Well… my brother-in-law who gave up smoking to vape has now gone back to smoking. I’m sure vaping is more harmful than vape-bros claim, but is it as bad as actually smoking cigarettes? I don’t know… on that I’m doubtful. So it’s a shame it’s banned, as I think it served as a bridge for people to ween themselves off cigs.
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Surely there is risk to vaping, and surely that risk is far lower than the risk of smoking. The anti-vaping laws almost definitely do more harm than good.
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Vaporized glycerin doesn’t sound exactly healthy to me.
I’m guessing there’s the influence of the tobacco lobby at play here
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mislead the public by claiming they wean people off smoking.
Because the countless people that quit smoking and vaping don’t exist 
. Not like you can slowly lower your nicotine intake or anything
Ex heavy smoker and « vaper » here.
Vaping definitely helped me get rid of my cig dependency.
Cigarettes and cigarette smoke feel so much « dirty » once you have vaped for some time.
Sure there is still an addiction but at the end of the day I am free now….
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TTL used to literally have the word monopoly in its company name…
Does taiwan have laws banning cultivation of tobacco? Some countries have quantity/land size restrictions. It is an insanely easy plant togrow and cure then one can smoke at least un adulterated product and for free.
Yea. Indigenous Taiwanese are not allowed to grow their own tobacco even though it’s a long standing cultural practice.
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Did smoking incredibly toxic hallucinogens that are known carcinogens seem healthy at some point?
The monopoly holds strong! What a dissapointment! Luckily it’s still grown everywhere and seeds are easy to find.
I wonder though, do all the farmers require registration to grow it? I assume for sure to sell it, but growing as well?
Post WTO entry the industry is dead here anyway. TTLC no longer purchases local tobacco. Farmers were paid to stop growing.
Interesting. So are there other companies buying the farmers tobacco here? Or exported? I cant imagine it being cheaper here. Industry certainly seems dead (presumably taiwans higher labor costs), but there are still decent fields of the stuff.
Cheers. Maybe theres an organic pesticide industry.
Tobacco farming in many countries is overseen and controlled by the government. It’s like distilling, someone from the government comes to check when starting and ending a batch, putting a government seal on the still.
Tobacco was a huge industry in Taiwan during the Japanese era, although the aboriginal peoples have gotten tobacco from trade with Europeans and Americans even earlier than that. Tobacco is called Tjamaku in Paiwan, and pipes made by the aboriginal peoples were often collected by European and American travelers in the 19th century.
The Japanese introduced tobacco in Taiwan in 1905. However, the Japanese also regulated tobacco growing, so you couldn’t grow tobacco without getting a permit. From that point on, tobacco cultivated by the aboriginal peoples became illegal.
Most of the Japanese era tobacco were grown in central west coast Taiwan. So much so, the area in Changhua known as Fenyuan (芬園) today was originally called Hun-á-hn̂g (薰仔園) in Taigi, meaning Tobacco farm.
The KMT occupation basically continued Japanese regulations, and tobacco was an important agricultural export in the 60s and the 70s. By 1969, there were 9,200 tobacco farms, 20K tobacco farmers, with a total area of 12,000 hectares. Each hectare brought in about 130K NTD annually.
Actually there are still tobacco manufacturing here in Taiwan. Currently the largest factory is owned by Japan Tobacco, which in Taiwan is called JTI, and is located in Tainan. I am not sure if they are buying locally grown tobacco. By 2017, there are only 229 farms with a total area of 100 hectares. So even if some continued to grow local tobacco, regardless of the quality, it’s going to be really expensive.
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Have you heard of the Stoned Ape Hypothesis? That humans became intelligent because they either ate a load of shrooms or smoked a lot of something and then saw the world in such a different way that they were able to develop both their brains and tools? It’s a good excuse for stoners anyway, though it doesn’t explain to me why anyone would want to smoke tar.
With regards to the tobacco industry controlling everything: yes, I’m sure that’s why vaping is going to be fully banned. Probably hurt their profits immensely. It’s also why a pack of cigarettes is like 100x cheaper in TW than any other developed country. Will also be why cannabis will forever remain a Schedule 1 drug or whatever it’s listed as here while the rest of the world fully legalizes it and embraces it as the “meh. What are you going to do, get philosophical with me?” drug that it is.
Bottomline for me is, less addictions equals more freedom. Drugs are obvious, but there is so much more. Just look at the things you do every day that you can’t stop doing even if you know they diminish your sense of well-being.
Yup know the theory. Regardless of it, i am pro legalizing such drugs. I just think vaping being controlled for health reasons is incredibly ironic given what raw tobacco is! Its so overt it should be brought under investigation for monopoly laws and far trade practices.
It seems almost for sure its a TTL issue. One of the cons with taiwan government playing direct competition with local businesses.
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Thanks for sharing that, incredibly informative!
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