I filled out and sent in. Fingers crossed … still
Question - do vapers outnumber smokers? Maybe I just don’t go where I used to find smokers, or maybe it’s not just me and more people actually now vape than smoke. Weird, but seems like over the last year or so I find it odd to see someone smoking or to smell cigarettes.
If only…
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Well, they still sell lots of cigarettes in gas stations 
Reply from my congressman
Dear David:
Thank you for contacting me regarding a revised predicate date for vapor products. It’s good to hear from you, as always.
Earlier this Congress, Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act (H.R. 1136). This legislation would revise the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) “Pre-market Tobacco Application” to effectively deem all vapor products as outside the jurisdiction of the FDA. As you may know, the FDA’s current regulatory framework places unnecessary burdens on the licensing and advertising of vapor products despite reports asserting vapor is 95% less harmful than cigarettes. This bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where it awaits further consideration.
I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind should relevant legislation come before the Senate floor for a vote. I hope you will continue to keep me informed of your opinion. A well-functioning republic depends on active citizens to inform their elected representatives of issues of concern and to hold elected officials accountable. I’m always grateful to hear from my fellow citizens on matters of public policy. These communications can be both insightful and useful as I work to represent you, and I hope that you will contact me by phone or email to inform me of your opinions.
I’m truly honored to serve as your Senator; please know that your interests and affairs have my unceasing attention. Always feel free to call my office at (202) 224-2353 or visit www.cotton.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Tom Cotton
United States Senator
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Although Thom Tillis is a Toad Exrtaordinaire in many other ways and probably couldn’t give 1/64th of a fuck about Vapers (along with all of his other buddies…since Capital Hill is decaying and otherwise burning to the ground as I type this)… at least the underpaid folks back at the office can figure out which form email to send back to me. 
Dear Mr. X,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deeming regulations. I appreciate hearing from you.
On May 10, 2016, FDA finalized its Deeming Rule and declared its authority to regulate electronic nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes and vaporizer pens, as “tobacco” products. This is just another example of government overreach – the FDA has decided to regulate electronic cigarettes and vaporizer pens as tobacco products even though they do not contain tobacco.
The Deeming Rule went into effect on August 8, 2016. These regulations now apply to all electronic nicotine delivery systems released into the market after February 15, 2007. Because the majority of these products did not exist prior to this date, nearly all of them have been affected by this new regulation. I am very concerned about this regulatory overreach and believe that these products should not be subject to restrictions placed on tobacco, since that are, in fact, products that contain exactly no tobacco.
On February 16, 2017, Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced H.R. 1136, the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2017. If enacted, H.R. 1136 would prevent FDA from banning tobacco products that have been introduced to the market after 2007 by removing the arbitrary grandfather date that is hurting consumers. The out-of-control regulatory regime has crippled our economy, as evidenced by the unacceptable economic stagnation we have been experiencing for far too long. Should this bill come before the Senate, I will be keep your views in mind.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me again about other important issues.
Sincerely,
Thom Tillis
U.S. Senator
… I know we have to do our part and I try… but vaping is soooooooooo far down the list on Capital Hill right now and for the foreseeable future, I don’t even begin to get my hopes up about being heard. 
I’m afraid most of the Senators and Congressmen have left all of their fucks in a pocket of a suit which they have long forgotten to retrieve from the cleaners.
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Now lets contrast that with the email I received in reply to a 2000 word email, with references and reports attached.
Dear Mr Sweeney,
I have been asked by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health, Dr. Michael Harty TD, to refer to your email of 14 March with which you had submitted a copy of your letter to the Minister for Health concerning legislation for vaping products.
At its meeting on 30 March, the Committee agreed to note the content of your correspondence.
Yours sincerely
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Tossers!!! Grrrr
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If they thought a reply like that was going to make me drop it then they are seriously, and I mean seriously, mistaken. That just pushed me to a new level of pissed off with it.
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Out of the three congressmen in my state precisely zero have responded to me.
I’ve sent out about 38 emails so far, and called the offices of another 10
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THAT is more important than emails and petitions! Call your Reps… twice a week about whatever is bugging the crap out of you! Make a habit out of the task. 
Make sure you call their “home office” in your State… not their office in Washington!
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I’d call to the bastards front doors if I could
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Dear Mr. McGrady,
Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding H.R.1136, the FDA Deeming Authority Clarification Act of 2017. I appreciate your taking the time to contact me.
I understand your concerns and welcome your interest in this matter. On February 16, 2017, Representative Tom Cole (OK-4) introduced this piece of legislation. It has since been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for further consideration. I will keep your thoughts on this issue in mind should this legislation come before me on the House floor during the 115th Congress.
It is an honor to represent the people of the Second Congressional District of South Carolina, and I value your input. To sign up for my email newsletter, please visit my website at www.joewilson.house.gov.
If I may be of further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Joe Wilson
Member of Congress
I replied…
Mr Wilson,
Thank you for your kind reply. You say you understand my concerns. But do you really? Here are my concerns…
For decades people just like me have struggled with a terrible addiction to tobacco products. Speaking from experience, I can tell you this is one of the most gripping addictions known to man. The nicotine and other chemicals in burning tobacco form a physical addiction wherein the body “needs” to have the level of these chemicals maintained. Then there is the mental addiction - the delivery method - combined with the physical action of raising a cigarette to the mouth. The mind understands the way in which the needed chemicals are delivered is by raising the lit cigarette to the mouth and taking a puff. So say there are 10 puffs to a single cigarette, and an average smoker uses 20 cigarettes per day - that is 200 times per day the addiction is fed. A far greater number than most other addictions. The combination of the physical addiction and the positive reinforcement of the physical action results in a powerful and crippling dependence that most smokers find virtually impossible to overcome.
For people like me, e-cigarettes were the first thing to ever come along which offered real and lasting help.
Now, with the stroke of a pen, the FDA decides to call e-cigarettes “tobacco products.” This, to me, is ridiculous to the core. It should be to everyone with the ability to think critically. How about yourself…do you find it ridiculous or can you somehow justify it? I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts. Government has entirely too much power over the people Joe, so we need champions who will work to buffer us from the individuals in government who wield that power like a weapon.
What’s more alarming, however, is the message we get by reading between the lines. While those of us who have used e-cigarettes to successfully break the bonds of tobacco addiction view them as a godsend, it would appear there is a lot of money to be lost for everyone who quits smoking or chewing tobacco and turns instead to e-cigarettes. Tobacco companies, pharmaceutical companies (drugs for treatment of tobacco-related illnesses, patches, gums, etc), doctors and hospitals all stand to lose when people quit smoking. So the average citizen, with the ability to think critically, can only surmise the protection of these huge sources of tax revenue is, in reality, a protection of said revenue. How can this not be the case when there is no doubt what a killer tobacco has been proven to be? Yet it is sanctioned by our government and the previously mentioned entities enjoy windfall profits. It’s really disgusting!
Naturally my concern over this issue goes far beyond personal freedom, and veers toward the alarm of having a government that is out of control and noodling its way into the personal decisions of Americans and interfering with American small businesses.
I urge you to consider the greater scope of the FDA’s deeming regulations and the overt protectionism by the government of a business that kills more than 480,000 Americans each year.
Looking forward to your reply,
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Excellent.
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So just bookmarked that letter. Excellent reply! i will be really interested to see if you get something other than a form letter in return.
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This is just a small exert from an email I sent to a newspaper after they replied to me. I’m not going to bore you with it all.
To whom it may concern,
I was recently in contact with the news desk about the possibility of doing a piece on the upcoming implementation of the TPD. While there have been news stories on vaping and the benefits to health it can have for people trying to give up tobacco products, there has been very little written about the TPD. This is about to come into force on the 20th of May this year and will severely limit the products available to people trying to quit smoking. E-cigarettes are the proven best method for quitting, which is backed up by the recent HIQA report and more recently by the figures released by the Office of National Statistics in the UK and published in The Guardian. What makes me even more skeptical about the TPD is the fact that vaping is the only nicotine replacement therapy, or nicotine delivery system, that is included in it. Nicotine patches, gum, sprays,lozenges and the myriad of other nicotine delivery systems are not in it. Could this be because they’re made by multi-national pharmaceutical companies, and others with the backing of large tobacco companies?. It was estimated that vaping sales reached $6 billion in 2015 and have steadily increased since then, at the expense of other nicotine replacement therapies (Euromonitor International). I’ve been emailing politicians to try and get an explanation for the reasons behind the TPD but to no avail. The one party that did get back to me was Sinn Fein and they seemed please to inform me that MEP Martina Anderson was “a driving force” behind it. They stated that “Sinn Féin believe that not only will the Directive see a major reduction in the use of tobacco products but will help relieve the pressure on health budgets through the reduction of smoking related illnesses in all member states- preventing an estimated 700,000 premature deaths”. When I questioned this belief and asked for any studies or articles to back this up they were unable to give it to me, probably because it doesn’t exist. I also pointed out that the only people to benefit from the TPD would be pharmaceutical and tobacco corporations, which does’t bode well for a party that likes to model itself as a party for the people. I told them I would be contacting media outlets about this issue and they said they would get back to me with the studies if I could just hold off for a little while, that was almost a month ago. Attached is a copy of the email, with references, that I sent out to at least 30 TD’s. I’m not trying to raise this issue for me. I have plenty of mods, tanks and juice to last me for years. I’m raising this for the long term smoker that hasn’t been able to quit by any method so far, and is going to have access to the most successful method of quitting seriously restricted for no apparent reason but to line the pockets of multi-nationals. If there’s anything I left out please contact me.
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That’s an excellent piece of writing. I’d very interested to see what answer, if any, you get in reply. Very nice job.
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Thanks guys. I’ll be sure to post the response should I get one.
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Robert, that is an well thought out response. With your permission I would like to take a few excerpts from it when I respond back to these idiots here in California. The response I have always received is the standard “concern for our children” and “dangers of nicotine addiction” blah blah blah. It pisses me off to the point where I can’t respond with anything other than “you’re full of shit”. These people have just passed another 0.12 per gallon tax on gasoline “in order to fix and maintain our roads” among a bunch of other taxes disguised as a means to better everyone in the state (but mainly lawmaker and special interest pockets). Arrgh! getting pissed off all over again…
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A very exacting reply! 
I will be copying and pasting this piece of art in every petition and all correspondence I have with my Reps concerning vaping.
Awesome work! 
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