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- this is not fun and games.

- a corrupt system. - this is life and death.

- A billion people dying from smoking related diseases.

- 70% of current smokers want to quit.

- I smoked for 40 years.

- 50 years.

- using the patch.

- Nicotine patches or chews.

- proven smokeless cessation method.

- Should be promoted.

- This hasn't helped.

- majority of them failed.

- That makes no sense.

- E-cigarette.

...E-cigarettes.

- E-cigarettes.

- Alternative to lighting up. - Stopped.

- We don't know if that's true, or not.

- They've been making headlines.

- don't look for an endorsement from the--

- lung association, heart association.

- world health organization.

- is raising the red flag on.

- dangers involved.

- We need to be careful.

- Quit or die.

- The potential harm is likely to be very, very small.

- Usage has tripled.

- Vapes are everywhere.

- causing blindness.

- Promotes smoking.

- Nicotine is in here.

- Ignorance is a real problem.

- Other than heroin.

- gateway to cocaine.

- It's the most addictive drug there is.

- But are they really that awesome?

- Every study has to be questioned.

- Cherry picking studies.

- taxing them. - Regulated.

- Puffer control. - Same as cigarettes.

- Stupid fools. - Easy to buy a cigarette.

- They're considered cigarettes.

- Than to buy an e-cigarette.

- You cave in. - Gone.

- my whole life I've been told that smoking is bad.

Smoking will kill you.

Smokers are stupid.

I pretty much thought that smoking was a thing of the past.

Part of history.

I was wrong.

I was shocked that I found out that a billion people

Are projected to die early from smoking this century.

I was even more surprised when I found out

That many people were using new ways to quit.

But that those ways were being banned

In more and more countries.

On our journey to find the truth

We traveled around the world.

We discovered a common mentality.

People that choose to smoke, deserve to die.

Despite research showing modern cigarettes to be deadly

The number of smokers around the world continues to rise.

Millions are dying early.

Casualties of a war they don't understand.

Shoddy studies,

Fear of the unknown,

And passionate enthusiasm are the weapons of choice.

Battle lines were drawn.

A culture war began.

We discovered a widespread corruption.

To separate the truth from the lies,

The emotion from the facts,

We went to the leading doctors and scientists.

In the end, our journey became about more

Than just smoking, or vaping.

It's about freedom,

Corruption, and the fate of future generations.

This is the battle for a billion lives.

Each year the tobacco industry produces over

Six trillion cigarettes.

That's enough to create a chain from earth to mars,

And back, every single year.

It is estimated that over 1.6 billion smokers

Will be on the planet in the next 20 years.

That's more than the entire population of the earth

Only about 100 years ago.

To understand how we got to this point we went

To the andes mountains, where it all began.

It's hard to believe that something so massive

Could begin as something so small.

Historians tell us that ancient incan priests

Were the only ones in the village who smoked tobacco.

That they used it as a ceremonial cleanser.

To understand where we are with this debate about

Vapor technology, we need to look at how we got here.

And how a billion people, now find themselves trapped.

During the industrial revolution tobacco use changed

In a big way.

Cigarettes made by massive tobacco companies

Became more heavily processed, cheap, convenient,

And a big part of pop culture.

The rise of cigarettes had begun.

l.S./m.F.T. L.S./m.F.T.

Lucky strike means fine tobacco.

Yes, in a cigarette it's the tobacco that counts.

And lucky strike means fine tobacco.

- if we think of the last century

The big breakthrough that really got us into

The problem we were-- what we have was actually

A technology innovation in terms of the cigarette machine.

That immediately allowed us to have millions

And billions of cigarettes being produced.

And sales took off.

At the time there was not much knowledge about the risk.

There actually was already some hint of this

By 1908, 1909, while it was taking off.

Yale researchers were already starting to publish

And advocate for people to not use tobacco

Because of fitness concerns and lung effects.

By the '30s the german's had started producing data.

By the '50s the british had started producing data.

And then we all know finally that 1962

The royal college of physicians report,

Two years later, the surgeon general report came out

And shock horror these products were not just sources

Of pleasures, people thought they were

They were actually causing harm and death.

- in the history of the world, no non-essential

Habit ever got so entranced so fast.

Seventy million americans smoke.

Today they got a message from the United States

Surgeon general, who is at a blue ribbon committee

Studying their habit for 14 months.

- The committee has reached the overall judgment

Cigarette smoking is related to a higher death rates

In a number of disease categories.

- if we go back to understand

When did we first have knowledge

That it's tar that kills and nicotine that addicts?

We now know that bat and randall williams

Knew this from the early '60s.

You can say this is a cynical thing,

Why didn't they stop at that point?

But they were a company with billions of dollars

Investment and were not gonna stop.

- I became the winston man

In 1981.

I was 32-years-old.

And I got a call from an agent in new york

And he wanted to know if I would be interested

In coming up for an interview for an audition.

They were doing a casting for winston.

So I went in, I had an audition.

Two weeks later I get a call

That they narrowed it down and they wanted to see me

Again for a call back.

So I had to go up the next day, unshaven,

Because they wanted me to have that rugged look.

'cause r.J. Reynolds was looking for a

Rugged macho kind of a theme.

They come out and say, "you, you, and you."

Now these are your new winston men for 1981 and '82.

My jaw dropped, I was floored.

I literally was floored.

Never ever, ever, ever thinking about

The outcome of what exactly I was doing

And would have done over the next eight years.

And that was being seven and a half years as

The winston man, in over 42 ads

Showing smoking to be, associated with healthy activity.

'cause that's all tobacco marketing is.

♪ yeah me and my winstons

♪ me and my winstons

♪ we got a real good thing

- After practicing as a physician I then went into

Organized medicine and hit it up the organization

Which is like the mothership of doctors.

The world medical association.

And at that time we were very, very strongly

Against tobacco.

Strongly against tobacco industry,

Who we knew had lied about the mortality/morbidity

Linked to their product.

And we knew that we were up against a huge

Marketing machine.

- the flinstones

Has been brought to you by winston

America's best selling best tasting filtered cigarette.

♪ winstons taste good like a cigarette should ♪

- did our first shoots up in mt. Evans, colorado.

Which was pretty educational for me because

You know what happens to a three pack a day smoker

At 12,000 feet on top of a mountain?

It ain't pretty.

Especially when you're on oxygen.

And you're not able to smoke

When you're on oxygen, 'cause you'll blow up.

And I was there for a good five, six days

With the crew.

They were trying to capture the story

Of what our theme was.

Which was search and rescue, storm searcher.

We would fly in with a helicopter, okay.

We'd be out looking for, whatever we're looking for.

Repelling off the side of the mountain, which was

What they paid me to do.

And then, at the end of the day was light up time.

Sitting on the top of the rock, lighting a cigarette

With your buddy, passing the cigarette to your buddy.

So the theme was, let's tell a story about how

Macho these guys are, how they're saving lives,

Search and rescue, and then at the end of the day

The camaraderie is so special that they have to have

A cigarette together to celebrate their successes

That was the most machismo that they could come up with

Which was now going to compete with the number one brand

Of selling cigarettes, which was marlboro, at the time.

Winston, at that time, was only number four.

- 50 head of cattle headin' for home.

Come to where the flavor is.

Come to marlboro country.

- Within two years winston became the number two

Selling brand, right behind marlboro.

How did that happen?

Marketing.

Marketing.

Marketing.

Spend more money, spend more money.

Let's keep associating this deadly product

With something that kids want.

- Gee, we ought to do somethin' fred.

- Okay.

How's about taking a nap?

- I, I got a better idea.

Let's take a winston break.

- that's it!

- My job was to deliberately to seek out

The vulnerable 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17

Year old and entice them into thinking

That this is what they too could be like.

That's all I did.

26 days a year I had to work for r.J. Reynolds.

They paid me over $100,000 a year.

Not to mention being on billboards, magazines,

Penthouse, playboy, popular mechanics,

Anything that would be a male magazine considered,

That's where my ads were.

Because we weren't trying to entice the girls

To smoke winston.

Because they had their own, they had virginia slims,

And eve, and satins, and capris.

I was ballsy enough to ask a question

Of the r.J. Reynolds tobacco executive,

"how come you guys from r.J. Reynolds don't smoke?"

They said, "we don't smoke the shit, we just sell it.

"we reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor,

"the black, and the stupid."

And billions of dollars were there to fund it.

They're spending more money marketing, okay,

Than a lot of people were spending to prevent it.

- the u.S. Was slowly starting to pick

Its act up to introduce some taxes.

It couldn't make progress on advertising bans

Because first amendment protection.

The tobacco industry was then trying to provide

Research grants to researchers to buy them off.

Or to at least ensure that the direction of research

Didn't go in more of a negative way.

And that's when we had the era of the large tobacco

Finance research groups around the world.

- the tobacco institute.

A trade association with a unique objective.

To promote a free and informed discussion

Of all issues involving america's oldest industry.

- we had a study done by the warton applied

Research center at the university of pennsylvania

In 1979.

- We were involved in grants with the medical college

Of virginia from 1930 to 1960.

- Of course there is a never-ending concern about

The alleged effects of smoking on the health of the smoker.

- The evidence is certainly inconclusive at this time.

- There is no increase in lung cancer mortality rates.

- An individual would have to sit in a crowded bar

Or cocktail lounge for more than 100

Consecutive hours to inhale the equivalent

Of one filtered cigarette.

- Well this study was performed by the american cancer

Society. - That was proven

With the study funded, in part, by the massachusetts

Lung association.

- Which confirms some of our own thinking on the subject.

- I basically got into the anti-smoking movement

Right after I graduated from-- got a masters degree

In public health.

Where I learned that cigarettes are causing more deaths

Than everything else combined

And nobody was doing anything about it

And I got a job at the local county health department

And I was told, "oh, you have tobacco because

"nobody else wants the job."

- back then, in the '80s

There were 32 billion packs a year

Sold of cigarettes in america.

32 billion.

- Nothing but the best for mr. Ricardo.

- Winston filter brand.

- Feel the wonderful smoothness deep down in your throat.

♪ here's to winston

♪ me and my winstons

♪ turn to salem

- Having done all these ads that I did

And feeling pretty good about the money

I wasn't listening to the public's opinion

About tobacco because right about then is when

You started getting all the negativity.

Even though the surgeon general's had talked a bad--

Talked about secondary smoke

And cancer being the number one cause of premature death and disease.

Now this is around 1987 now, '86,

'87, '88.

And I had been doing the ads for almost seven years.

Now you're getting all the scuttlebutt.

Now you're getting all the hate, you're starting

To see anger.

Smoking's killing people, we got proof now.

- It's best if there is no smoking

So I can stay well.

Because it hurts people like me who have asthma

And can cause lung cancer even in non-smokers.

If I could, I would tell the president to make it the law

That no one smoke in public places.

- Things in life that he, he's gonna come in contact with

In growing up

That he doesn't have control over

Because we live in a free society

And we have choices to make.

And smokers have choices, as well as non-smokers

To be around people who smoke.

- The tobacco industry, from the beginning,

First tried to do what I guess any consumer good

Company would do, deny the evidence.

- If you had your preference

Would you want your kids, or your grandkids to smoke?

Or not smoke?

- I have no preference.

- We have no preference.

- I don't believe that nicotine, or our products,

Are addictive.

- like father, like son.

Think about it.

For information on smoking and heart disease

Ask your heart association.

- there's now a movement with the national

Cancer institute, cancer, lung, heart,

Not to mention the government and surgeon general,

That says hey, smoking's killing people

And we got proof now, now we got evidence

We got tobacco files, we got people talking about it.

Now it's starting to get a little curious.

Because I'm getting the same thing from my kids.

Daddy, quit smoking, my teacher says you're gonna croak.

Daddy, quit smoking, you're gonna die.

Dad, you're gonna--

What happens?

My brother gets cancer.

My brother, I was the youngest of three boys in my family

And he was my older brother, he was only three and a half

Years older.

And he was diagnosed with cancer.

And he was a smoker.

And, for about five years I had to watch him deteriorate.

And I'm doing the ads.

When I did the ads, I was still

Worrying about my brother.

And I had this horrible experience of driving

To boston, and he was in the dana farber cancer institute.

And I walked through the doors.

Here we have oncologists, doctors, nurses

People taking care of people who are dying,

Literally dying,

From what they chose to do at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,

Et cetera.

Now they have to pay the price.

So now I'm starting to get a little

Clued in here.

Well, maybe this is bad.

Maybe this garbage is killing people.

My brother's dying from it.

I'm certainly not feeling the way I did when I was 16

Smoking a pack a day.

Now I can't get up and down stairs quite as much.

So I'm starting to see the logic behind all the hate.

I started seeing smokers being seen, not only as

Cool, macho, tough, rugged, beautiful, sexy, glamorous,

Fun loving, free spirited,

But smelly, stinky, yellow-toothed people.

Now you're starting to see the segue from

60% of the american people smoking

Or chewing or dipping or spitting,

And now you're starting to see the swing.

I had to make a decision and there was a six hour

Ride home.

And I probably smoked two packs of cigarettes

On that ride home.

'cause now I'm stressed.

Now I'm starting to feel pretty bad about this because

Now I gotta go face my kid.

And I talked to my son

And I walked in the door

And he talked to me.

He said, "dad, you're gonna die like uncle bob, right?"

Boom!

Just like that.

That's how it hit me.

It was like a boom.

You know

There's a good chance that I will.

That was my epiphany.

So long ago

That's how it hit me.

And, my passion for my kids,

And my wife was so grand that I was gonna beat it.

Okay, so I made a decision

It was July 17th, when I told my son,

"I'm gonna quit.

"I promise, I'm gonna quit."

And, right hand up to god, "I'm gonna quit,

"I'm gonna quit."

And he said, "okay dad, you promise, right?"

Well what you don't tell a 10 or 11-year-old

Is something then not do it.

'cause they will hound you, and they will hound you,

And they will hound you.

Well he hounded me until the great american smokeout

In November of 1988.

- You see this fan?

Well, I use it while I'm around cigarette smokers.

But I may get a chance to throw it away

During the great american smokeout.

The day the american cancer society asks every smoker

In america to quit for 24 hours.

- I picked that day.

I told my son I was gonna quit.

And, I did.

I get a call from every philadelphia news station,

Television station.

I get a call from cbs this morning with harry smith.

I get a call from abc, I get a call

And they're picking me up by limo

They're taking me to new york.

No one had ever quit smoking publicly,

Especially the winston man who's on every billboard,

Every magazine, everywhere for eight years now,

Going on eight years.

And then he's biting the hand that feeds him.

My brother's dying of cancer.

I promised my kids I wouldn't hurt myself like my brother.

And I've seen so many people dying that I'm not

Gonna do these ads anymore.

I can't do it.

I cannot physically, and morally, do it anymore.

- Image has been a great concern for the tobacco industry.

The person we choose this week was once

One of the industries leading image maker.

- The tobacco industry had really played out to the peak

Of what it was going to do trying to thwart policies

- Our long and difficult four-year journey down tobacco road

Has come to a victorious end.

- The largest financial recovery in the history

Of the world.

- We've arrived at our final destination,

And that's the destination of tobacco justice.

- Close to 33,000 lawsuits against big tobacco.

The precedence were being set.

So now if one person sues, and you got the same disease

Then so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

So they sat around, and said, "let's come up with a way."

And they went to meetings, they went to private meetings

According to the tobacco files that I've been privy to.

And they said, "we've got to come up with something

"that's going to stop these lawsuits."

Well, here's what you're gonna have to do

Big tobacco people.

You're gonna have to give us some money back

In order for us to convince our constituency

That that money, 'cause we're sick and tired

Of paying for medicare, and medicaid

Rehabilitation and prevention

Because your product has cost us and our state.

Michael moore did it, in mississippi.

Michael moore took on big tobacco, said,

"I'm gonna sue your asses."

He's the only one that did it.

He sued, and won 12 billion dollars.

So then it became even more important

That they justify this money being spent.

Even if it was for a year, or two.

They've never said they were gonna use it forever

In the 25 years that they're gonna get it.

Florida said, oh my.

I'd like some of that.

We have the same problem.

We're suing too.

They've got 11 billion.

Texas did it, they got 13 billion

'cause it was all based on per capita

And pro-rated a number of citizens.

Minnesota did it.

Four states got 46 billion dollars

In a matter of a week.

46 billion.

Well, every other state wanted to touch-- a piece of that.

We want some of that.

We, we're paying medicare too.

So let's come up with a number that everybody can live with.

They came up with 200 billion.

Plus the 46 that went previously to those four states.

And they gave attorney generals 72 hours

To sign on.

And the only way they would get any money

If they signed on without even knowing what was going on.

And you'll get your money over the next 25 years.

Every state did it, okay.

But, in that decision in 72 hours they had to

Sign off that they would not let anybody in their state

Sue big tobacco.

That was in 1999, and the msa became the first bailout.

Yeah, we need it for the kids.

We need it for the children.

We need it for prevention.

Education.

Intervention.

Cessation.

We need all the ta ta.

- Like you, the nation's attorney's general have been

Fighting to help reverse the staggering toll

Tobacco takes on our society.

And to protect our children from a lifetime of addiction.

- This plan, in short, will get big tobacco

Off the backs of our kids.

- They got the money.

They signed on.

And then within two years that money's gone.

They either put it in bonds, where they can't pay it back.

They used it for road repair, waterfront restoration.

They used it for health department's new computers,

The states are not using the money that they said

They needed, and the tobacco companies are now

Giving all this money to the states.

And then nobody knew that within 48 hours after they

Gave up 246 billion dollars

They raised the price of cigarettes 48 cents

Across the board, to make up the 246.

Nobody cares about it, nobody wants to talk about it

Because it's not scandalous enough.

- The tobacco industry has conceded defeat.

And we have a settlement of historic proportions.

- What did new jersey do?

They sold all their money in a bond.

Now it's due to be paid back

And new jersey doesn't have the money to pay it back.

There's eight states that had done that.

The other states wasted the money on everything

But prevention, education, cessation.

So there is more corruption, there's more government

Intervention for keeping tobacco alive

And keeping the big tobacco monopolies

Raising half a trillion dollars a year.

Half a trillion, if not more.

That's what they admit to.

- by the time of the minnesota court case

In 1998, the state of minnesota didn't only seek

Redress in financial terms,

But required that the tobacco industry

Place all of their previously secret documents

In the public domain.

And from then on, we knew the road map of the industry

And what it had been since the '60s.

So it was only in retrospect that we actually understood

Just how deep and pervasive the influence had been

At the government level, at the research level,

And at the individual ministry area level.

As tobacco rates start falling to maybe 20%

Or below 20%, you're getting into a hardcore group

Of smokers who are not smoking out of pure trice

But they're smoking because they are addicted

And they have a physical need for nicotine in their lives.

- I started smoking cigarettes at 12.

And, really if I think about it, my daughter's

Not too far from 12.

And thinking of her smoking a cigarette is

Really just sickening.

The first time I ever smoked a cigarette a few of my

Friends had come over to spend the night.

And one of the older ones had brought a pack

Of cigarettes from her dad's carton.

We proceeded to go to the tree house across the street

And we smoked the entire pack of cigarettes.

I remember it made me sick.

It made me dizzy, but more importantly

I remember from that moment forward

Wanting to smoke cigarettes.

So, at 12, I mean you can't really go out

And buy a pack of smokes.

So I would basically do what I could.

I would take the

Burning cigarettes from the ash tray

When my mother wasn't looking.

Or, take cigarettes

Out of her pack.

Or, even worse, I would take the butts

Out of the ash tray, which is really disgusting.

- It was not easy.

I probably quit seven, eight, nine times.

And I come back hating myself.

My son looked at me, and he looked so disappointed.

He knew I was smoking.

He knew that I had just failed miserably.

But when the mindset says I need to quit,

I want to quit, I have to quit, I'm going to quit.

And then you try and you fail, you try and you fail,

You try and you fail, you try and you fail.

After awhile you say, screw it, I'm done.

I'll go to my grave smoking.

- And those are the people that are facing

Almost all the risks.

Those are the people that are gonna account for

99% of the lung cancers,

Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

And heart diseases caused by smoking.

- We always need a disruption

To actually shift the market and the market forces.

And I believe that hon lik's work as the inventor

Of an e-cigarette really represents

This disruptive change.

- Just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant

Moment in time which lots of things came together

And hon lik took it and actually made it a reality.

- Hon lik came up with this brilliant invention

And that's the mark of a true innovator, okay.

Somebody that can paradigmly can shift things into

A whole new way of doing things.

- it was in 2005. Originally, I wasn't that excited

When I saw just the manual reading about it

Because I'm not a smoker.

When I actually saw the product

With the vapor coming out

I knew there was something there.

So then we worked on it for about a year.

And so I officially formed siterra

In September of 2006 and we launched it.

Really our big breakthrough was the ces show

January of 2008.

- I'm here at ces

And, I'm mostly interested in gadgets and things.

But, this caught my eye.

This guy is here, and he is not smoking next to me.

Because there is no smoking on the show floor

But he's not smoking.

What is, what exactly is in njoy?

- Njoy is an electronic cigarette.

And the way that we do this, is we take a battery.

From the battery we have a patented vaporization system.

So what you're seeing coming from the device

Is not smoke.

It's vapor.

- it became the hit of the show and became written up

In a bunch of magazines, and even online.

- it's a huge memory void as to where I got

My first e-cigarette.

All I know is that I had in 2007

Two or three e-cigs.

One from china, one from america, one from

Somewhere in europe.

And I'm playing with them, that's all I remember.

And they're wonderful things, like absolutely amazing.

But they're also really bad.

I mean, they are, what they are are a proof of concept.

And I'm struck by the potential here.

Thinking, oh my god, this will be the product

That can transform smokers lives.

But, this ain't gonna do it.

And then I thought, well, my god there must be other people

Saying the same thing as me, thinking

Close, very, very close.

And so, you know, where do you go?

You look on the web.

And, nothing. Nothing.

A few dodgy commercials, if you kind of, you know

I-stock photo images of people.

I thought, god, we need a conversation.

We need to start a conversation.

And what a better way to do that than the most

Antiquated form of internet communications,

A forum, that's what we need, a forum.

So I set it up one night in, I think, December 2007.

And,

Not much happened.

So, I went up, as you do

Around the internet, and said hey guys

If you want to talk about it come to my website.

And people came.

And we started a conversation about

What are these products?

Where do they come from, who sells them,

How much do they cost?

But principally

These things got to get better.

How are they gonna get better? You know? What's the--

And we got very anal about it.

So we were taking photographs of

Tiny little pieces of metal

And connections and screws, and things like this.

- I think that I had seen a news story on

Cnn, or something, about this new gadget called

An electronic cigarette.

And I was a heavy smoker.

So, you know, I had a love of electronics

And gadgets, and I smoked

About two and a half packs a day.

So I thought, well, whatever this thing is

It must be for me.

So, I went online and

I found one

And back in those days, you know, 2007,

All you could buy was these big

Bulky pen style e-cigs.

And I bought one, not thinking much about it.

And it showed up one day

And I put it together

And, not really thinking it would be too impressive

But I took a drag, and I was stunned

I was absolutely stunned.

It was, I couldn't believe at

How closely it mimicked the sensation of smoking.

And I remember later that day, four hours had gone by

And it occurred to me that I had forgotten

To have a cigarette.

I was just amazed by this

Way more than I thought I would be.

But there was one thing I was not amazed by

And that was by the taste.

It tasted awful.

You really didn't know, in those days, you didn't

Know where the liquid was coming from.

You didn't know how it was being made.

You didn't know what was in it.

In those days, you might be lucky if

You'd get a little plastic bottle

With some liquid in it that said,

"vanilla" or whatever.

And that was it.

There were no companies in the United States.

Everything was being made overseas at the time.

And I was really surprised by that.

So, at that point, it wasn't about starting

A company for me.

It was about creating a liquid that I wanted to vape.

That's all it was.

So, I started just

Trial and error, a lot of trial and error.

I went out and bought all the tobacco I could.

I bought cigarette tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigar tobacco.

And just created this giant tobacco mixture.

And what I decided to do was

I went and got five coffeemakers

And I lined them up on my kitchen counter.

And, I brewed, essentially tobacco water.

And I would use that water as the water to

Filter it all over again.

By the time I was done, I had a essentially

A highly concentrated tobacco reduction.

And this, this was the primary flavoring.

I went onto the ecf

And I asked if anyone wanted to try

My new smoke juice, that I was calling it by then.

And, you know, if you want a free sample, let me know

And I'll send it to you.

And kind of figured maybe, 12, 13 people would reply.

And I had over 300 replies.

And it took about two weeks

And I got every single request out.

And then the waiting began.

And it was the longest week of my life.

And so I'll never forget about six days later

I got an email

From someone who I knew was sampling it.

And, and I remember I had to pull over

Before reading the email because I figured, okay,

Well it's all gonna come down to this.

Either they hate it, or they love it.

And, so I pulled over

I looked at the email and it said,

You have to tell me how I can buy this.

And, I thought, okay well

Maybe we have something then.

- it was around 2010 and I saw a friend.

He had a ciga, like,

You know, e-cig.

I asked him about it and thought, oh that's cool.

A few months later I did some research

And I got online and I found there was a company in the uk

That was selling better devices than what my friend had had

And I bought one.

And the day that e-cig arrived

Was it was a life changer.

Literally, as soon as I started using it

I never had another cigarette.

I lost it one night when I was out with friends.

And in the morning, I couldn't find it, and it was gone.

And they're all quite expensive back then and

You had to order them from overseas

And I couldn't afford to replace it immediately

And I couldn't have even if I wanted to, there were no shops.

There was nowhere to buy them in australia at the time.

So I went back to smokes.

My sister died at

34 years old.

From non-hodgkin's lymphoma

In her lungs.

And, there's no question that it was the smoking

That did it to her.

And, I've been trying to quit for years

And this had been the thing, the game changer,

That changed everything for me.

Not being able to buy it locally just seemed insane.

So I started a business and it was great.

It was almost word of mouth at the beginning it was

Just an online store.

But it started to get some traction

- The hobbyist side of things that you see today

Really started very, very early on

With this kind of real obsession

With precisely what these devices are.

And what made two devices different.

And that's really how it all started.

- As we've seen in so many other areas of technology,

Suddenly the cozy way in which public policy

Has driven tobacco was challenged by something new.

- I don't think that people either on the public health side

Or the tobacco side, expected how consumers would respond.

'cause it seems that the formulation of the early

E-cigarettes met a need of a smoker to have what they

Really what many of them wanted, 70, 80% want.

To get nicotine's pleasures without getting the damaging effects.

- have we got a solution for you.

The all-exclusive smoking everywhere electronic cigarette.

Are you ready for a change?

- In 2009 and 2010, us customs agents

Seized almost 1,000 shipments of e-cigarettes

At us ports.

- they made a determination that it was

A drug delivery device.

That since it was battery operated

That it was a device.

And therefore under their fda drug delivery

There wasn't fda approval for it,

That they could seize the product.

And they seized, I think probably about

Half a million dollars worth of product.

And the product, when they got it back, was worthless.

- Two e-cigarette companies, smoking everywhere and njoy, sued the fda

In 2009.

- We were reasonably pessimistic at the time

And of course, we had nowhere near the numbers

Of people using the products.

- This was an industry that needed all the

Help it could get.

- one of our moderators was actually day to day

Checking the court documents

And finding out whether there had been an update.

We were on tenterhooks.

I mean, I talk about the ecf would only last two years,

But right then, we were thinking everything was

Gonna just disappear.

There was absolutely no certainty whatsoever

That the judgment was gonna come back

Against what the fda was doing at the time.

- There as definitely a prevailing sense that

If the ruling came down in favor of the fda

It likely would have meant the end of the industry

Before it really had had a chance to get off the ground.

- I filed an amicus brief with the dc court of appeals

In 2010 in support of their case.

And we won.

- the us district court for the district of columbia

Has issued a decision granting leading global

Electronic cigarette brand njoy's motion

For preliminary injunction seeking to prevent

The fda from detaining, or refusing admission

Into the us of its electronic cigarette products.

- We had the hearing in September of 2010.

And actually on pearl harbor day, December 7th, voted

Three-nothing in our favor.

The fda tried to appeal again.

They turned them down.

They announced they weren't gonna appeal

To the supreme court.

- There's a lot of celebrating going on.

- Njoy's a hero in this industry.

For having carried that case to its final conclusion

They really are.

Because without that, I don't think anybody else

Could have stepped up to the plate.

- I remember thinking that

This is the start of the industry.

- there's a new warning this morning that

E-cigarettes may not be as safe as they seem.

The new England journal of medicine says e-cigarette

Users are five to 15 times more likely

To get formaldehyde related cancers

Than long-term smokers.

Formaldehyde is the toxic chemical found in the devices.

- This is the part in our journey where people

Are actually using these devices reached out to us.

They felt like it had to save their lives

Yet it was under attack.

At first, we were skeptical.

Just like everyone else, we'd seen the headlines

That vaping might be more dangerous than smoking

Cigarettes.

- This is a dangerous product.

- It is a poisonous product of nicotine.

- New studies show that e-cigarettes are more deadly

Than regular cigarettes?

- These really have me concerned.

- These products are exposing you to a variety

Of toxic chemicals.

- Understanding that over a billion people

Are gonna die this century from smoking

We knew we had to find the truth.

Because I'm not a smoker, or a vaper,

We packed our bags and headed around the world

To meet with leading scientists and health experts

To find out what was really going on.

- I think the first thing the world needs to know

About vaping is that all of the harm

And the billion lives that we're talking about

And in tobacco use, comes from smoking,

Comes from setting fire to it

And inhaling the smoke.

So it's the toxic particles, the toxic gases.

That's what's doing the damage.

- The real problem is if you set tobacco a light

And you inhale it,

It's bad for you.

If you put a piece of beef in the oven

And you overcook it

And you eat it, it's bad for you.

Anything you set to light and inhale or ingest

Is bad for you.

- If you weren't to smoke, you've solved the problem.

We know how to deal with the smoke.

So, I think people working on this

Every morning, just like clinton when he first ran

For president had that sign saying,

"it's the economy stupid."

To remind him every day what to concentrate on.

It's really simple.

It's the smoke stupid.

- A normal cigarette has at least 4,000 toxicants.

Including-- it has nicotine, as well.

And if a consumer would take all of that on board

They are-- one out of two of those consumers

Will develop disease and die an early death.

Solid evidence to back that up.

- If somebody would have said, "bill, can you think of a

"parameters of a product to replace cigarettes."

Theoretically I've had said, "well, it would be

"99% less hazardous than cigarettes.

"it wouldn't be addicting non-smokers.

"it wouldn't encourage anybody to switch to cigarettes.

"and it would help lots of people quit smoking."

That's the ideal solution to the cigarette epidemic

In this world.

And it's called vaping.

- It's not smoking.

There's no tobacco.

Nothing is lit on fire.

Vaping uses a battery,

Which powers an atomizer,

Which vaporizes a liquid.

Which may, or may not, have nicotine in it,

Has a flavoring, and is made with an fda approved

Food grade liquid base.

- Well I first became interested when some of the most

Hardened smokers that I saw as a general practitioner

Started giving up with the use of these.

That really sort of sparked my fascination

With this whole idea of turning the idea

Of quitting on its head instead of being about

Denial and withdrawal.

But being about something exciting

And something better than smoking.

- it's gonna be one of the biggest

Contributions to public health this century.

It's a really transformative technology.

And just think back a hundred or plus years

When the cigarette was first invented,

That was transformative.

It did away with all the other kinds of

Tobacco products.

E-cigarettes are gonna be equally transformative.

- It can save a billion lives.

- Anytime someone attacks a promising alternative

To a massive problem

And you have to ask, why?

The answer is money.

Money

And one of the most fascinating alliances in history.

- Well there are lots of forces that play

Pro-vaping, and anti-vaping.

And it's hugely complex.

- The war on vaping began with the fdas attack.

But they weren't the only ones on their side.

To fully understand this alliance that formed

We need to go to the american south

And the theory of the baptists and the bootleggers.

In many counties, they hold periodic votes

To decide the fate of alcohol sales.

An unholy alliance forms between the preachers

Who don't want alcohol being used in their communities.

And the bootleggers are willing to sell alcohol

When and where it's not legal.

They're happy to help the preachers restrict alcohol sales

Because that kills their competition.

It's a classic example of the enemy of my enemy

Is my friend.

At the end of the day they both drive around town

With the same bumper stickers.

Unfortunately, counties that vote to restrict alcohol

Sales have higher rates of drunk driving fatalities.

We see the same two sides in the vaping wars.

You have the bootleggers who are opposed to vaping

For business reasons.

And you have the preachers who are opposed to vaping

On moralistic grounds.

Well let's talk about the bootlegger side.

Remember big tobacco?

They don't like competition for their one trillion

Dollar business.

- analysts say electronic, or e-cigarettes

Will become a two billion dollar industry

Worldwide by the end of the year.

With some predicting sales will outpace

Conventional cigarettes within five to 10 years.

- Cigarette companies realize

That e-cigarettes are now a threat

To the old business.

- And, are they?

- It's one of the very rare cases where you have

Such controversy about the product.

And to the point that people don't understand that

It is the main competitor of tobacco cigarettes today.

The e-cigarette is the main competitor of tobacco cigarettes.

- some people have had changes in behavior,

Hostility, agitation, depressed mood,

And suicidal thoughts or actions while taking

Or after stopping chantix.

Some people can have allergic or serious skin reactions

To chantix, some of which can be life threatening.

Patients also reported trouble sleeping

And vivid, unusual or strange dreams.

Talk to your doctor to find out if prescription

Chantix is right for you.

- Drug companies know that doctors hold all

The real power in the prescription drug business.

- break the hold of nicotine addiction.

See your doctor about treatments.

- While they spend nearly four billion dollars

A year marketing directly to us

They spend an estimated 24 billion dollars a year

Marketing directly to doctors.

- Big pharmaceutical companies also lovingly

Known as big pharma, want to protect their

Six billion dollar nicotine replacement therapy business.

- not only are they trying to ban

All their competitors,

The smoke-free alternatives,

But they are trying to promote gums, patches,

Lozenges and any fda approved drugs

As the only effective was to quit smoking.

- I'm not a big fan of nicotrol, nicaband,

Habitrol.

The inhalers.

Which contain the exact same thing that vaping

Devices have.

The propylene glycol.

The only thing it doesn't have is the the flavors.

- nicotine replacement therapy

Which is not an attractive product at all.

And it does not deliver the success that it should.

- Okay, I'm gonna cook the purple one.

- he gets the prescription from his doctor.

It's also found in the over the counter

Anti-smoking drug zyban.

But crushed, cooked, and injected

It delivers a crack cocaine-like high.

Each hit leaves a scar.

Skin abscesses, collapsed veins,

And clogged arteries.

Injuries attributed to injecting wellbutrin

And zyban.

It's killed six people in ontario.

- people go out and get prescription for chantix.

No, that was fast-tracked through the fda.

It has a black box warning on it.

Could cause you to have suicidal thoughts.

Could cause you to commit suicide.

But that's fine, let's just keep selling that crap, you know.

- If you look at the united kingdom

And the solid evidence which is being built up by

Robert wist, it shows without any doubt

That e-cigarettes have already supplanted

Nicotine replacement therapy, medicine,

As the preferred way for smokers to quit

Or to substitute their smoking.

- So if you have a pharmaceutical company

Who's starting to see your share of the market

On nicotine replacement therapy

Slide relative to these-- up and coming

E-cig people, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna sit on your bum and do nothing?

- under the korean law, electronic cigarettes

Are considered cigarettes.

Until comprehensive research proves that e-cigarettes

Are harm-free, and contribute to quitting smoking.

Nicotine patches or chews that are scientifically proven

To be safe, should be promoted.

- It made sense to find big tobacco and big pharma

In the bootlegger camp, 'cause they sell things.

But it was confusing to us when we found national

Governments were right there with them.

- Governments worldwide are the biggest

Shareholders in the revenue of cigarettes.

- Using the united states as an a example,

In 2010, the year that the fda went after vaping,

The federal government collected 15 and a half

Billion dollars in tobacco taxes.

Just three years later, after vaping began to take off,

Tobacco taxes were down to 14 billion dollars.

That's a difference of one and a half billion dollars.

- The e-cigarette industry should be put out of business.

- The government's getting billions of billions

Of billions of tax revenue.

- But it's not just the taxes.

Some countries actually own their own tobacco companies.

- The chinese national tobacco corporation

Is the main supplier of cigarettes.

It's 100% owned by the chinese government.

So in effect, the chinese government

Is the world's largest tobacco company.

- japan tobacco owns the camel brand.

Besides those two, there are 14 other countries

That own large tobacco companies.

So who are the preachers?

Unfortunately, these are the people smokers

Go to for advice.

Their medical professionals and other healthcare

Organizations.

Like the cdc,

Fda,

And the world health organization.

- The fundamental truth, I think is that

The battle in the end became very personalized.

It became public health versus the tobacco industry.

- Tobacco control has had decades of doing

The same things.

Just, you know, screwing down the controls

A bit harder, increasing the taxes a bit more.

Doing plain packaging.

None of which I disagree with.

But, when something comes out of totally out of left field,

I don't think they know how to deal with it.

- The groups that were kind of in charge of that

Around the world, felt that really they were in the

Final leg, the final push

Would just end this story forever.

- And now we cannot allow e-cigarettes

To snuff out the progress we've made

Preventing nicotine addiction and its deadly consequences.

- It's shocking to hear, I almost, you know, flinch

When I hear, colleagues saying things

About e-cigarettes that we know, or they should know

Are completely wrong, exaggerated, or scare-mongering.

There's too much of that going on.

- We don't know enough research in terms of

The long-term risks.

- The jury's out on this one.

They might, or might not be able to help you quit

But there are definite harms that they can cause.

- We don't yet know about vaping.

- It's the same as antifreeze.

- We used to have very dangerous products

And the makers of those used to lie about those.

We now have much safer products

And the public health communities lying about those.

- We know that they don't actually allow people

To stop smoking.

- now there's even more evidence that

That these are a gateway to smoking regular cigarettes.

- These cigarette makers are making these for kids.

Because they make chocolate, and other flavors.

- What's going on?

- Frankly, they don't think they can see too clearly

Sometimes when it comes to a product

That involves nicotine, like e-cigarettes.

Because of the association with tobacco that just

Seems to blot out the sun for these people.

And they can't look at the facts as objectively

As they otherwise might.

- In many people's mind, nicotine is so closely

Associated with tobacco and smoke.

That they don't separate out.

This is just one of the components

In a cigarette.

- What we always used to say in the stop smoking services

Is that nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine.

But actually, we're finding more now

That once you take it out of the cigarette

Which we know has got other chemicals into

Enhance the action of nicotine

It doesn't seem to be so addictive.

- You never see anyone sniffing pure nicotine.

You never see anyone injecting pure nicotine.

No one wants to inject or to use nicotine in a pure form

And you know it would be much cheaper

To get nicotine as a solution

Rather than to use, to take it from cigarettes.

But everyone likes cigarettes because it's

Not only nicotine.

- It's not particularly dangerous in itself.

Some people are saying, well, in terms of risk

It may be on the level with, say, coffee

Or something like that.

- nicotine is a mild stimulant.

We have data from sweden which-- where they have

Huge rates of nicotine use

Lifelong use.

The rates of lung cancer are half that

Of the rest of europe.

The rates of heart attacks are half that

Of the rest of europe.

And the reason is because the tobacco they use

Is a special smokeless pasteurized product called snus

Which is a harm-reduction product, much the same

As electronic cigarettes are.

And so we know that really lifelong use of nicotine

You can't measure any significant health

Impacts from that.

- The data we have on that is, it really comes from

Looking at people using patches and gums.

And the data show that you can use nicotine

For many many years.

- Many people have gone on to be lifelong users

Including I might say my sister,

With no additional risk, but dramatic declines

In their probability of risks.

And I think part of it is the way physicians,

Nurses, health professionals get trained

And the way they send their message forward

They often don't know that very simple fact.

- What I'm extremely disappointed with in myself

And in our movement, especially around the

Framework convention on tobacco control

Is that we did not recognize the simple role of nicotine,

Molecule nicotine,

And the possibility of tobacco on reduction.

Frankly you don't get people to move

And especially not one 1.4 billion people

To move by giving them a sermon.

And lecturing them and saying, you quit or you die.

Here's some nicotine replacement therapy, or gum

Or your patch, you'll only be allowed to use it

For 12 weeks.

Because, you're the bad person, you need to stop smoking.

And use this and then let's hope that we can fix you.

And that's a gap, and it's a great failing.

- what struck me, was in my career, which extends

From working on tobacco in south africa through who,

Is how rarely we actually make the point

Very clearly, that nicotine addicts, tar kills.

That very simple separation of what's in a product.

And yet we've known it for years.

It was in the original surgeon general's report

In 1964, clearly stated

That long-term use of nicotine alone confers

Very little to no harms on people.

- do those professionals actually know

How people die of smoking?

And then you get to the disturbing fact that

If you ask the question to, let's say

The physicians in america,

"does nicotine cause cancer?"

Simple question.

Does that cause cancer?

70% of them would say yes.

And the science is absolutely clear

That nicotine is not a carcinogen.

It is an addictive agent.

So it's part of the ritual and the attractiveness

Of people smoking cigarettes.

But it's not the nicotine that kills,

It's the tar and the smoke.

We weren't honest with our patients.

If health professionals, and those who are in a position

Of trust, where people would want to confide

Or discuss quitting,

You would want them to have the right information.

And that, to me, was the shocking

Shocking part, in myself, is that I

Did not know that nicotine is not a carcinogen.

So where I would have been in a position to help

My patients, or family members who smoke

With less harmful products

So that they, if they couldn't stop or quit smoking

They'd at least switch to something less harmful.

And unfortunately, the health professionals

Especially physicians are normally

Not in a position where they get

Feedback when they are wrong.

Very honest to say that I personally got it wrong.

- Fda's own funded scientists came out and said

That vapers are exposed to dramatically

Less toxicants than

Smokers.

And they are exposed to very similar levels of toxicants

As non-tobacco users.

Unfortunately, the fda officials, when they

Talk to the news media, don't say that.

- The dilemma is you, you can't get 1.4 billion people.

It's the size of the catholic church.

It's the size of the indian population.

All to quit smoking cigarettes tomorrow.

It's just not going to happen.

So the alternative is to provide safer,

Not safe, but safer alternatives.

- all these other products are so much less

Hazardous.

And yet, our public health agencies are saying,

No, no, you have to absolutely stop all tobacco

And all nicotine use.

That's their goal.

♪ lollipop lollipop

♪ oh lolli lolli lolli

♪ lollipop lollipop

♪ oh lolli lolli lolli

♪ lollipop lollipop

- As we look at the arguments against vaping

From the preachers, it seems that there's an issue of pride.

Nobody likes to admit that they're wrong,

Especially when they're the expert.

- my name is serena chen, I'm with the

American lung association.

- Every time we watched a public hearing about vaping

It was intriguing to see that one of the major

Health charities was there to attack it immediately.

- The anti-tobacco community

Is also a small economy in itself.

- Cancer, heart, and lung, for the last

20 years, their tobacco control advocacy

Has all been financed by pharmaceutical grants

And contracts.

- I found out that cancer's 150 billion dollar industry.

Hmmm.

The american cancer society, you know,

Most profitable non-profit organization out there.

- Every advertisement on television you saw

For gums, patches, and lozenges for the nicoderm,

Nicorette, and commit lozenge

It said, sponsored by the american cancer society

And it had the american cancer society logo on it.

- Every state has a chapter, every county has a chapter,

And every city has a chapter.

17 to 18% of that money goes to research.

The rest goes to the multi-million dollar salaries

Of all of the ceos, cfos,

Coos, cdos,

Clos.

Everybody's got-- and so on and so on and so on.

I just know that people keep donating year after year

After year after year and we have more walks

And more relays and more ribbons.

Because people haven't done what the problem

Needed to be done.

And that is, stop the source of the problem.

You go to a river, you see a baby floating down,

A dead baby floating down.

You pull in the dead baby, I'll pull a dead baby,

Another dead baby comes out, pull out a dead baby.

All we're doing is reaction, pull out dead.

Look, go to the beginning of the mouth of the river

And see who's throwing the babies in.

Then stop that person then maybe we won't have

The dead babies floating down the river.

I know I'm being obnoxious here, but

It's as simple as that.

- If the tobacco model as we know it were to change

Drastically, all of those ngo's

Would be out of business.

They're holding onto the phone,

They don't want the phone to die.

- Then I started investigating the product

And I could see the potential. I was worried, also,

Because potential was very high.

I said, wow, my smoking cessation center

Would be out of business in a matter of

A few years.

- So we have the bootleggers

With their billions of dollars.

And we have the preachers

With their loud voices and trusted brands.

How does this truth stand a chance

Especially when the vast majority of vaping advocates

Are a rag tag bunch of unorganized vapers.

And their loudest group are the cloud chasers.

♪ I hear the freaks, freaks, freaks come out

♪ they don't stop dancing til

♪ the sunlight hits their eyes

♪ I hear the freaks, freaks, freaks come out

♪ and this club's lookin' like

♪ everyone's lost their mind

♪ heading tonight

♪ li-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-ive

♪ I get the feeling that tonight's on for sure

♪ inject my blood with the bass line black light

♪ I hear the freaks are coming out for some more

♪ I hear the freaks-freaks

♪ frea-frea-frea-freaaeaeaeaea frea

♪ I hear the freaks-freaks

♪frea-freafreaffrearferaferaerfa

♪ let's drop

- For the first time, stopping smoking can be fun.

You don't see websites devoted to the latest patch.

You know, you don't see any chat like that.

You see masses of chat in the forums and so on,

People talking about these devices, how they're using them

And so, it's kind of interesting.

It's kind of a bit of a community sense.

- they're hanging out together.

They're a group again.

They're family.

They were persecuted, he was persecuted, and she was--

So now they can all come together

And they're not gonna be persecuted anymore because

They've done what we've asked them to do

And that is find a safer alternative.

♪ whoa whoa

- But the vast majority of vapers

Are moms and dads,

Grandmas and grandpas,

Your neighbors,

Who are desperately trying to quit

Something that is slowly killing them.

- I'm from the uk.

I'm a dad.

An it engineer.

A vaper.

An archer.

A cook.

A husband.

Used to be a chemist.

And,

Used to be a smoker.

I tried an rt, and I've tried cold turkey.

And I tried all sorts of things to try

To give up smoking because I knew

That it was making me ill.

And the year before I stopped smoking I had more than

Four serious chest infections that required

Inhalers, and drugs, you know, it was crazy.

Just over five years ago I came across this bad boy.

I haven't got rid of it because well,

It's kind of a savior.

On that day I stopped smoking tobacco.

That was it.

I quit.

That's pretty powerful stuff.

I just got the device myself.

I didn't need anyone's help.

I didn't need a prescription.

I didn't need a doctor's say so.

I didn't need a hand out from the government.

Or the health authority, or a charity.

I just quit smoking.

That's mad.

That's kinda cool.

- In the meantime, the people who have the power to

Help them quit smoking find themselves

In a conflict of interests.

Let's look at the fda.

The fda is known to have a history of hiring people

From big pharma, and then once they're done at the fda

They go back to big pharma.

It's a revolving door.

The current head of the fda center for tobacco

Is a former lobbyist for the big pharma company

That sells nicorette gum in the United States.

This is the same division that in 2014

Proposed banning 99% of the vapor products on the market.

- It will ban more than 99.99%

Of all e-cigarette products on the market today.

- Over in california, state senator leno was accepting

Large campaign contributions from big pharma

While at the same time proposing regulations

And taxes on vapor products.

- We are at risk of losing 25 years effort

And a two billion dollar investment

In keeping a next generation from becoming

Addicted to the killing drug of nicotine.

We have information from not only the california

Department of public health, which has declared

These devices to be dangerous and unsafe.

And they are currently in the midst of an

Educational campaign.

You may have seen some of the television commercials

That are out right now.

- you smoke pack after pack

Day after day.

♪ I'm back in baby's arms

♪ I missed those lovin' arms

- your day stays fresh.

♪ I'm back where I belong

♪ back in baby's arms

- And then you're gonna hear from all the health advocacy

Groups, the lung association, the heart association,

The cancer society

All those who are in the business

Of protecting public health

Will be speaking in support.

- The american cancer society took endorsement money

For nicotine patches and gum

And then released official statements

Warning against vaping.

- For disclosure, neither I nor smoke-free pennsylvania

Has ever received any funding from any

Tobacco company, from any drug company,

Or from any e-cigarette company.

Most of the anti-tobacco movement, the large organizations

For the last 20 years, the campaign for tobacco-free kids,

The american cancer society, the american heart association,

The american lung association, the american academy

Of pediatrics, the american medical association

And many more have received hundreds of millions

Of dollars from the pharmaceutical companies

That manufacture and market the nicotine gums,

Lozenges and patches

And the chantix and wellbutrin medicines.

For the last 10 years, these organizations have been

Lobbying to ban all smoke-free alternatives.

And we know they started with smokeless tobacco,

With snus, with dissolvables,

With lozenges, the tobacco lozenges that came out.

And then when e-cigarettes came out

The first thing they did was urge the fda to ban them

In 2009.

And the fda did.

- When you have this kind of a triage, okay.

And then you have these other people now feeding off

The tentacles, cancer, lung, heart, getting all this money

From the government.

Getting money from the master tobacco settlement.

What are they supposed to do?

- With all the lobbying from big charities, it looks like

Government took the convenient opportunity

To protect their tobacco profits.

- The category is under threat.

Countries like singapore, thailand,

Probably indonesia, australia

Have banned e-cigarettes.

We just had a vaper from australia saying

She's smoked for 43 years.

She tried everything.

Patches, gum, behavioral therapy, the works.

Didn't work.

She heard about e-cigarettes and she asked her local

Pharmacist, can she have that, she didn't have.

Then she found the quit line.

Could she have an e-cigarette.

She's tried all the other modalities of cessation.

They said, "no, it's illegal."

So that is sending her to an early death.

- Twenty countries have now banned e-cigarettes

Thanks to, due to world health organization

Telling them to.

- In hong kong it's a $12,000 fine.

And/or up to two years in jail.

In brunei, it's $10,000.

This is happening all over the world

Where countries have banned, or heavily restricted vaping.

- And you're doing nothing about smoking.

So you're in a place where you can get cigarettes

Everywhere

But you cannot get e-cigarettes.

- By banning all these least hazardous alternatives

They're actually protecting cigarette markets.

- A vaper...

From dubai.

He was telling me that he had quit smoking

Two years ago with e-cigarettes.

But, he was forced,

By the government, due to the ban, to illegally

Introduce e-cigarette products in the country

In order for him to stay off cigarettes.

So, you are forcing someone to become, to do some

Illegal actions in order to stay away from cigarettes.

And I don't see any reasoning

And any common sense behind that.

- In some countries you need a prescription to vape.

But you can go to the store and buy cigarettes.

In australia, they ban vaping liquids that have nicotine

In them because they say nicotine is a poison.

Yet they sell nicotine gum right in convenience stores

Without any sort of prescription.

- Then three black suvs

Raided my house.

They had a search warrant, a search and seizure warrant.

And they came in and they went through all my things.

They bagged and tagged everything they could find

Related to electronic cigarettes.

And, yeah, they took all my stuff.

It was horrible, it was a scene out of like

It was like, it was like they thought I was some sort

Of columbian drug cartel, or something.

They were alleging that I breached an obscure

Tobacco control act, a law

That said, it is illegal to sell product

That is not a tobacco product

But is designed to resemble a tobacco product.

Um yeah.

The law wasn't written to block electronic cigarettes.

The law was written to block candy cigarettes,

You know those little white cigarettes

With the little red ends on them.

That's what the law was written for.

And the health department were trying to stretch

This law and then use it to block

The lifesaving technology it was insane.

But nonetheless, they took all my things

And I had to shut the business down.

It was horrible after all the success

And seeing the difference I was making in so many

People's lives, to have it shut down and taken away

Like that was just, it was just horrible.

I felt, I couldn't let this go.

If I had given up at that point in time,

It was over.

A precedent would have been set

Banning the sale of these devices.

I can't possibly explain what it's like

To tell your family that

You're gonna push ahead with this thing

Even though it's probably gonna bankrupt you.

But you're simply gonna do it because it's

The right thing to do.

And then at the end, after you do it all

And you go through all of these sacrifices

And all of this pain

And all the fights and arguments,

The court simply ignores the argument

And simply finds you guilty.

The lives of millions of australians and billions

Of people worldwide don't appear to matter

In this situation.

It seems to be about money.

Somebody's got an agenda.

And it isn't about us.

Don't let the bastards win.

I think that's all for now.

- One of the biggest vaping news stories in 2015

Was when portland state university came out with a study

Showing that there was more formaldehyde in vapor

Than in cigarettes.

- formaldehyde study basically was a fraud.

The person who did it...

Set the pv on a wrong setting

And it would dry puff, no vaper could use it.

- All the way up to 12, I'm not trying this

All the way through.

Wish me luck.

It can't be done.

- But they made a machine inhale it.

And then they assumed this machine would inhale

So many, hundreds of inhales every hour

For the rest of their life

For 75 years they projected it out to be.

And they added up all these dry puffs

Of the machine dry puffing for 75 years in a row.

And then said it might be more carcinogenic

Than cigarette smoking.

But, it was a fraud.

A lot of these researchers, they're mostly funded

By the federal government.

The food and drug administration

And the department of health and human services

Through the national institutes of health

And through the centers for disease control

Are funding most of the people who are trying

To ban e-cigarettes.

And they're funding them to go out and lobby to ban

E-cigarettes.

- Even though it's completely illegal

The cdc gave grants to the washington state chapter

Of the american lung association

Who used that money for lobbying.

This is what happened.

- king five news.

- For so many adults, this has been a life

Changing intervention.

- now at 6:30 a heated hearing in olympia

As the state tries to become the first in the nation

To regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco.

Staff bureau chief drew nicholson looks at the proposal

That would make washington's vaping laws

Some of the toughest in the country.

- It's a violation of federal law

To use federal funding to lobby for laws.

But it's been going on.

The cdcs been warned about it by the department

Of health and human inspector general report.

They had hearings in front of the us house

Of representatives, energy and commerce committee on this.

The tom freiden was warned that he could not

Insist in his grants giving out the

State health departments that they lobby for laws.

He was putting it in the grapes

And it's a violation of federal law.

So this has been going on, this is why all these cities,

Municipal health departments, and state health department

Directors have come out calling for bans on

E-cigarettes because they don't want to lose

Their cdc funding.

And why these researchers keep coming out

Every researcher that comes out and generates

A news story saying e-cigarettes contain toxic chemicals

Gets another 10 million dollar grant from the fda

Or the national institutes of health.

- Nothing motivates people quite like fear.

Especially when it involves their children.

- You know this recent report found nearly

Two million middle school and high school students

Have tried electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes.

That set off some alarm bells and this week

40 state attorney's general called on the us

Food and drug administration to regulate these cigs

Just like it regulates tobacco.

- The federal health agencies goals

Was hoping by year 2020 that we could get

The past month smoking rate among youth

Down to 16%.

It's down below 10% now.

Five years ahead of schedule.

And it's because of e-cigarettes.

- The regulatory authorities then confused the water

By saying, well, maybe it reduces harm

But maybe it doesn't.

And we definitely need more research.

But of course, we need more research on everything.

- What do you think, is it a question

Are they bad for you, or we just still don't know?

- I think what we can say basically is

They might be or might not be able to help you quit.

But there are definite harms that they can cause.

And those definite harms are in different environments.

So if they get kids hooked on nicotine

That's a really bad thing.

- Virtually all the daily users of teenagers

Are either smokers, or people who used to smoke.

And the problem is, the researchers aren't disclosing

A lot of this daily use data.

So the only two surveys have ever asked people,

Did you vape nicotine, or no nicotine?

And they found 96% of all non-smokers

Who had ever used an e-cigarette in their life

Used no nicotine e-cigarettes.

- You've called this deeply troubling in the past.

And, why?

Well, if you start with e-cigarettes

There's a real likelihood that you will become

Nicotine addicted.

- So called gateway effect is used as a reason why

E-cigarettes should not be used.

If children start with e-cigarettes that leads

As a gateway to stronger drugs and to smoking.

There's no evidence to back it up yet.

- Just applying first principles to it.

If a product has mainly only nicotine

And another one has nicotine and tar

I don't think you need a long-term 10 year study to say

The former is definitely a better choice for a smoker

Who wants to quit, than the latter.

- You don't think that they had something

So solid that vaping and e-cigs were deadly

And harmful, the formaldehyde, the carcinogens,

The nico, the-- it's all bullshit.

- If you look at the united kingdom

E-cigarette users up to the end of last year

70% of them thought that e-cigarettes

Were safer than standard cigarettes.

That was their perception.

And in the space of six months, that's dropped down

To an perception rate of about 43%.

So through the misinformation, bad science

It's hurt the category.

- Let me ask about the other people who are

Around people who may be smoking e-cigarettes.

Is the idea of secondhand smoke, I mean we know about

That with cigarettes, but some researchers say

The amount of potential carcinogens in the vapor

Potentially is extremely minute

That it's insignificant in fact.

I mean, do you disagree with that?

- Well we don't know what's in more than 200 different

E-cigarette products out there.

What we do know is that there is nicotine.

- They should be accurate and responsible communication

Of the facts to the consumer.

And such a responsible agency

Would need to weigh their words very carefully.

- The dangers of e-cigarettes are clear.

Today's electronic cigarettes are no better

Than the joe camels of the past.

- If all the smokers of cigarettes today

Switched to e-cigarettes tomorrow,

The billion lives will definitely be significantly reduced.

- It's the smoking that kills people.

It's not the nicotine.

People smoke for the nicotine, but they die

Because they inhale smoke.

- We have none of the tar, the smoke,

Or the 4,000 plus chemicals going into your body.

- There's no evidence that vaping has caused

Or associated with any disease.

And we know that it's helped several million

People quit smoking.

- So the billion lives that we're trying to save,

Better do a hell of a lot more than we're doing now

Because right now the army isn't big enough.

A lot of people don't even want to fight the war anymore

Because we're, it's an uphill battle.

People are exhausted and tired and frustrated

And angry and pissed off

And upset with the fact that we can't fix it

Because it's truthful, and it's right.

- But things are not looking good.

- the numbers now show that e-cigarette sales

Are down.

- Europe just passed all kinds of rules.

They're gonna take beneficial products off the shelves

And out of the lives of thousands of people

Who are trying to quit smoking.

- It will close down the market

For the independents.

It will hand a majority control to the tobacco industry

Who are producing devices.

And I think it will be a damaging thing

To the whole of the vaping industry.

I'm very disappointed in the way things are going.

- Here in poland we have

Over one million vapers.

And we estimate that

After that

Heavy legislation

It will be 500,000,

Not more

Or even, even less.

We are trying to find a way

To

Fight.

It's not easy because ppds already

A law in the european union.

- In the us the same thing.

The fda just passed all kinds of new rules

That will keep millions of people smoking.

- The fda has estimated that 90,

More than 98.5%

Of all e-cigarette products on the market

Will be banned by their regulation.

All e-liquid will be banned.

This is not a proposed regulation to protect children

As the fda has presented it falsely to the news media.

It's prohibition plan b.

- You know what the fda's gonna do,

You know what eu's gonna do,

You know what germany's gonna do,

You know what malaysia's gonna do,

You know what brazil's gonna do,

You know what argentina's gonna do.

We all know, the die is cast,

The cast is formed, the stage is set

And the script is written.

End of story.

Why?

Because nobody cares.

- A billion lives.

A billion lives, a billion people with names.

They each have a name.

And if you and I were in discussion with them,

Would it not be fair and responsible to provide

Them with the right information?

The question is, how much evidence is sufficient

For that one person sitting in front of you?

So if you the nurse, or the pharmacist, or the dentist,

And it's your patient, and they ask you,

"I'd like to use an e-cigarette, what's your view?"

Then you can't say, "well,

"we need to do more research."

That's just not helpful.

It's irresponsible.

- The public needs to know the truth about these products.

- And they need public health people telling the truth

About the risks.

At least 95% less risky than smoking.

- If we look at the history of public health,

The biggest breakthroughs are associated historically

With two really really simple things.

One, you give people enough information that they

Can make an informed decision about

What they're gonna do.

And two, you give them the ability to act

On that information.

- It's a crime

Not to tell the billion people

Who will lose their life

Because they smoke,

Of the alternative.

- we are losing.

We are losing fast and furious and big

And who's gonna lose?

The smokers, again.

Who are now trying to transition over

When they've been asked and begged and cried for

For years and years and now we have something

That's viable, and we're not giving it to them.

It's just shameful.

It's embarrassing.

This is not how people should treat other people.

Especially under the guise of public health

And compassion and love and liberty

And freedom and all that.

You know, I'm sick of it.

- What we have here is that the best kept secret

In tobacco cessation, tobacco reduction

Is the use of safer alternative nicotine products.

And that consumers are denied that right.

- We have this huge glaring opportunity to do something

That would sort of rival eradication of small pox,

Or dealing with cholera, sanitation

Is one of the biggest public health breakthroughs

We've ever had.

And it's staring us in the face.

And it's not conceptually difficult.

And we've got examples of where it's worked

And we look at things like swedish snus.

We have proof of concept that people can get

Their nicotine in far less hazardous ways

And be just fine with it.

Uh, and it hasn't happened yet.

- And I guess really what prompted me

To want to quit

Was seeing my uncle

Dying of lung cancer.

And without a shadow of a doubt

He was the most genuine

And kind-hearted person

I've ever known in my life.

- People are gonna die.

People are gonna get sick.

There are people who should have had the opportunity

To grow old.

To be part of their grandchildren's lives.

I knew firsthand the experience that I had had

And how dramatic the change in my life

And my health had been.

I'd seen dozens of friends and family members,

Actually hundreds, really, in the end of lives

That have been directly changed

By using these devices.

And the health department, like that's their name

The health department were banning them.

You can still buy cigarettes.

You know, buy and use any tobacco product you like

But you can't buy the alternative

That we know is significantly, I mean like

Over 95% safer.

- And really I just, I didn't want

My children to have to see me that way.

I wanted to be

Able to be there

For them more in the future

And extend my life

For them.

And, essentially that

Is what vaping has done.

Vaping has helped me to quit smoking cigarettes.

And for that, I am thankful.

- a billion lives are at stake.

The status quo is winning.

Smoking is strong.

The battle rages on even as you watch this.

Big business and government are working together

All over the world to serve the few

At the expense of the many.

We see so many examples.

In our food system.

Our medicine.

And now we see it in the push to preserve

Smoking and its cash flow.

To condemn a billion people to death.

Billions of mourning kids.

Billions of broken hearts.

We can choose a better approach.

We can end fear-mongering.

We can help our neighbors live better.

We can help our neighbors live longer.

And we must.

♪ I've heard a lot of funny stories and opinions

♪ now to get the whole thing straight

♪ you can't keep a bunch of hypocrites

♪ and myers all from showing their face

♪ but the damage has been done

♪ our battle's not quite won

♪ so let's take it to the streets

♪ and sing for the sun

♪ what happened to uniting young and old

♪ we're all equally sick of doing what we're told

♪ grab ahold

♪ and when it comes to controlling the masses

♪ they've got us full of fake routines

♪ with tv classes

♪ 3d glasses

♪ the damage has been done

♪ our battle's not quite won

♪ so let's take it to the streets

♪ let's take it to the streets

♪ and sing for the sun

♪ the sun the sun

♪ the sun the sun

♪ the sun the sun

♪ the sun the sun

♪ so what are we gonna do

♪ to take back our lives

♪ for the first time

♪ but not the last time

♪ because your battle is not quite won

♪ oh, let your wisdom ring loud like guns

♪ you better run

♪ you better run yeah

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