“A Gathering of Crows”

Aye, right! Sorry, but… vapers and the vaping fraternity are most certainly the objects of a CONSPIRACY.

So what is a conspiracy? A dictionary definition is, “a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.” So we have various elements which have to come together to make a conspiracy: secret; plan; group, and unlawful / harmful.

Another element, and one we should look at first is, why would accusations of conspiracy end in ridicule against those making the accusation?

It does not take much to see why. For example, “IPhone 6 Spreads Ebola;” “Dinosaurs Helped in Building the Pyramids.” (The theory was spread by the director of the Accelerated Christian Academy. He believes that dinosaurs existed with humans and helped humans in building the pyramids in Egypt). Read more nonsense, here. But, these are the silly ones, others have gained more credence such as, the moon landings never took place, or, it was not the Titanic that sank, it was her sister ship…

However, for the most part, the plausible, the less plausible, the silly and the downright dumb have been lumped together into a single identifiable unit… conspiracies. People have real lives to lead and truly do not want to be burdened with the confused thinking of ‘crackpots’ elucidating their theories on this or that.

More importantly, most of the common ‘conspiracies’ do not fit into the definition of what a conspiracy actually is, mainly falling foul of the most important part of the definition; unlawful and / or harmful.

But conspiracies can be real: doing real harm if they are not recognised. And the irony is, that if a conspiracy is identified, the best defence the conspirators have is to claim that someone is imagining a conspiracy.

The following is a real conspiracy…

World Health Organisation Framework for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) conspiring to influence regulators to suppress development of e-cigarettes and inhibit the progress of genuine harm reduction in relation to cigarette smoking in order to facilitate continuance of revenues for governments, the pharmaceutical industry, and the tobacco industry, also, to promote and protect the standing of groups associated with Tobacco Control and individuals within those groups, and being prepared to usurp and undermine the rule of law* in pursuance of said aims, as such, causing real harm to smokers, who, without the efforts of the WHO FCTC, and its satellites, would have switched to a far safer alternative to smoking. (*includes not adhering to an organisation’s own stated principles and rules).

I enjoyed writing that!

So let us take a look at this ‘conspiracy.’ And, keep in mind that people are, and will continue to fall ill; many will die as a result of the actions of the very individuals, who, instead of looking after the public’s interests, take care of their own – no matter what price their ‘victims’ have to pay. Any adult reading this will have been affected deeply at some point in the past, or will probably, and not just once, be affected; having to witness the suffering and agony of a family member, or close friend, sometime in the future due, in part, to the selfishness of those characters and organisations who denied those victims the freedom to choose a life-saving alternative.

The conspiracy starts with the WHO, and in particular the FCTC. These bodies dictate everything to do with Tobacco Control and the actions of its satellites. Even national governments are bent to the will of the WHO FCTC: Even national governments are bent to their own will. (The rest of the article explains this conundrum)

The position of the WHO FCTC is easily understood. They say: “INVITES Parties to consider prohibiting or regulating ENDS/ENNDS, including as tobacco products, medicinal products, consumer products, or other categories, as appropriate, taking into account a high level of protection for human health.” (Fifth plenary meeting, 18 October 2014)

I do not have much problem understanding that; the WHO FCTC want e-cigarettes stopped.

But why?

They claim it is about health – is it?

Toxicity and gateway

There are two ‘issues’ which ‘affect regulators’, toxicity of e-cigarettes and gateway. When we examine the available, reliable evidence something odd begins to emerge.

There is no evidence to suggest that e cigarettes present any real danger to health – keep in mind that the wild pronouncements from researchers and media alike have been thoroughly debunked. Decent scientists have been playing whack-a-mole as one flawed research document is published, reported by the world media, then shown to be not worth the paper it is written on, and this, followed by another, and another, and another. Lies and rubbish, incompetence and deceit, over and over again – and with a purpose…

The same holds true with regard to gateway theory – they have not a single shred of evidence to support this stance – and there is a great deal which points the other way.

The WHO FCTC needs ‘evidence’ to justify an unjustifiable stance and neds its unscrupulous, dishonest organisations with their often blind and sometimes lying researchers to publish in biased journals the ‘evidence’ Tobacco Control needs; then the media pitches in and amplifies everything.

You will note that they need the evidence to justify banning something, but they have already condemned it. Worse, they do not care where that ‘evidence’ comes from; they do not care about the quality of that evidence as long as it justifies their stated position.

Why?

The answer to the question comes from understanding who decides what is what in the FCTC and it IS NOT the WHO… Let me rephrase that… The answer to the question comes from understanding who decides what is what in the FCTC and it IS the WHO. (The same conundrum as above?)

Now, let me explain. We tend to have a fixed idea of how organisations are controlled. We think of it in terms of a single entity who delegate responsibilities to those further down the line, and listening to the messages which are fed up through the organisation, and making decisions and giving further instruction as a result. This is not the case with the WHO FCTC.

As Hadii M. Mamudu and Donley T. Studlar say, “Shared sovereignty through multilevel governance has become the norm in the tobacco control policy area for EU members, including having one international organization negotiate within the context of another.” So, no longer is the individual nation sovereign, it is subject to the dictate of… well, who exactly? And, the parent organisation, the WHO is not sovereign making none of the decisions itself.

So, individual governments, parties to the FCTC, agree policies which are binding on them all. This means that governments create policies through the FCTC which the WHO endorses and then issues a proclamation which is binding (within the laws of the member states) on the governments which created the policies in the first instance.

As can be seen, the WHO acts as a shell protecting everything within it. Governments can initiate legislation at the FCTC but avoid ‘blame and criticism’ from out with because they can claim to be complying with legally binding instructions from the WHO.

And everywhere, including within the shell itself is the insidious influence of the pharmaceutical industry. Tobacco companies operate within a more restricted zone affecting government revenues, and compensation related funds.

The Cocoon Effect

Another aspect which has to be considered is the revolving door, again, within and including the all-encompassing and protecting shell of the WHO.
As can be seen in the illustration below, individuals are popping in and out of one area to another, and then, moving on to another. There is a continuous flow of personnel going in and out and up and round and up, all connected by one common strand, the pharmaceutical industry.

I would guess that the breeding grounds for this type of activity by Pharma is in the medical education / research fields and within the charities. The Pharmaceutical industry identifies potential ‘talent’ early on in the ‘target’s’ career, often as early as undergraduate level. The target is then carefully nurtured and ‘assisted’ as he or she wriggle their way through the system. There is nowhere within the WHO FCTC / medical / Government Health / medical publication system which is not influenced heavily by personnel ‘indebted,’ one way or another, to the pharmaceutical industry.

This can be illustrated by looking at the regulators in both the US and in the UK. Taking the UK first, the Medical Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) was actually created with a bias towards the pharmaceutical industry when it was set up – in fact the MHRA is funded by the industry.

An investigation and subsequent article in the Guardian newspaper in 2004 serves to illustrate the point. The title of the article was, “The drugs industry and its watchdog: a relationship too close for comfort?” Among other things that the article revealed were: “the regulator and the industry have been engaged in a joint lobbying campaign in Europe; the industry privately drew up its own detailed blueprint of how the MHRA should be run; the industry has been pushing for higher level representation at the MHRA against ministers’ wishes.”

The article ends: “Professor Abraham claims there is too much of the “revolving door” syndrome at the MHRA. Not only do CSM members take fees from industry, but many agency officials used to work for drug companies, such as the former head of worldwide drug safety at GlaxoSmithKline, who is now the MHRA’s head of licensing.”

The UK Government set up a Select Committee Enquiry into the activities of the Pharmaceutical industry in 2004. A previous enquiry in 1914 had found that the activities of the pharmaceutical industry, “…constitutes a grave and widespread public evil.” Ninety years later, the next enquiry, (indicating the urgency of the situation) found much the same – and now in 2016 we have – well- much the same.

In the UK the door goes round and round and round with a never ending stream of pharma influenced personnel negotiating their way to personal success within the maze of organisations which exist within the cocoon. But it is not just confined to the UK. The US too is a rotten immoral mess of greed and vested interest with people climbing over each other to secure the ‘best’ reputations and the highest positions.

It becomes a bit tedious to describe the pharma inspired revolving door in any part of the world. To cut down on the repetitive dialogue, and by way of illustration, it looks something like…

“Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, a 4and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of David the king.”

You really do not need to be reading this

“And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,b 8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,c and Amos the father of Josiah, 11and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,” …

If you see what I mean.

Now we turn to the third, the most important and final aspect of the Cocoon Effect

Money

Both the pharmaceutical industry and the tobacco industry pour billions upon billions of dollars at the Cocoon organisations and the individuals within the organisation. They do not do this for the love of it.

The existence of the Cocoon is dependent on this money.

Government revenues from tobacco taxes are essential. They cannot allow the golden goose to die. E-cigarettes are a threat and must be controlled if not stopped – health is not an issue.

In the US, states receive billions of dollars in compensatory money from tobacco companies. They have been so confident of a continuum of supply they have borrowed huge sums on the promise of more to come. They cannot afford to lose this sugar daddy. And e-cigarettes are a threat to this and must be controlled, if not stopped – health is not an issue.

Charities, universities, hospitals, the list is endless, all receiving donations for this and grants for that, and have to justify the generosity of the donor, and so bend over backwards to impress; to demonstrate their compliance – and health is not an issue.

And the billions just keep coming – a river of graft, an ocean of money, and it is a shining horizon and a promise of all the ‘good’ things to come – but health is not the issue.

Does this fall into the definition of a conspiracy – I, to be honest, do not really care. Whatever it is, the powers that be are hell bent on destroying the e-cigarette industry.’

Soon, if the people above have their way, the e-cigarette will die – what we are witnessing, if not a conspiracy, is most certainly a gathering of crows.