeoning vaping industry was getting off the ground, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stepped in with a rule that deems e-cigarettes as tobacco products, and brand new, severe regulations that will only harm the industry and perhaps overall public health—contrary to the agency’s very mission.

Using a unique legal theory, Pacific Legal Foundation is suing the FDA in three separate federal courtrooms—at the same time—on behalf of vape store owners and a harm reduction organization in several states who want to promote a more healthy alternative to smoking.

The unconstitutional rule burdens these individuals and organizations in unique ways, but all are united in opposition to its continued enforcement.

The FDA’s regulations are not only expensive and onerous, and prevent vaping entrepreneurs from fulfilling what they believe is a humanitarian mission of helping people, but the rule was illegal the second it hit the Federal Register.

How in the world is a product that produces water vapor a tobacco product?  On what planet does that fly?  The same one that the same Communists tell us we are in the midst of global warming, over population and need a nanny state to tell us what to eat and drink.

It’s unconstitutional because only Congress has legislative authority under our Constitution.  Our Constitution doesn’t even mention an FDA, which has actually been the promoter of numerous drugs that have killed hundreds of thousands of people, according to its own website.

Here’s where the cases are taking place.

• In the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, PLF represents Joosie Vapes, owned by Denissa Moore and her husband, Larry Moore, Jr. Denissa used to smoke two packs a day, and tried to quit by using Chantix, nicotine patches, and even hypnosis. None of these were successful. She then turned to vaping and quit smoking after just a year. She founded Joosie Vapes with her husband in 2013 as a way to help others quit smoking.


• In the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, PLF represents five clients: Jen Hoban (pictured above), owner of Masterpiece Vapors, the Plume Room, J.H.T. Vape, Lakes Vape Supply, and Tobacco Harm Reduction 4 Life (THR4Life), a nonprofit organization.


• In the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, PLF represents four businesses in three states:
  
  
  
  • Steve Green, owner of Mountain Vapors (California), was a 2+ pack a day smoker for 30 years who doctors warned was developing emphysema. A few years ago, his wife was given a vaping pen from a friend, which he tried and quit smoking that same day.
  
  
  • Kimberly Manor founded Moose Jooce in Michigan, after her late husband passed away from lung cancer.
  
  
  • PLF also represents Rustic Vapor in Michigan and Dutchman Vapors in North Dakota.
  
  
  
  

So, what is at stake in the case?

• Rule-makers need to follow the rules: Under the Constitution, issuing regulations is the job of appointed officials who answer to the democratic process, not unelected career bureaucrats. This vaping rule was issued by such a bureaucrat in violation of the Constitution.


• The vaping edict flouts the First Amendment by forcing businesses to run a daunting regulatory gauntlet in order to advertise truthful information. The government can’t require pre-approval for truthful speech, and it especially can’t shift the burden of proof to the speaker to prove the benefits of his speech will outweigh any harms the government perceives may result.


• Beyond violating the Constitution, the vaping rule is horrible public policy: it threatens to shut down thousands of small businesses that provide potentially life-saving products and creates a public safety hazard by making it very difficult to improve and repair products.

Continued infringements of the rights of the people by those who take an oath to uphold the Constitution and at every turn violate that oath cannot continue to be tolerated in this country.  We have tolerated it too long.  It’s way past time to abolish the unconstitutional FDA as strong arm of the DC government.

CDC: The Smoking Rate Dropped to 15% in 2015

Adult smokers in the U.S. are kicking the habit at a rate that researchers haven’t seen in 20 years. The rate of smoking fell to 15% in 2015 due to the biggest 1-year decline in 2 decades.

The rate fell 2 percentage points from 2014, when approximately 17% of adults in a large national survey said they had recently lit up. The last time Americans kicked the habit at that pace was from 1992 to 1993, when the smoking rate dropped 1.5 percentage points, said Brian King of the CDC.

People have been tossing their packs of smokes in the trash for decades, but the smoking rate typically drops only 1 point or less than a year.

The statistic – which has experts a bit baffled – was announced by the CDC on May 24. The number is based on a large national survey which the government uses to measure many health-related trends. The agency can’t specify why the smoking rate dropped so dramatically in 2015, or if it will drop that way again.

Many of us have heard tales of how “everybody” used to smoke. There was a time when you could smoke on airplanes (not all that long ago, actually), you could smoke at work, heck, TV reporters could even smoke on the air. Fifty years ago, 42% of the population sucked on cigarettes and thought nothing of it, including pregnant women. Anti-smoking ad campaigns, cigarette taxes, and smoking bans made many people kick the habit.

Source: Gallup

E-cigarettes, which heat liquid nicotine to vapor without releasing the dangerous byproducts created by burning tobacco, have helped smokers both continue to get their nicotine fix more safely, or use the devices to quit entirely. However, the jury is out on just how safe e-cigarettes truly are, and studies show the devices may be getting kids who never smoked before addicted to nicotine. [1]

The CDC report also shows:

• 16.7% of adult men smoke traditional cigarettes, compared with 13.6% of women

• Males between ages 18 and 44 represent the largest smoking segment at 18.5%

• Adult whites smoke at a 17.4% rate, along with 16.8% for blacks, and 9.9% for Hispanics

Read: 3 Cigarette/Tobacco Facts You May Not Know About

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., resulting in 480,000 premature deaths every year, and more than $300 billion in direct health care expenditures and productivity losses.

Though the smoking rate may be dropping Big Tobacco continues to show quarterly and annual revenue gains. This is partly due to per-pack list price increases to distributors that are passed on to consumers.

Some smokeless tobacco advocates had predicted that e-cigarettes, vaporizers, and hookahs would outsell traditional cigarettes within 5 to 10 years, but that might not be a possibility, now that the FDA announced it will regulate e-cigarettes the way it regulates other smokeless tobacco products. The regulations could destroy thousands of small vape businesses, and perhaps make vaping a thing of the past.

Sources:

[1] The Associated Press

[2] Winston-Salem Journal

Gallup

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.