The vaping ad that did not happen...

Here in Norway we have a few days when it's illegal to air normal commercials on TV. This is Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Pentecost Sunday and Christmast day. On these days, most broadcasters instead offer to air "profile movies" from non-governmental organisations. This year the Norwegian Union of Vapers (NDS) applied and was offered a spot on Pentecost Sunday (24th of May) and worked hard to create a good informational movie to raise awareness of the organization and vaping in general. Everything seemed to be going the right way... but no. When the final product was submitted to TV2, the broadcaster in question and one of Norways biggest TV channels, the tone had changed. The movie suddenly "doesn't fit in". No reason other than that from what I've understood. Sounds more like they don't want to give us the real reason, which is probably they're afraid that they'll have to answer some questions afterwards since e-cigarettes with nicotine is illegal to sell in Norway, or that they figure that movies from well known organizations (preferably with some poor starving children in them) will be more popular with the viewers.

Anyway, here's the vaping ad that did not happen, cause TV2 aparently found it too controversial. I've translated it below since it's in Norwegian:

Translation:

Are you still smoking?

Hard to quit?

There is and alternative

E-cigarettes/Vaping
Is neither tobacco nor smoke

Switch now!

Norsk Dampselskap (Norwegian Union of vapers)
The consumers [vapers] own association, get information and help

... and then the logo and url in the end. Controversial stuff right?

 
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Will Norwegian vapers lose their strongest supporters?

The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, SIRUS, will become part of the Norwegian Institute for Public health (NIPH) from January 1st 2016. This is presented in the revised national budget 2015 published today. Even if it wasn't official until today, the news didn't come as a surprise to the researchers who work at SIRUS as they'd already been informed that this would probably happen. 

SIRUS researchers have spoken out, contrary to the current advice of FHI several times in recent years. They've been positive to both snus and e-cigarettes as means to quit smoking, and have been one of the strongest, most influential voices of reason in the vaping debate here in Norway. When the NIPH published their report on vaping not long ago, which resulted in a lot of scaremongering in the media, SIRUS was immediately out there criticising it's obvious errors and presenting the real truth to the public.
 
Yesterday several of the SIRUS researchers told the media that this is not something they look forward to, as they fear they will loose their ability to freely express their views and results to the public when they become a part of the NIPH. Head of research at SIRUS, Karl Erik Lund fears that politics will become more important than the truth:

- I fear that alcohol and drug research will be part of politicians' extended arm if we become part of NIPH. We as scientists can not have a loyalty to the policy, we must have loyalty to our data.

Researcher Ellen Amundsen also thinks this is a bad idea:

In Sirus we have complete freedom to express our opinions as scientists in the media, based on what we do. I fear that we will not be able to do that as part of NIPH. I used to work there...

At NIPH there has been an internal justice that they must speak with one voice approved by management not to lose credibility. Admittedly, the current director said that researchers at NIPH will gain greater freedom of speech, but it can be difficult to combine with NIPH tasks.

 ... and so do researcher Hilde Pape that fears moral elements will stand in the way of science:

NIPH should provide advice. In it there is also moral elements, and it is far from being research. These include the government's advice that pregnant women should not touch alcohol at all. This is more moral than research-based, as any adverse effect from real-life moderate consumption is actually documented.

We risk losing freedom, freedom of speech and credibility. As scientists we must be able to cast doubt on established "truths".

While the scientist at SIRUS are concerned, NIPH director Camilla Stoltenberg said in a debate earlier this year that they are wrong about how NIPH handles openness:

The description they give of NIPHs handling of openness and debate is serious, and I think they're wrong. There is no reason why alcohol and drug research will weaken if Sirus becomes part of NIPH. On the contrary. To make it absolutely clear: The Institute will strengthen alcohol and drug research and continue to contribute to open debate on substance abuse, no matter how Sirus organized in the future.

Lots of nice words there, but what will happen when this organization changes is actually implemented, time will tell. As I said SIRUS has been one of the strongest supporters of e-cigarettes here in Norway, and have been very active in the media, getting real, science based facts and truths out in the media. They've been out there whenever some scaremongering propaganda has been planted in the media, or when the media themselves (decides to) misinterpret some report to create some horror story.

I do agree with Karl Erik Lund and the rest of the SIRUS scientists in that this is just wrong and that SIRUS should remain in it's current independent form to be able to continue to spread pure scientific facts, uninfluenced by politics and moral. But sadly I don't think that this is going to happen. What we can hope for however, is that they will manage to influence the NIPH in a positive way. I also do believe they will try their best, cause I think they've shown us that they're not the kind of people that will be easily silenced. So do I think Norwegian vapers will lose their strongest supporters now? Honestly, I don't think we've seen the last of these guys in the media. I think we'll continue to see them speaking the truth to Norwegian media, but if they will do it on behalf of NIPH I don't know yet. If Camilla Stoltenberg is true to her words, there is hope.

Juice Review: Crème Brûlée by Jimmy the Juice Man

Jimmy the Juice Man's closed facebook group has over 10.000 members so I think it's fair to say that he has quite a lot of fans. I've been wanting to try out his juices for a good while now to see what all the fuzz was about, but when I first heard about it it was quite difficult to get hold of a bottle, so for some reason I never did. Lately, however, his juices have started turning up at several vendors, so I guess it's a bit easier nowadays, and the guys at ukecigstore.co.uk was kind enough to send me a bottle of Jimmy's famous Crème Brûlée for this review.

Crème Brûlée
Tested on: Aspire Nautilus (1.6 ohms, 15-20 watts)

I hadn't read the description of this juice properly when I noticed the package had arrived, so I have to admit that opening it and noticing the smell of banana kind of took me by surprise. Even though it said Crème Brûlée on the bottle I had to check the internet to see if Jimmy had a banana juice that I wasn't aware of... maybe they'd bottled the wrong juice. But of course I found the description and realized the Crème Brûlée actually has banana in it :) Anyway, having established that I did actually have a bottle of Crème Brûlée I filled up the tank to finally try it out and see if it lives up to it's reputation. The first flavour that hit me, was... banana again. Not really unexpected by now, cause the banana was quite pronounced in the smell of the juice. But the vanilla cream and burnt sugar I had expected is also there, and the balance between the flavours is great. Well actually I thought it was a bit too much banana in the beginning but after like half a tank it seems like my taste-buds have tuned in a bit more to the classic Crème Brûlée flavours as well and the juice feels more balanced. Now the question is if this juice should be called Banana Crème Brûlée instead, cause it really does taste what I would expect Crème Brûlée to taste like if you add some pieces of banana. But whatever it's called, it does taste great, and I'm staring to get why Jimmy has a Facebook group with 10k members. Guess I'll have to add Jimmy to the list of juice-makers I need to try out some more juices from.

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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 contains affiliate links.

Juice Review: Apple Express by Steamer Elixire

As some of you might remember, Steamer Elixire was the first Norwegian e-juice range to hit the international market, and a while ago I did a review of the first two flavours available at www.vikingvapes.co.uk (that seems to be the new name of cool-chili-vapors). As I mentioned back then, Roger, the madman behind these juices, also sent me some samples of some unreleased juices, and when I last talked to Roger he said that the Apple Express should be available from vikingvapes very shortly (within a few days I think). So, it kind of makes sense to do a review of that now, don't you think?

UPDATE: Didn't take more than a day... the Apple Express was released on vikingvapes this morning: http://goo.gl/dC6oi5

Apple Express

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

Now having tried the two first juices from Steamer Elixire, Foxy Lemon and Mountain smoke, first, my expectations for this juice was kind of high. I have tried a couple of apple juices before, but never really fallen in love them, with the exception of House of Liquids' El-Toro Eden which is a fantastic Apple/Tobacco blend. The smell of this one however, doesn't lower the expectations at all, cause it smells really great. And vaping it... it delivers 110%. The flavour is kind of a spicy apple (cider maybe) with some hints of cinnamon in there as well. It took me a bit by surprise, cause it doesn't taste like any of the apple e-juices I've tried before... it tastes way better. It's in my opinion perfectly balanced, making sure the apple flavour gets all the attention it deserves, with the hints of cinnamon and maybe other flavours just there to pronounce the apple. If you're into apple vapes, or if you're not, doesn't matter really, you should try out this juice. No, you must try this juice.

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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.

Juice Review: Queenside by Five Pawns

A while ago I was asked by James who runs the ashtray blog and ecigarettedirect.co.uk if I wanted to be a part of the "Halo Panel", which means helping them develop new juices. I thought it sounded kind of cool so of course I said yes, and from the samples we've tried out yet I'd say it looks promising. Anyway, the other day they got in touch and wanted to give their testers some free juice from Five Pawns that they've just added to their site and some discount codes for our friends. So I thought why not do a review of it, so here we go...

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

Queenside is part of Five Pawns' Signature series and their own description of the juice goes like this: "Delicate blood orange intensifies this citrus based flavor. Harmoniously blended with creamy French vanilla for a gentle and exquisite balance that will carry from one flavor to the next." Now blood orange isn't a flavour I've vaped a lot and to be honest I was a bit afraid it would be a bit on the bitter side for me. But smelling the juice you notice not only the orange but also a good deal of the vanilla they are talking about. Vaping it, of course, confirms this. There is some bitterness there but you get a lot of creamy vanilla to balance it out and you get a lot of that delicious orange flavour as well. It's a really well balanced juice again from Five Pawns that keeps on getting better. Kind of like the Absolute Pin I wrote about earlier, but still in another way. Cause the Queenside is not that complex, you don't discover new notes all the time, but in a way the flavours that are there just keeps getting better as you vape more of this. As I said, great juice again from Five Pawns, and even if it is quite expensive I think it's worth every penny.

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

 
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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.
• This review contains affiliate links.