Are E-Cigs the Market Solution that Can Save a Billion Lives?

"This is a market solution to one of the biggest health crises we've ever seen in the history of the world," says Aaron Biebert, director of A Billion Lives, a documentary that makes the case that regulatory agencies and non-governmental organizations are engaged in a campaign of misinformation against e-cigarettes. "It's disturbing to me that something that's working is being demonized." --- Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https://goo.gl/az3a7a Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines. ----------- For full text, go to: http://reason.com/reasontv/2016/12/08/are-e-cigs-the-market-solution Interview by Zach Weissmueller. Graphics by Joshua Swain. Camera by Alex Manning and Lexy Garcia. Music by Chris Zabriskie (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/chris_zabriskie/).

Comments

1. A Billion Lives now available on iTunes for pre-order.
2. Vape on!
3. If the producer would like to have a debate about this topic, film it, I would be more than happy to. Some his statements have some truth in them, but in other places are missing key points (e.g. some studies ARE showing that e-cig use predicts cigarette use). I don't think you are familiar enough with the research to be making these claims.
4. 3:10 You make it sound like only 1-2% of smokers who try to quit are successful. That's misleading. It can take multiple quit attempts, so yes, any given attempt may have a low chance, but ultimately, if you use a treatment (e.g. patches or chantix + counseling) you have a much greater chance of quitting. Chantix + counseling beats out placebo + counseling by like 40%. Treatments work! Some studies show that people who use vaping are actually at greater risk of a failed quit attempt. Of the studies that do support vaping as a quit tool, it's no better than the patch (and while vaping is likely safer than smoking, it's not nearly as safe as the patch + counseling).
5. Harm "reduction". It's such a simple idea but unacceptable for maximalists. For maximalists it's always everything (stopping smoking altogether) or nothing (dying of smoking). Anything from perfect is not enough - and they cause so much harm with this attitude.
6. It's been 14 months since I last smoked, I've only had four cigarettes in two years, and before that I had gone down to 7-8 cigarettes a day thanks to vaping. Also, my nicotine level is down to about a third of what I started with.
7. Been on the e-cig for over two years now. One of the best decisions I ever made.
8. Vaping causes more harm than smoking. If people live longer, our social security system will end sooner. We need more people smoking. Dumb people need to die sooner, for the sake of humanity.
9. Riiiiiigggghhhhttttt...
   He failed to mention that many vapes have propylene glycol in the them. This is what they use to de-ice planes.
   It's antifreeze. Seems like a GREAT thing to inhale. How do you overlook that???
   
   Anyone remember when doctors also used to promote cigarettes in the 50's?
   
   Bought and paid for by someone...
10. I was listening and watching intently, until Mr.Biebert mentioned that that the main thing in cigarettes that are addictive is not nicotine but some of the other things, well that blew off his credibility. I don't buy this garbage
11. Corporate control of people's government is called fascism, that's what we have.
12. My college friend, a long-time smoker, was just diagnosed with lung cancer, age 59. She has been set up for chemo. OMG, she lives in Colorado and my daughter who has studied alternative methods of beating cancer gave me the info for her to go to a medical marijuana dispensary and tell them what she's got and what to use to actually cure this cancer. B-17 is another method, but it's not legal in the US, but it's online. I quit smoking about 7 or 8 years ago with some of the first e-cigs. I quit smoking immediately. There was no difference to me. My friend, however, wouldn't switch to the e-cig. The doctor treating my friend told her her cancer is treatable, not curable. Meaning, I'm sure, she's going to be bald and sick the rest of her short life. E-cigs, my friends! If you can't quit smoking, get an e-cig.
13. Cheers Aaron, 3 years I switched to vaping and never smoked since #time2switch
14. thank you very much. everything that is being said in this video is the exact truth.
15. He had me convinced until he said "all scientists agree." Worst supporting argument ever.
16. I heard a commercial that said they are the new gateway to cigarettes. There is probably some truth to both sides.
17. Got my first Ecig about 5 month ago and haven't craved cigarettes once. It's tobacco companies and medicine companies who try to black list vape. They have so much money to do propaganda with. Why don't they make Ecigs and join the business? Because for most ppl, vaping is a way to stop, they are not interested in financing people quitting their products.
18. Is anyone surprised that both the government (FDA) and the huge money behind the tobacco companies are trying to get rid of vaping?, too much money crossing those tables for them to care about public health.
19. It's already closing businesses down. Many good people, who gave up everything to do this, have already closed their doors. What SHOULD be seen as a Great American Success Story is instead being demonized and ripped apart.
    
    A modern tragedy by any definition.
20. The New England Journal of Medicine study is akin to taking chocolate chip cookies and baking them at 800 degrees until they are a black charcoal biscuit and then studying then concluding that chocolate chip cookies are dangerous because the charred cookie contains toxic substances.