With 100,000 signatures in just 3 days, the letter to our elected representatives calling for the withdrawal of Article 23 of the Finance Bill has risen to No. 1 on the CHANGE.ORG petitions website.
The media reported widely on the anger of users last week. "They ask us to stop smoking, and then they tax us!". Vape professionals speak of a cataclysm for the French industry, which is independent of the tobacco industry. Doctors and addictologists, who are familiar with vape in their field practice, are up in arms: "Taxing vape means taxing smoking cessation!".
A plea from Pr Bertrand Dautzenberg
A specialist in the subject, in 2013 Pr Dautzenberg directed the first report on vaping in France at the request of Marisol Touraine, Minister of Health. After 50 years of fighting against tobacco as head of lung and tobaccology departments, he published in the Journal International de Médecine: Arrêtez de faire des bêtises en attaquant la vape, un produit efficace pour accompagner la fin du tabac!
This plea is addressed directly to the public authorities and to those of his colleagues who are openly acting to denigrate and hinder the growth of vaping, "the most widely used and effective means of quitting smoking in France". Young people, flavors, nicotine, taxes - he leaves no stone unturned, with scientific references to back him up, and denounces the failure to take into account the benefit/risk ratio, which is the consensus of all cessation professionals.
An indecent gift to the criminal tobacco industry
"The tobacco industry can't be unhappy that its main competitor is finally being taxed." Antoine Flahault, Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva's Faculty of Medicine, is another doctor to speak out.
It only took a few meetings with FIVAPE to understand where the attack is coming from: tobacco wants to kill independent vape. Those responsible for the leading cause of avoidable death want to kill the French vape industry, which has been converting customers and saving lives for over 10 years. And no matter how absurd the premise: Article 23 of the Finance Bill makes vape look like tobacco, even though it's the No. 1 aid to quitting smoking!
In addition to the disregard for health, thousands of businesses are threatened with bankruptcy, the ban on online sales would immediately eliminate 3,000 local jobs throughout France, and the 3,500 specialist vape stores would be likened to tobacconists, for those that survive - the last straw!
Historic mobilization: just the beginning
For 10 years, despite the figures and scientific evidence, there's been no recognition for vape: just contempt from public authorities, misinformation spread by anti-tobacco lobbies, and increased political influence from tobacco players. Enough is enough!
2 million French people claim to have used vape to help them quit smoking (Eurobarometer up to 2023). Vape professionals are the N°1 players in the fight against smoking in France: the millions of ex-smokers and their friends and family know this, and are ready to defend their cessation tool.
75,000 deaths a year, 20% of all cancers: tobacco is killing the French. Our elected representatives are now faced with a choice that engages their conscience.
Users, professionals and doctors are more united than ever in demanding the withdrawal of the absurd measures on vaping in Article 23 of the Finance Bill.
FIVAPE is doing all it can to support this historic grassroots movement and denounce the obstacles to the fight against smoking in France.
On CHANGE.ORG: Vaping is not smoking. Letter to our elected representatives.
