vaping – Learning, Science and Society

When that paragon of unimpeachable virtue Richard Milhous Nixon announced the War on Drugs back in 1971, we counted ourselves among his most fervid supporters. It chimed with our most basic principle: people must be stopped from enjoying themselves wherever and when that is possible. And when some of those people are pot-smoking hippies or degenerate cocaine fiends, how much more satisfying still was that act of repression! But yet, as always, the Devil Whispered in Our Ear: If we were banning all that weed and charlie and smack and billy whizz because they altered minds and caused social problems, then what about nicotine and alcohol? Didn’t Jesus seem to take a relaxed view of the matter, both in the famous wedding at Cana (John 2 10 ), and in the Last Supper (Matthew 26:27–29) At least the company didn’t light up cigars at the end of the meal-but boy, did these passages pose us some problems!

Since when things have slipped still further. As if they didn’t have enough problems with fossil fuels and rising sea levels already, the nation of Palau has dropped another logic bomb upon the Comfortable nations of the world Read this Should Nicotine be regulated like drugs? from Nature Briefings

A call by the Pacific island nation of Palau for nicotine to be regulated like narcotics by the United Nations will trigger an assessment and a vote by member states. If nicotine were to be added to the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, it would effectively make it illegal to sell nicotine products that aren’t considered medicinal, says nicotine-treatment specialist Renee Bittoun. But tobacco-company lobbying makes it unlikely that nicotine will be added to the list, says Bittoun. Nature | 4 min read

Whatever next, gentle readers? Will they free up restrictions and red tape on the sale of tea and coffee? Will they start alleging the thrill people get from driving fast cars is like that from cocaine-and bring in speed restrictions? Or will some sect of uber – Free Market Liberals, followers of Adam Smith or something, seize power and then abolish all restrictions on all neurologically active substances? We can’t decide whether we are going to be oppressed by Communists or Capitalists: but we await our fate in trepidation.

[1] War on drugs – Wikipedia

#tobacco #nicotine #palau #pollution #free market #war on drugs #cannabis #cocaine #heroin #alcohol

In his masterwork Reflections on the Revolution in France, Conservative philosopher Edmund Burke identified the dangers of fast, uncontrolled change.[1] He also laid out the well-run, well- policed state as the only basis for a secure and prosperous life. The imperfection of human nature required that all should be safeguarded from each other. That in turn requires armies, police forces, and where necessary laws to safeguard the existing moral and social order. It is an honourable tradition; the experience of the French Revolution showed that it worked. And many contemporary Conservatives can site it- justifiably, for example in the restriction or even prohibition of seriously dangerous substances, such as alcohol, nicotine or cocaine. And for this reason, millions of ordinary, decent Conservative voters trust only this party to restrict the highly dangerous, possibly addictive drug cannabis. Read the Daily Mail if you don’t believe us.

Which is why it seems odd at first site that former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss should seem so opposed to a Conservative Government’s attempt to restrict the sale of vapes. [2] The explanation is, of course, that Truss belongs to a second Conservative tradition. That free markets are the only certain guarantee of human happiness. That restrictions and red tape are not only the sure brakes on enterprise, they are an immoral intrusion on the freedom of the individual. Again, an honourable tradition, rooted essentially in the works of Smith, Ricardo and Hayek. And proved right in the experience of the Russian Revolution and the tragic, genocidal decades which followed it. Which is why think tanks like the Adam Smith Institute advocate the legalisation of cannabis [3] Impeccably Conservative-well they were such inspirations not only for Truss, but for her predecessor Margaret Thatcher as well.

For any law, however much it claims to be for the public good, is also Red Tape. Any regulation is a restriction on someone’s freedom somewhere. To exalt the monarchy, as many Conservatives do, is at once to exalt the state. and thereby an endless flow of taxes, regulations and laws. Someone has to pay for the Monarch’s dinner-so why not everyones? A true belief in the efficacy of markets would allow the universal sale of vapes everywhere, to anyone. To oppose that is to admit that the goodness of free markets is not true everywhere, at all times. And a law that is not universal at all times cannot be true, as science shows. (Example: the atomic number of Iron is the same wherever you go in the Universe) So-should a Conservative before or against the free sale of vapes?

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_on_the_Revolution_in_France

[2]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/rishi-sunak-smoking-ban-liz-truss-vapes-tobacco-sales

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_on_the_Revolution_in_France

#vapes #nicotine #cannabis #caffeine #alcohol edmund burke #adam smith #liberty

Tag: vaping

Should nicotine be included the war on drugs?

Will the real Conservative Party please stand up?