Happy Easter!

It's that time of the year again, when we Norwegians fill up our cars with skis, kids and candy and head up to the mountains to see if there's any snow left. After I've figured out how to fit the dog into the car with all the other stuff this evening, we're off to visit family and enjoy a week of good food, lots of candy and hopefully some great long days out in the snow. So next week I'll take a break from blogging as well as work. I do have some cool juice reviews lined up for when I'm back, and hopefully I'll have plenty of time to try out new juices during Easter.

Happy Easter holiday to everyone! Remember to bring enough e-juice on your trip (if you're going on one), and again ... do not try to vape the yellow snow :)

Juice Review: Djinni Range from Decadent Vapors, Part 1

Djinni is the name of Decadent Vapours' new e-liquid range. As I've mentioned earlier Decadent Vapours produced some of my first favourite juices back when I started out vaping like 3 years ago now, and the juices they've sent me for review earlier has been pretty awesome as well.

According to Decadent Vapours, their new Djinni range has taken around a year to develop, starting out with over 100 flavours that has now been narrowed down to just 10. There should be something for everyone as well with tobacco blends, coffee, fruits and desserts all covered. So when Decadent Vapours asked me if I wanted to review the whole range, of course I said yes. Since DV has used a year to develop this range, I think it's only fair that I take my time to get to know them all as well as possible, so I decided that I'll not write the reviews until I've vaped the whole bottle, and that I'll split it in several parts so my readers hopefully will have the patience to read the whole thing.

Anyway... I've got 3 empty bottles here now, so here follows my review of the first 3 of these juices.

Cafe au lait
Tested on: Kanger Subtank (RDA @ 0.4 ohm, 20-25 watts)

I've not been very found of coffee flavoured juices that I've tried earlier. I don't know why actually, cause I do love coffee. But, as I've said before, some flavours just don't work as e-juices for me even if I like "the original". So I didn't really expect much from the Café au lait either, and when I first tried it I must admit I wasn't really convinced either. Still, it wasn't that bad either, so I decided that I should vape the whole 10ml bottle before I made up my opinion. And you know what? I'm really starting to like this one. For some weird reason I didn't really get all the great flavours in the juice in the beginning. Now I get a dark, roasted coffee on the inhale and on the exhale the milk and a bit of sugar comes forth. And as usual from Decadent Vapours they've put a lot of flavour in there. To be honest, as I've said earlier I've been a bit of a sceptic towards coffee flavours but this one has got me thinking that I should try out some more. I do believe, however, that creating a good coffee e-juice is a bit difficult, but I also think that Decadent Vapors really nailed it with the Café au lait.

Banoffee
Tested on: Kanger Subtank (RDA @ 0.4 ohm, 20-25 watts)

This is the second banoffee flavour I've tasted... but I still haven't tried the original, so it's still hard for me to tell you if Decadent Vapors have created a true banoffee flavour here. But... if they have, I believe I would love it. Judging by the other juices I've tried from them I suspect they have nailed it though. This juice lives up to the little slogan printed on the little box it comes in: "Sweet gooey delight". It is a well balanced mix of sweet banana and caramel both playing an equally important role, although I would say that the banana is slightly more pronounced, which I believe it should be. I also get some subtle hints of pastry. Quite simply a delicious dessert vape.

Red Tab
Tested on: Hellfire Dripper (Around 0.4 ohm's, 17-20 watts)

As the description says, this is a tobacco and vanilla blend. For me it brings back some memories from when I started out vaping. One of the first flavours I kind of landed on as an all day vape was the "American Red" from DV (that was re-branded by Totally Wicked and named "Marlbury" back in the days). It's been ages since I vaped that juice so I can't really tell how similar it is, but there I definitely get some of the same flavours. Again, a very well balanced juice, and even thought the flavours are quite mild, it still feels like they've packed a lot of flavour in there. I wouldn't say it's a tobacco that aims to duplicate cigarettes, but I don't think that's what they are aiming for either. It's got a great sweet taste of vanilla without being too sweet, making it an excellent candidate for an all day juice for me.

All the juices I got from Decadent Vapours for this review have been 50/50 VG/PG and 12 mg/ml nicotine. The vapour production is great on all of them and I have to say I look forward to trying out the rest... well most of them at least, cause I do see a flavour in there that I don't really care for, but who knows... maybe it will work better as an e-juice. I'll write the next reviews ... when I feel I've got enough empty bottles.



Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

WHO keeps ignoring evidence in Abu Dhabi

Last week the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health took place in Abu Dhabi. Of course the WHO and Margaret Chan was there, spreading their Big Pharma sponsored propaganda, but so was Dr. Farsalinos among other leading experts on e-cigarettes. Quite interesting to read this report on how most (if not all) of the experts defend e-cigarettes, with science to back it up, but the WHO is still stuck on the gateway theory that has been debunked over and over again:

"Non-smoking is the norm and e-cigarettes will derail that normality thinking, because it will attract especially young people to take up smoking," said Chan. "So I do not support that."

I have to admit it is kind of scary that the WHO actually just completely ignores evidence, and common sense, and seemingly have no problem telling straight out lies to the public as long as it keeps their friends in Big Pharma happy. Because that's what this actually is: A straight out deliberate lie. The truth, as Dr. Farsalinos stated is this:  

"there is not a single case of a never-smoker who used e-cigarettes and then became a smoker of tobacco cigarettes"

... and in addition to that, it would make absolutely no sense to do so. Banning e-cigarettes for this reason makes about as much sense as banning soda because it's a gateway to alcohol addiction. I mean, seeing that kids mix whisky and Coke, the obvious thing to do would be to ban Coke right?

Jean-Francois Etter, associate professor at Geneva University, was also in Abu Dhabi pointing out the obvious: That excessive e-cigarette regulations will only lead to less people being able to quit smoking, and that only Big Tobacco would be able to survive in a tightly regulated environment.

"I think that the WHO people should know better than kill alternatives to smoking cigarettes" - Jean-Francois Etter

You're absolutely right professor Etter, they most certainly should. The problem is that the WHO is now just Big Pharmas propaganda machine. A German delegate, who wants to be anonymous, reveals their true agenda (after telling the same lies as Chan of course):

"e-cigarettes could easily be sold in pharmacies where you have a controlled product"

 ... "that way my pharma-friends can easily have control of what products are sold and what information the customers get", she adds quietly to herself.

The presence of people like Farsalinos and Etter at such events, however, is an important step in the right direction. They will probably not be able to turn the WHO, with it's current leadership, around by themselves. They don't have the funding or lack of morale required for that, but we already see that they are able to influence what the media writes. The WHO is obviously lost, controlled by Big Pharma and just keeps on making things up, ignoring whatever scientific evidence proving they are wrong, but luckily the media is more powerful than the WHO and can still be won. Thanks again to Farsalinos and Etter and everyone else down there fighting.

Some great news from Dr. Farsalinos and his team

This morning I was made aware of an update published on the indiegogo project page that Dr. Farsalinos and his team set up for their upcoming study on "Temperature of evaporation, liquid consumption and vapor analysis in realistic conditions." It looks to me that we can expect some very good and very important papers being published soon, one of them already submitted for publication and Dr. Farsalinos gives us some good news about it:

This study is extremely important, and I can reveal that the results were better than expected. It seems that the dry puff taste is a very sensitive natural defence mechanism, which is detected at very low levels of aldehydes. In that study, we have also measured the temperatures but we decided to report them in a separate paper.

You might remember the horror-story about e-cigarette vapor containing lots of formaldehyde that was published in media all over the world in January. Dr. Farsalinos was quick to point out the obvious flaws and wrongly drawn conclusions back then, criticizing the misinformation published. Even the authors of the study kind of agreed to a lot of his criticism, giving us the real reason they published it: "We just wanted to get it out". Despite all this I still hear people claiming that e-cigarette vapor contains 10 times more carcinogens than cigarette smoke. This new paper by Farsalinos and his team looks like it is going to prove his theory that unrealistic dry-puff conditions is the reason behind such results... and then some.

The thing I like most about Dr. Farsalinos work is that he looks for possible real-life issues with e-cigarettes, and provides information and ways to eliminate these problems should they occur. His effort to study how temperatures affects the content of the vapor will provide extremely important information for the industry and will make their efforts to develop safe products a lot easier. Some people are unable to recognize the potential of the e-cigarette, and focus only on finding problems. Dr. Farsalinos and his team focuses not only on investigating potential problems, but they also give the industry the information they need to develop products that are a safe as possible.

Juice Review: Foxy Lemon and Mountain Smoke by Steamer Elixire

A while ago I kind of promised that I'd do a review of some juices from the first Norwegian e-juice brand available on the international market, Steamer Elixire. Roger, the man behind this juices, was kind enough to send me some samples that I've had the pleasure of enjoying for a couple of weeks now.

Now I do have some samples of some unreleased juices as well, but in this first review of Steamer Elixir I'll focus on the two juices available on cool-chili-vapors, Foxy Lemon and Mountain Smoke.

Foxy Lemon
Tested on: Hellfire Mega (Around 0.9 ohm's on a mech-mod)

I suspected this to taste a bit like some lemon toffee candy called Fox that we have here in Norway, and probably elsewhere at least in Scandinavia. Been a while since I tasted them, but I remember them clearly from when I was a kid. Smelling it confirmed this also, as the smell instantly reminded me of the candy. Tasting it it is maybe a tiny bit less sweet than the candy, but that's not a bad thing. The taste still reminds me of the candy, but I guess it can also be described as pure lemon juice, perfectly sweetened with sugar. Easily one of the most authentic fruit juices I've tried, and I bet it tastes even better on a hot summer day. Really great stuff this. Highly recommended, and I'm not saying that just because it's Norwegian (and that picture actually looks a bit like my dog, a Finnish Spitz), but I mean it. If you're into citrus juices... this is the one you need to try out.


Mountain Smoke
Tested on: Hellfire Dripper (Around 0.4 ohm's, 17-20 watts)

Mountain Smoke is the result of Rogers efforts to create a tobacco e-liquid that actually tasted something like what he was used to when smoking. Now I'm not sure what Roger used to smoke, and to be honest I didn't worry to much about how my cigarettes tasted back when I was smoking either so I can't really say I recognize any specific brand. But this I think is as close as it gets. Very authentic tobacco taste. The only other juices I've tasted with that is as authentic as this one is the tobacco steeps from House of Liquid. It's also has a sweetness to it that I like. In some way it kind of pronounces the tobacco flavour as well. I don't really vape tobacco juices that often since a lot of them taste like... well not tobacco, and the House of Liquid line clogs up coils very fast so I save those for special occasions, but this one could make for a great all day vape. Actually every vaper should have some of this available at all times so you can give some to those smokers who says they want to try vaping but want something that tastes like tobacco. This will be the juice I recommend for these people from now on. So did Roger achieve his goal of creating an e-juice that tastes like real tobacco? Hell yeah!

A couple of final words that goes for both of these juices: Both of them are available as 60/40 and 70/30 PG/VG ratio and at least 12, 18 and 24 mg/ml nicotine content (I'm pretty sure my Foxy Lemon bottle said 6 though so they might just be out of stock atm.). The vapor production is still great on both of them. Both of the juices feel very natural and spot on the flavour they are aiming for.

As I said in the beginning, I know that Steamer Elixire is working on more juices, and I have actually gotten some sample from Roger. I've only tried one of them yet, and I'm not going to reveal any more about it just yet, but I can tell you that I don't look forward to the day I run out of that one... cause it's awesome :)



Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Meanwhile in Denmark...

"We refuse to let the pharmaceutical industry dictate price of cancer drugs".

This is what the Minister of Health here in Norway said to Norwegian newspaper VG yesterday when asked why Norway is one of the two countries in Europe (Portugal is the other) that is not offering quite a revolutionary cancer drug, Perjeta, that has shown great results allowing women with breast cancer to live for years longer than without the drug.

Now of course you cannot put a price on human life, and in Norway is one of the richest countries in the world so we should just pay up, right? Or should we? I'm not going to answer that cause I don't feel I have enough knowledge on it but what I noticed, and the reason I mention this case here, is that this don't seem to be about the price alone. Part of the problem is that the pharmaceutical company selling the drug is trying to land individual deals with all countries, with no one knowing what other countries pay. This is not how it's been done before... earlier countries of similar wealth have gotten the same deals, and we've been aware of and accepted that we, as a rich country, have to pay more. Keeping the pricing secret seems like an attempt to squeeze even more money out of the richest countries, and I believe this is one of the issues the Norwegian health department now has with these new contracts. This is a good example of how much power the pharmaceutical industry has. Media is giving the politicians a hard time about this case, telling stories about women in Sweden who gets to live and women in Norway who is not getting the same treatment, and by doing so they give Big Pharma even more power. With pricing a secret it's also pretty hard for the politicians to explain this to the people. Even though we do have a lot here in Norway, there is a limit, and we have to prioritize. Again, you can't really put a price on human life, but what do you do when giving a woman with breast cancer one more year to live costs so much that you have to close down other lifesaving facilities to afford it?

As I said, I don't feel I have enough insight in the matter to say if we're doing the right thing here, but I feel that the pharmaceutical company behind Perjeta is getting away with this to easily. Politicians and health officials are getting the blame and being pointed out as the greedy ones, but there are other greedy parts in this matter as well, and there is also some other important questions here: Isn't the pharmaceutical industry powerful enough already? What happens the next time if we allow for such secrecy around pricing now? Are the pharmaceutical companies using the pressure on politicians and their power to influence decision makers to make decisions that will protect their own economical interests? By now you might have guessed where I'm going with this... and why I wanted to show this example of Big Pharma's power.

Cause there is something really not making sense when I get my daily google news searches: Scientists keep doing research on e-cigarettes and vaping and the evidence proving that e-cigs are orders of magnitude safer than smoking to the user, pose no harm to bystanders, do not lure teenagers into tobacco smoking and have the potential to save millions of lives, keeps piling up. But still I get articles every single day about another country or state banning or over-regulating vaping. Why? Virtually all the evidence available points in one direction... why are the politicians, the WHO and the EU going in opposite one? This whole thing smells of rotten eggs...

We're lucky here in Norway because we have SIRUS (The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research) and Karl Erik Lund working hard to convince the government to do choose the right direction. They've recently written an answer to a request for input by the Norwegian Health department to the following question: "We need your input on how we can make it easier to motivate people to take the healthy choices, so that we can prevent people from dying prematurely and getting unnecessarily sick?" SIRUS answered with a long article on the principles of harm reduction and how this can be applied to fight the tobacco epidemic. You can read the whole thing here (in Norwegian, Google might do a good job translating). Their main point is that we need to give harm reducing products, like e-cigarettes, the opportunity to compete with and ideally out-compete the deadly tobacco cigarettes. And maybe we are even more lucky... could the case with the breast cancer drug I started out with show us that our politicians will not accept just anything Big Pharma throws at them?

Meanwhile in Denmark... the picture is a lot darker. It looks like their politicians have decided to get rid of e-cigarettes as we know them as soon as in November this year. The draft for a new law on vaping looks to me at first glance (I haven't really read the whole thing) like the TPD. But it also looks like they want a 6 month total ban on all e-cigarettes and e-juice, cause they demand that all products need to be registered 6 months before being put on the market... and the registration does not open until the law is implemented. So why does this happen so fast in Denmark? Well... this might be what we get if we let the pharmaceutical industry get to powerful: http://vapingiraffe.blogspot.no/2014/04/danish-health-and-medicines-authority.html

Vaping and e-cigarettes have the potential to solve a huge health problem without the interference of the pharmaceutical industry. In fact it might even reduce the power of Big Pharma quite substantially as well... if our politicians have the balls to make it happen! 



photo credit: Man using an electronic cigarette / Vaping E Cig via http://www.ecigclick.co.uk/ (license)

Review: Coil-master

I'm not really sure if this can be called a review... it might be more like a recommendation. Cause there isn't really that much to say about Coil Master, other than this: It does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it does it very well. If you don't know what it does, have a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJA6Obk3Fbk

Now I've been used to just wrapping my coils around a threaded rod or just a small screwdriver, and I've been happy with that. I've seen different kinds of coil jigs around but I've usually ended up thinking that I don't really see how these would make it that much easier to coil. Because winding some wire around a threaded rod isn't really rocket science. Then I saw the Kuro Concepts Coil Winder and I was thinking that now we're getting somewhere. Very simple design that enables you to make perfect micro-coils in no-time. But one of the first things that hit me was that I'd need 3 of those to be able to make 3 different diameter coils. At around $25 each it's a bit too expensive for me as well ... so I ended up sticking with the threaded rod, wondering why they didn't just make the rod replaceable so you could make different size coils with the same device. I guess that is exactly what the guys behind Coil Master thought as well. The difference is that they did something about it and actually made the device that I bet a lot of people already was thinking about after seeing the Kuro. It's very easy to use, and you'll be able to make perfect micro-coils in no time, and you don't even have to squeeze them together after mounting the coil on your atty. It'l let you make 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3mm coils and at $25.99 it is worth every penny. Simple as that. The only thing I can think of that would have made me even happier with this device is if they've had some kind of carrying case that would also fit some wick, wire and some of those tiny screwdrivers to go with it. In fact a complete coil-builder kit based around this device isn't such a bad idea.



Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The device was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Juice Review: Absolute Pin by Five Pawns

Five Pawns is definitely one of the juice-making companies out there that really aims to create gourmet, high-end e-liquid. Reading the descriptions of their liquids tells you that these guys don't just throw together some standard ingredients and hope for the best. A lot of the Five Pawns juices consists of a lot of different flavours, some combinations more unlikely than others, and finding the right balance in such complex juices requires a lot of knowledge and a great deal of testing I imagine. The juices are made in small batches (275 bottles) in California, and only sold in 30ml bottles. To create even more exclusive flavours they also offer some special editions aged in oak barrels. So everything about Five Pawns, even their packaging, gives you the impression that this is quality e-juice, and the price from around £25 a bottle also reflects this.

Absolute Pin
Tested on: Aspire Nautilus (1.6 ohm's, around 15 watts)

Absolute Pin is definitely one of the juices I imagine would have taken quite a lot of testing to develop. I don't think finding the right balance between Cinnamon, Irish Cream, Caramel and Absinthe is something done over night. In fact I have to admit I was kind of a sceptic after reading the description. I was even a bit of a sceptic after tasting it for the first time, as it wasn't one of those juices that hit a home run at the first taste. It's a unique taste, and when first tasting it I was thinking it was somewhere between ok and good. But this is a juice that has been growing fast on me. The cinnamon is definitely the main taste of this juice, but it still keeps throwing surprising hints of the other flavours in there at me all the time and I find myself liking it more and more every time I try it. Kind of like some of the best music records, you know the ones that you don't immediately fall in love with, but there is something there that makes you want to listen to it again and after while you realize that this is some of the best music ever made. And you keep hearing new things in them 10 years after you first heard it. Revolver by the Beatles is such a record for me.

It kind of makes sense that the Five Pawns juices are only sold in 30ml bottles, cause I think you need to go through at least 30ml to get to know it properly, at least if Absolute Pin is representative for the rest of the line. If you're like me and like these juices that keeps on surprising you every time you try them on new equipment or just adjust the wattage a bit on whatever you're using right now, you should try Absolute Pin. If you think the combination of flavours sound, well strange or even horrible, you should try it anyway, and you shouldn't give up on it before you've vaped at least 5ml of it. Cause it might take some time before you realize how good this one actually is.

Big thanks to vapeclub.co.uk for letting me try out this juice :)

UPDATE: Some of the Five Pawns juices contain quite high levels of Acetyl Propionyl. Please have a look here for more information.

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Norwegian Union of Vapers demands to be heard! Help needed!

There is a lot of good work going on in the Norwegian Union of Vapers (NDS) at the moment. There are poster designs coming up, business cards being printed, fund raising and a lot of good work towards the media going on. Also an open letter to the Norwegian Minister of Health, Bent Høie, has been written and a petition to sign this letter is available here. NDS is currently working on getting this on print in some of the major Norwegian newspapers, and it will be then be delivered to the Minister of Health.

The Norwegian Health Authorities have said that they will come up with suggested regulations of electronic cigarettes soon (they've said that for a while now I think). This draft will be sent out for consultation to relevant organizations, and one of the main goals of this letter is that NDS will be on the list of organizations that will have their voices heard in this matter. Therefore it's important that as many Norwegian vapers as possible sign this letter, but it is also possible for people from other countries to sign it and support us. I strongly urge everyone (especially Norwegians reading this) to sign the petition. More signatures means it will be more difficult for the authorities to ignore us!

I have translated the letter to English below. If you'd like to sign the petition here's the link again (you can choose not to show your signature in public): http://www.opprop.net/norsk_dampselskap_krever_a_bli_tatt_pa_alvor

The Norwegian Union of Vapers demands to be taken seriously!

The Norwegian Union of Vapers is an organization for users of electronic cigarettes, also known as vapers. Vaping has become our way to a tobacco-free life. We wish to urge the Minister of Health to look at vaping with an unprejudiced gaze. We have a common interest in a health policy based on knowledge, not on prejudice or moralism.

Much of the scepticism towards vaping is based on the visual similarities between vapor from e-cigarettes and tobacco smoke, and that vaping, like smoking, is a way to enjoy nicotine. However, this is the only similarity between vaping and smoking. Available research is unambiguous; the harm potential of vaping is far from that of tobacco smoking. The research is openly available and much of it is conveyed to the Norwegian public through SIRUS reports. We who have switched from tobacco smoking to vaping have felt on our own bodies that the health benefits are substantial. Some have gotten rid of their nicotine dependency, others have not. What we have in common is that we are no longer users of a dangerous product.

Opponents of vaping base their arguments on the "precautionary principle". It is difficult to understand how this can be applied here. Research, recently communicated through a SIRUS report 1/2015, shows that vaping appeals almost exclusively to smokers. Those who vape have either quit smoking completely, or partly replaced cigarettes with vaping. We know the consequences of cigarette smoking. Ten years of experience with vaping has not revealed any health hazards. We also know that it is not only illogical to go from vaping to smoking, but also that such behavior is not known from the real world. Is it plausible that the risk of unknown health consequences in the future is big enough to overshadow this?

We in The Norwegian Union of Vapers have found that vaping is not a drug, nor tobacco, but an alternative stimulant. This is what makes it so effective. A deadly habit replaced by an equally satisfactory, but far less harmful hobby. A future regulatory scheme must facilitate market access for products that appeal to current smokers and vapers. Products must not be regulated as drugs or as tobacco products. Under such circumstances they will meet requirements that can only be fulfilled by financially strong manufacturers like the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. None of these industries have an interest that all smokers becomes vapers. However, this is the interest of the companies that exclusively manufacture vaping products, but the majority of these are small companies with limited funds. The Norwegian Union of Vapers wishes to be taken seriously by the authorities and be consulted on matters that are important to us. We have experience and expertise on the topic. Our goal is that the smokers who are not able or willing to quit otherwise, shall have a far less damaging alternative.

Juice Review: Bound By The Crown by Kings Crown

The Kings Crown juice line, from the people behind the very successful Suicide Bunny, is a line of 4 high VG gourmet juices. All 4 of them are 70% VG, which means I was expecting huge clouds of thick delicious vapour from this one. I have already tried Fight your fate, which is a great strawberry lemonade juice that I like very much so I was hoping that Bound by the crown would be just as good.

Bound by the crown
Tested on: Kanger Subtank (0.4 ohm's, 20-25 watts)

First of all, when it comes to vapour production, Bound by the crown delivers those huge clouds I said I expected... and then some. Being 70% VG, throat hit is limited but I guess that's not what your are aiming for if you buy a 70% VG juice either.

When it comes to the flavour, I'm not really sure what I think after having vaped like one and a half tank of it by now. Described by the makers as sweet custard, spice and ripened stone fruits... I can't say I disagree. It seems to change on me a bit though. Some times I feel it's a bit dry and not sweet enough (yeah, I'm weird right), but at other times, especially when inside that sweet delicious custard comes more across, without being overpowering and muting the fruits. I imagine a lot of people would love this as an all day juice. It's a pretty complex one with lots of different things going on and it's a bit hard to pinpoint all the different notes, which makes it quite and interesting juice. It does have somewhat of an x-factor that links it to Fight your fate as well, without me being able to tell exactly what it is. But I could have guessed that these two juices were made by the same people, and it has also got something in common with the Mother's Milk by Suicide Bunny. Guess it's kind of the same custard flavours. As I said, I'm not really sure what I feel about the flavour yet, some times I think it's growing on me, some times I feel I'm a bit tired of it already. To be totally honest, right now I'd choose Fight your fate over this one, but I also think trying out this one is worth it if you like the Suicide Bunny range and huge clouds of vapour, cause it's by no means a bad juice. I'm just not sure if it's for me... yet.

Big thanks to vapeclub.co.uk for letting me try out this juice :)

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Do you really want a black market for e-cigarettes and e-juice?

A couple of days ago I read this story about a guy getting arrested for selling drugs that people could put in their e-cigarettes. Damn, more fuel to the fire. I'm sure some of the ANTZ will pick up on this and use it to create some kind of scaremongering story blaming e-cigarettes for teen drug abuse, and I'm not sure I can be bothered to write another post about how many household devices that are perfectly capable of doubling as equipment used for taking drugs. Go ahead, ban bottles cause they can be used to smoke pot right?

Anyway, the story also got me thinking about one of the effects of banning or over-regulating e-cigarettes. Do you really think people would stop buying e-liquid or advanced e-cigs? I don't. One thing I'm very sure of is that both bottles of e-juice and the equipment to vape it is here to stay. Millions of users won't quit that over night and I'd be very surprised if we don't continue to see an increase in users even with a ban in place. These devices are just to damn effective as quit smoking aids, and the success stories are just to many for that to happen. On top of that, the stories about people dying or even getting ill or hurt from e-cigarettes are practically non-existent. So where would we get our e-juice and mods if they are banned? You guessed it... a black market will rise and thrive under such circumstances... of course. Have a look at the survey that the Ashtray blog did on the consequences of an e-cig ban: http://goo.gl/Hvahos. 66% say they will buy from the black market!

So what would a black market for illegal e-cigarettes and e-juice look like? It might turn out in different ways, but one thing is certain: It will not be regulated in any way. We might see some of the vendors in today’s legal market moving to places where they won't be bothered by the authorities, but still they might face a lot of problems when trying to send into countries with bans in place. My experience with the market we have today is that most vendors and manufacturers are honest people trying to help others and make a living out of  it while they are at it, so my guess is that most of them will disappear or try adapt to regulations (which might also drive them out of business eventually). The problem is that it is the people that we want to stay that will go away, and the ones that doesn't care to much about the legal stuff, or the safety of their customers, are likely to be the ones operating in the black market. In fact they might even like it better that way, cause now they really don't have to care that much about their reputation either as people will be more reluctant to complain about stuff they have bought illegally.

Another group of people that might be happy with another illegal, yet popular, substance is the people that already sell other illegal substances; the drug dealers. Kind of a scary thought isn't it? That the easiest way to get some e-juice could be buying it from the same guy that would also sell you cocain? We all know that the infamous gateway effect is basically just... well bullshit, but what if we end up with drug dealers selling nicotine e-liquid? Can you think of another kind of gateway effect, that is much more scary than the one Glantz and his disciples have made up? I can think of several...


photo credit: E-Cigarette/Electronic Cigarette/E-Cigs/E-Liquid/Vaping/Cloud Chasing via photopin (license)