Thread by @VaporAmerican

🧵In the wake of the FDA’s regulatory malfeasance on vaping policy, we at AVM have a moral duty to act as a voice for the businesses that serve millions of Americans who use vaping to quit smoking. 1/14

We firmly believe that the #RighttoSwitch from harmful cigarettes is fundamental -- a choice that should not be left to the FDA, overzealous activist groups, or nanny-state politicians who ignore the unintended consequences of their actions. It belongs to our customers. 2/14

While the FDA and others have been on a warpath against our products, it has ignored the countless public health experts around the world who rely on the growing body of evidence showing the benefits of vaping and its effectiveness in helping people quit smoking. 3/14

At the direction of billionaire funders like Michael Bloomberg, highly misleading activist campaigns use bunk research and retracted studies to deceive the public and strong-arm regulators. 4/14 philanthropy.com/article/bloomb…

While we focus on harm reduction, activist prohibitionists at the Truth Initiative and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids have promoted the worst kind of harm - a complete ban on vaping - as the only option. 5/14

This will leave countless people who want to quit smoking with nowhere to turn but back to combustible cigarettes. 6/14 reason.org/commentary/cig…

In one article, even one of Truth Initiative’s founding directors argues that his organization and its allies have gone too far in their fear-mongering: 7/14 motherjones.com/politics/2021/…

At the same time, the media parrots and amplifies activist scare tactics with zero skepticism. Research or sources that differ with the prohibition line are routinely excluded. Stories of ordinary people who have quit cigarettes by vaping are never told.

https://twitter.com/VaporAmerican/status/1453008868951433232

Our own @amandawheeler32 recently stood up to the unholy alliance of activists, media, & regulators by spotlighting the disastrous real-world consequences they are causing with the criminalization of thousands of longstanding businesses in communities all across the country. 9/14

Watch her speech here: 10/14

We need an honest conversation that acknowledges how more than 10 million Americans and counting are using vaping products to successfully quit cigarettes -- and the countless more that could do the same. 11/14

We are a growing coalition of businesses who want regulators and the public to recognize that our customers have the #RighttoSwitch to vaping products as a pathway to quitting smoking. 12/14

At the link below, we have fully outlined our position. This includes our intention to hold our adversaries in government, in the press, and in the public discourse accountable for the harm they have caused. 13/14 theavm.org/right-to-switch

We encourage you to join us in this pivotal struggle. Our lives and our livelihoods depend on it. 14/14