Old tobacco playbook gets new use by e-cigarettes

[DirkGently]

12. Clearly it's not something that should be marketed to kids.

I have seen the ads for "Blu," which interestingly, was a small e-cig company before being bought out by the tobacco company Lorillard, that seem to mimic the old "Marlboro Man" nonsense from decades ago. I would agree to the extent that is going on it's not a good thing and ought to be regulated appropriately. No young person should be encouraged to take up an addictive habit of any kind (although apparently we're all cool with caffeine addiction).

But I would LOVE to see the tobacco industry replaced with the e-cig industry to the largest extent possible. Nicotine is apparently a drug humans are going to use. Shouldn't be encouraged in general, as it's addictive and has some potential harmful effects of its own.

But it is NOT smoking, or even comparable to chewing tobacco, and besides being far less annoying and toxic to bystanders, is by all appearances vastly less harmful to the user. And smokers are telling stories of quitting, sometimes instantly, using these.

It irks to see people who think it's somehow the morality of nicotine use that needs to be quashed, rather than inhaling and exhaling thousands of carcinogens. They give the impression of a puritanical attitude, and a desire to prevent ex-smokers from "getting away with it" by way of an entirely different activity they really have no business complaining about or trying to "ban."