The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Just over a week into the New Year and I feel like I am trapped in a scene from “Groundhog Day”…the movie with Bill Murray?

The past two years it has been the same routine/gameplan from Public Health – Quitlines and Public Health services pay a ridiculous amount of money for adverts in the media offering support for smokers who want to quit as part of their New Year’s Resolutions that start on Boxing Day….then about a day later you see the the anti-vaping propaganda that interestingly gets published in the week between Christmas and New Years.   At least here in New Zealand, and from what I have seen, also overseas.  Like a broken record.   A scratched, warped, broken vinyl record being played on a dull needle.

People join the Social Media groups for Vaping asking for information and advice, we give it, and inevitably there are the two or three trolls who post up some ridiculous anti vape article they found telling these people who are trying to REDUCE HARM for themselves and families that they are going to DIE a horrible death.

I have to be nice and polite externally.  Inside?  Completely different story.  Lucky for me, I had an excellent role model in my Sicilian mama.  She could tell you to self fornicate utilising textured lube with a sexy deep voice and a smile in her face and daggers in her eyes – leaving people shellshocked because they couldn’t quite figure out what had just happened.  I do aspire to cultivate this genetic inheritance and utilise it to promote the greater good. It is a gift after all.

Apologies, I digress.  

Restating the obvious for those “in the know”: Scientific discovery in the arena of human health starts out with a hypothesis that needs to be proved via valid and reproducible methods.  WE KNOW THIS.

There are some social media forum admins that immediately shut down any discussion that may involve discussing the negative media and opinions on vaping.  We do major harm by doing that wholesale shut down of discourse.    If everyone stays civil and polite, it is an OPPORTUNITY to educate and inform.   As vapers, we ALL need to do that when confronted by the shonky articles and opinion pieces that pass for “science”.

The attitude that harm reduction has to be one way or another (or that one form of it is not acceptable because it is “new” or “disruptive” is not conducive to the concept of Harm Reduction, both direct and indirect.  And this brings me to my main point in all of this:  Just because WE KNOW THIS doesn’t mean your average Joe or Joan Public does.

We do a disservice to the cause by mirroring the childish, closed minded rantings of those who would rather see things done their way or no way.  We need to adult.  Even when we are wild on the inside, we need to remember we represent not only ourselves and our own ideas, but those of the thousands who have no voice or platform to state their case.  This is part of advocacy.  Hell, that IS the foundation of advocacy.

My experience?  

Interestingly enough, I encounter the black/white people who are against vaping because they are former smokers who quit “cold turkey” and feel that vaping is a “crutch” (and the possibility that they may be, on a subconscious jealous that vapers don’t “suffer” as they did when they quit smoking.  I gently enquire if they are a former smoker and 9/10 it comes out that they are and they back down once I give them the analogy that progress means that people don’t wind up crippled from Polio anymore (or something similar) and at one time people were wary of vaccinations (some still are, but that’s another topic for another day).

I encounter those who use use the studies from the Anti side that are planted in the media or from some “expert” in the US that lacks any form of reproducible science.

What to do?  Well, I gently provide them with the background on how the research is funded and to look to see the location and funding source before they accept what is written as scripture.  Quite a few have had their minds blown by that one.

You can understand where someone is coming from without condoning what they say or do.  You don’t have to agree with what they are saying or doing, but you can engage to understand and maybe help them understand. 

At the very least you have done right by the cause and not caused harm. 

As always, YMMV (your mileage may vary).  Carry on…..