Comment by ramesh31

Comment by ramesh31 14 hours ago

11 replies

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>The fact that selling such a thing is profitable means that we lack regulations somewhere.

It's the exact opposite. Tobacco is so heavily regulated and taxed that these become profitable. If cigarettes were 3-4$ a pack (which they would be without sin taxes and regulatory overhead), the vape market would come down as well and there's no way these could be profitable. As it is, they retail around $20 and contain the same nicotine as multiple $10 packs of cigarettes.

rebolek 13 hours ago

The regulation was written in time when there were no such devices. Are they "healthier" (less damaging) for the user? If yes, let's tax them lower. Are they less damaging for whole population? Considering the e-waste, I guess not, but it's not up to me to decide. If they aren't, they shouldn't be taxed higher that cigs, if yes, let's change the regulation.

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  • lyu07282 12 hours ago

    Because they contain so much more nicotine they are way more addicting, way better for the lungs than smoking but still bad for cardiovascular health. Disposables should be illegal for environmental protection reasons, that's a bit unrelated though since these companies can very easily switch to reusable/pod-systems.

    We want people to vape rather than smoke tobacco, obviously, it's not a zero-sum issue.

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andoando 12 hours ago

They need to regulate the nicotine content. In Canada its 2% at least. In the US its pretty much 5% juice only.

5% is 50mg/1ml. A cigarette pack has about 25mg. A geek bar has 16ml of juice = 800mg of nicotine = 32 packs of cigarettes.

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  • OkayPhysicist 7 hours ago

    While that does vaguely gesture at an increased nicotine consumption, it's pretty meaningless without the corresponding consumption rates. My gut suspects the average smoker goes through a pack of cigarettes a lot faster than the typical vaper goes through a rechargeable disposable vape.

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rixed 10 hours ago

Cigarettes could sell at 3-4$ a pack only because some regulation are in place that enforce the total separation of manufacturing and selling those packs from paying the cost for the societal damages wrt. health, pollution, littering...

There are many possible ways to slice the economical cake.

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  • ShroudedNight 8 hours ago

    I'm not sure what your point is here.

    1) They don't sell for $3-4 a pack, yet your post seems to imply that the system has failed for cigarettes.

    2) For externalities beyond the input cost of a product, the default [natural] condition is for those costs not to be included - one needn't enforce anything. Rather, it requires that someone with power put their thumb on the scale to enforce the inclusion of those costs during a sale[1].

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

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dpc050505 12 hours ago

You can get 10 packs for 20$CAD on reservations in Canada, and that's for decent cigarettes in packaging, the really cheap ones in ziploc bags go even cheaper. 3-4$ a pack is still a decent markup.

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palata 12 hours ago

> It's the exact opposite. Tobacco is so heavily regulated and taxed that these become profitable.

It's not the opposite at all. Tobacco should disappear just as well.

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  • fkyoureadthedoc 12 hours ago

    Juul was very popular and less wasteful (although not perfect of course) as you disposed of the liquid pod rather than the whole device, they were regulated out of existence though. The regulations had loophole/oversight which paved the way for the disposable vape era.

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