Should We Be a Little More Tolerant and Supportive of E-Cigarettes?

I am an ordinary e-cigarette user, and recently, a series of articles in the media about e-cigarettes made me feel the need to speak up.
 
There was a segment in the report that described: "I am 15 years old, can I use this e-cigarette?" On August 10, a reporter from a certain media outlet inquired with e-cigarette shops ranked high on e-commerce platforms, and most shops replied, "Minors cannot use it." However, when the reporter inquired and immediately placed an order for purchase, there was no age verification step, nor was there any customer service dissuading them; the e-cigarette merchants directly shipped the product to the reporter. This proves that the ban on sales to minors has not been effectively enforced.

Personally, I fully support the ban on selling cigarettes and e-cigarettes to minors.

But may I ask, reporter who wrote this article, would you be willing to experience what the "ban on sales to minors" looks like when purchasing cigarettes offline? I would be happy to accompany you to experience it together.

I can assure you that in my county, minors can easily purchase cigarettes, which are more harmful than e-cigarettes.

I am a long-time smoker, having started smoking in 2000 and only successfully quit in 2017. I understand the dangers of smoking over these 17 years and despise tobacco companies and tobacco products.

Now, I have the opportunity to advise smokers to quit using e-cigarettes. Because it was through e-cigarettes that I successfully quit smoking. It has been almost two years and five months since then. During this time, I have not smoked a single cigarette.

Some say that quitting smoking with e-cigarettes is false advertising and that one cannot quit smoking at all. But I personally quit smoking using e-cigarettes. I believe that just because some people fail to quit smoking with e-cigarettes does not mean we should deny the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in helping to quit smoking and label it as false advertising. Internationally, nicotine gum and nicotine patches are already mature smoking cessation solutions. I have used these products before but could not quit smoking; we cannot say that these treatment methods are also false advertising, right?

Quitting smoking is incredibly difficult, a painful and struggling process. I am very grateful to M* e-cigarettes for helping me quit smoking. Because I am now healthier and in better shape than before.

Now, the e-cigarettes that helped me quit smoking are being widely questioned and denied by the media, and there are even rumors suggesting that the tobacco control bureau should regulate them, while the tobacco control bureau itself sells tobacco products.

Reports indicate that last year, the Chinese tobacco industry achieved a total tax revenue of 1.1556 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.69%; the total contribution to the national treasury was 1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.37%. Official data from the tobacco control bureau shows that cigarette sales in China increased by 0.8% in 2017 compared to 2016, and cigarette sales continued to rise in 2018.

Look, they are really working hard to sell cigarettes at a new height.

I believe that cigarettes are more dangerous than e-cigarettes. If you don’t believe it, let’s make a bet: let’s smoke in two equally sized rooms, one with cigarettes and one with e-cigarettes, and see who can’t take it first!

Now, e-cigarette technology is getting better, and many capable manufacturers are emerging. E-cigarettes are not only a great tool for quitting smoking but also healthier than real cigarettes.

A foreign television station once produced a program about e-cigarettes. They gathered over 20 people and tested three different smoking cessation methods, checking their health before and after quitting. The host also personally tried both cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Their conclusion was that e-cigarettes can reduce harm by about 95% compared to cigarettes.

I once saw an e-cigarette friend take a photo of a notice on a glass wall in a foreign hospital, which stated that if you smoke, please try using e-cigarettes, as it can reduce harm by about 95%. Unfortunately, I did not save that image.

After CCTV's 315 program exposed the harms of e-cigarettes, e-cigarette sales actually improved. Why? Because many people previously did not know that e-cigarettes could help with quitting smoking, and this negative report led more people to discover a tool that could help them quit smoking.

Because smokers are suffering too much, and smokers who want to quit are also suffering too much. They crave help and hope to find good smoking cessation tools. There are 350 million smokers in China, and even if only 10% want to quit, that’s still 35 million people.

A tool that can reduce their harm by 95% is now being suppressed everywhere.

When the media is attacking e-cigarettes, have they ever considered the feelings of these smokers trying to quit? Ironically, the tobacco control bureau, which they are trying to escape from, is also regulating the e-cigarettes that help them quit smoking. Can we trust this tobacco company, which is working hard to sell cigarettes, to treat e-cigarettes fairly? #p#分页标题#e#

We are relying on e-cigarettes to resist cigarettes.

We, the quitters, want to live better and healthier. A tool that can make us healthier may be banned under various pressures. I think smokers who quit using e-cigarettes should rise up and call out: "Do not take away our hope!"

Based on my personal experience, I want to speak fairly for e-cigarettes and ask for a little more tolerance and support for e-cigarettes.