NO! We will not agree to anything. They are lying! They want to kill us!"
It is the owner of one of Sweden's all vejpshops who totally loses it. Vejpshoppar are, for those of you who don't know, shops that sell e-cigarettes and the accompanying e-juice. They're usually small and filled to the brim with gadgets that we vejpers need to keep us away from cancer sticks, you know, cigarettes. There are batteries and vaporizers, e-liquid, essences and god knows what else. And I don't usually upset people, except possibly my partner from time to time, and today I certainly didn't mean to step on anyone's toes. But what a claptrap it was.
To start from the beginning.
A small life's work at the kitchen sink
Quest (that's his name) runs a small company that produces e-liquid. He started his business after realizing that e-liquid is something as simple as glycerine, propylene glycol and flavouring mixed in a bottle. Cheap ingredients that can be bought in well-stocked shops. The added value is huge.
"You'd be an idiot not to get into e-liquid production," Quest said, after he tasted a rather disgusting e-juice I made myself at home at the sink. I gave him the recipe. He drove home in his gray Renault and it soon became clear that the man had both talent and sensitive taste buds. Four years later, he opened a small shop in Gothenburg, juice lab and all. A small life's work that began at the kitchen sink.
The simple psychology of smoking
He is not alone in this. Of all Sweden's vejpshoppers, well over half started in a garage, or a closet, somewhere in Sweden. E-cigarettes have not been popular for long, and it was only after the Swedish Medicines Agency lost the right to classify nicotine in the e-liquid as a medicineIn 2016, the market started to grow. E-juice manufacturers ventured out of the closet and moved into city centers. Small shops popped up, staffed by passionate ex-smokers who knew a little too much about Ohm's Law, flavor nuances, but perhaps more importantly, they had insight into the simple psyche of the cigarette addict:
"Give me something better than cigarettes and you can have my money"
Passion - with a ban on advertising
It has not been a particularly explosive market by any means. A few years ago, all meaningful marketing of e-cigarettes stopped after the government decided to classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products - complete with advertising bans and all the trappings of the strict tobacco control apparatus. As a result, vejpshoppers were no longer allowed to market their products for what they are really for: smoking cessation. Smoking cessation is a concept that, with few exceptions, only pharmaceutical companies are allowed to boast about. The public health authority has decided that.
From two packages a day to the clouds
But for Quest, such minutiae didn't matter. When I met him for the first time, in the parking lot outside our children's school in one of Gothenburg's suburbs, he was smoking like a brush cutter. Me too, for that matter. We chain-smoked and talked about crazy school rules and were quite happy with that.
Quest was one of those people who tried everything to quit smoking, lasers, hypnosis, therapy and chewing gum and patches and gubevarse.
I have only quit smoking once. And that was with the help of a substandard e-cigarette and an equally substandard e-juice from the convenience store a block from the house where we lived.
Idiot that I am, I soon changed career from editor of a newspaper, to shop assistant in a small vejpshopp, Gothenburg's only one at the time, with the vision of helping others to quit smoking cigarettes.
It wasn't long before Quest showed up. He left the store with the cheapest thing we had in our hands.
"I'm not going to pay 900 bucks for something without knowing what it is"
And so he went. From two packs a day to a bottle of e-juice a week. Quest was bowling clouds all day long. It was like he'd gone to heaven.
The cocktail of death - or life
E-cigarettes are smoking cessation. No matter what the public health authorities or anyone else says. They just use a more narrow definition of the term, linked to politics and established channels to the pharmaceutical industry. Combined with an ill-conceived precautionary principle, e-cigarettes have become an elusive concept for Swedish authorities. For smokers, it's all about harm reduction. That the vapor from a vejp is less harmful than the smoke from a cigarette. Much less harmful, according to comparisons.
Even to the point of the government's own investigation, released at the end of March, concludes that both smokeless nicotine and flavorings in the e-liquid are unlikely to cause any life-threatening harm, even with long-term use. A bit naive perhaps, no scientist claims that vejpning is risk-free, but nicotine itself does not cause cancer and the concentration of flavorings is too low to even be measured properly. Writes the government investigator.
The smoke from a cigarette, on the other hand. It is the cocktail of death.
From garages and closets
Despite this, a few days before my claptrap meeting with Quest, government investigators presented a proposal to ban all flavorings in the e-juice. Whether the e-juice contains nicotine or not. The exception is so-called tobacco flavor, which does not taste smoke of death but rather tea made from cigar leaves. The government investigators believe that youth don't like the tobacco flavors. Unfortunately, neither do 90% of Quest customers. Or many others who use e-cigarettes either. Most people like fruit flavors.
Compact political resistance
The government's proposal to ban flavors in e-juice has some merit; keep young people away from trying e-cigarettes. But the reasoning is fundamentally more moralistic than health-related. It doesn't really matter if vejping is more or less harmful than smoking. Or that we have an 18-year age limit for buying vejp products. It is the principle that counts.
"If it's between allowing some people to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking and stopping young people from vejpa, then the young always go first" Lena Emilsson, spokesperson on tobacco issues for the Social Affairs Committee, told me when I asked before a article in Vejpkollen.
"Smokers should be happy with tobacco flavors" said KD's Michael Anefur in the same article.
Broad support across party lines. A simple solution to a 'problem', whether it is real or not. Just honk and drive! Or is it?
Statistics, statistics and more statistics
It is not surprising that young people try e-cigs. Nor that they like fruit and sweets. Young people will probably try anything they can get their hands on, but I'm sure the flavors appeal to them too.
On the other hand.
Me, Quest and the majority of today's smokers sat and sucked in smoke of death when we were fourteen! It tasted like pekka. We would have cheered if there was raspberry flavor, but we started smoking anyway. Like fools, too. Meanwhile, 90% of our friends who tried it did NOT start smoking. They were not fools.
Do you know what I mean? It's more than the flavors that attract. For someone who hasn't experienced it, it's hard to explain.
E-cigarettes do not fit Vision Zero
If we look at the statistics today, we see that over 40% of all high school students have tried an e-cigarette at some point. That is public statistics from the Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Information, CAN. The same statistics show that the percentage of young people aged 14-17 who use e-cigarettes regularly is only around one (1) percent. And that these young people have largely tried, or already smoke, cigarettes before their debut. 10 to 20% of 14-17 year olds smoke regularly, just to compare.
The government is skipping that last bit in its investigation. It is probably deliberate. They don't want ANYONE under eighteen to even look at an e-cig. They have a zero vision. They want to kill ANYTHING that resembles smoking. Regardless of the risk of harm.
"E-cigarettes can be dangerous and can also lead to smoking later on", according to government investigators.
Yes, or no. "May" is a fancy word that can mean just about anything.
Public health up in smoke?
Because it MAY also be that the government's investigators are completely wrong. That e-cigarettes, just as CAN puts it, in reality attract the young people who would probably turned to cigarettes sooner or later anyway. IF that is the case, then an aggressive flavor ban will have completely different consequences than they anticipate. IF e-cigarettes attract both established and would-be smokers away from cigarettes, AWAY FROM smoking tobacco, as the statistics suggest - what happens if we more or less ban the tasty alternative?
That's right: smoke of death rules again! Public health, my ass.
Because it wasn't the flavors that drove us crazy. But it's hard to explain, for someone who hasn't experienced it.
Lobby does not fit the garage mentality
If the flavor ban is enforced, a majority of Sweden's dedicated vejpshoppes will likely close down. Flavored e-juice represents roughly 90 percent of the shops' sales. Less than 20 percent of this is tobacco flavors, the rest menthol, fruit and candy flavors. What company can cope with losing 70% of its sales?
The burning passion that once drove ambitious quit-smoking missionaries out of their garages is slowly fading. Sure, anything can be solved with a little ingenuity. Like offsetting laws limiting nicotine strength with higher power devices, selling nicotine-free e-juices to bring down prices when nicotine is taxed to the hilt. Like selling tasteless nicotine caps to be poured into nicotine-free e-juice to reduce taxes. And so on. But still.
"Enough is enough".
That's what many of the small business owners who make up Sweden's e-cigarette industry are thinking. The struggle to lure smokers from the smoke of death simply costs too much.
"Write an opinion piece, Stefan!"
I have a past as a journalist and run a small newspaper (you are reading it now) about e-cigarettes, alongside the shop duties. And when the government's proposal for a flavor ban hit the mailbox the trade association me for help.
"We must make our voices heard. Write an opinion piece, Stefan!"
I cautiously admitted that it might take more than an op-ed to convince our politicians that a taste ban does more harm than good.
"There are children and money involved," I said, "It gets messy easily."
Instead, my plan was to try to bring together politicians with vejpers, juice producers and representatives of companies in the industry. Give the vejp thing a face, as it were. Show that these are not greedy tobacco companies. This is passion and drive to reach and help smokers to quit.
"And then it's not enough to just say 'NO, we won't agree to this'!"
I tried.
Death knell for the industry
The reaction was a little overcast. The report is based on, according to them, grossly misleading assumptions about what e-cigarettes really are and how they are used. The proposal for a flavor ban is so comprehensive that not even the almighty Thanos could snap his fingers and undo the damage. It will be a death blow to the industry and open the doors for the tobacco companies who can boast of substandard heat-not-burn products with its 'traditional tobacco flavors'.
So I tried to entice them a bit with strategies. Lobbying is not my strong point, but you have to try.
"If you had your say, what would you do to honor the government's proposal - without banning flavors?"
"We're not giving them a damn thing!"
And somewhere in there, Quest completely lost it. We stood at the counter in his corona-proof store, with vejp ban and all. It's a bit hard, we're not really allowed to vejpa in the shops. There is a law on it. If it looks like smoke, it is smoke, sort of. De-normalization is the political word. Vision Zero. Something Quest and his resident coil maker Gustav pointed out to me repeatedly as I nervously sneak puffed during the discussion.
"We're not going to give them a damn thing. We have to protest. They are wrong. They are lying!"
Quest thundered. Not angry really. He thunders no matter what he does. He is a living battering ram.
"But it's all about tactics. We have to make them listen, show them that we understand their position..."
"NO!"
"There is no try!"
It struck me that the core of this whole story is about power. The power to influence people's lives. Not just economically, but also inside the soul. The government has the power to utterly destroy the financial future of Quest and all other committed 1TP8Hope owners. At the same time, the government takes the liberty of painting a vision in black. Their vision. That dream of actually being able to make a difference. The realization that they have found something that can change the lives of all smokers. It's powerful, and it means something. No matter what the government thinks.
Quest is a salesman of note. Before he jumped on the vejp train, he was peddling toilet paper and detergent over the phone. He is the most direct person I know. Yes or no. A walking version of "Do or do not, there is no try." When government investigators put up a barricade, Quest will not try to walk around it, or try to dismantle it. He will try to go THROUGH it.
"There is no try".
Maintaining power over oneself
And in many ways, it symbolizes the entire Swedish e-cigarette industry. They're not lobbyists who go into nooks and crannies to plant seeds of change. They can't sit down and negotiate something that goes against their core beliefs: that e-cigarettes are actually good for quitting smoking. Or that age limits should be enough to keep young people away from their products. Or that a flavor ban, albeit in a modified form, will destroy the whole business idea - to entice smokers to choose e-cigarettes, JUST because it's tastier. Quest is a symbol of that resistance. It is, consciously or unconsciously, a way to maintain power over oneself. And its vision.
The enemy is tobacco and Quest is a weapon
Hopefully, politicians who are somehow in drafting positions of the bill will understand the consequences of banning flavors in e-liquid. Perhaps even realize that flavors in e-cigarettes are not a threat - but an opportunity. That entrepreneurs like Quest are a force to be harnessed - not stopped with barricades. That he is a fighting ally against their common enemy - the tobacco companies and their deadly cigarettes.
He is standing in his shop in Gothenburg. On the second long street.
Just pay him a visit.
If you dare.
Stefan Mathisson
Editor-in-Chief of Vejpkollen.se
and probably Sweden's worst lobbyist
I agree with you Stefan and you others I mean I am very close to start smoking cigarettes again as vape without taste does not give me motivation to quit cancer sticks. Because it is not better than cancer sticks so the government what reason do I have to be afraid of my health when you do not give me and many others an opportunity to be afraid of their health.... Government can you give us an answer???
On June 3, 2016, I was at the ear-nose-throat center at Akademiska because of fibroma in the mouth. By chance I mentioned that the lymph node on the left side was swollen, maybe tonsillitis? The doctor looked and felt, and then looked at me seriously and said: that's not tonsillitis.
It turned out to be tonsil cancer.
The doctor said I had to stop smoking, but since I was smoking about 30 a day, I had to get help to quit.
I have e-cigs at home I said, can I use it? He almost lit up in a big smile, yes he said e-cigs you can use as much as you want, as long as you smoke the tobacco. The oncologist said the same thing. Today, 5 years later, and cleared of the cancer, the doctors still say the same thing, despite 28 mg of nicotine.
If they ban the flavors, I have a hard time seeing that I can continue vejpa. Then it will be tobacco again, because I can't do without the nicotine.
Fantastic to hear, Irene! And worrying. But whatever happens with flavors in the future, it's important not to forget that vejpning (with all that it implies) is a technology, and a technology that was developed by smokers at grassroots level to get rid of the cigar. E-liquid is made up of glycerine, propylene glycol and flavoring. More coconut art than anything else. And just like when the nicotine strength and bottle sizes were regulated to pieces by the EU and Swedish authorities a few years ago, someone will find a way to keep the technology (and flavors) alive. For those who vejpat for a while, it will work, with a few tricks. It's worse for those who found themselves in the same position you did five years ago. And for the companies that make a living selling e-liquid. All obstacles, are big obstacles.
Your story so incredibly important! Thank you for sharing!