New Jersey Health Board Shuts Down Vaping At Vaping Convention

Advocacy fellow vapors. This shit will keep happening if we don't stand up for our right to better health.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=MXetgPBrcHg

What I gathered from the Busardo video is that the organizers were warned repeatedly and well in advance that no vaping was going to happen on the show floor. They chose to go ahead anyway.

Also, regardless of what you think of NJ laws regarding indoor vaping, the senator has a point: if this was allowed to happen on the ground that it's a private venue, then all bars in NJ would become private to circumvent the law.

Ding, ding, ding. Hello, mature people know when to vape & not. You don't stand on Superman's cape, don't spit into the wind, You don't prove someone else's point.

Saddletramp1200 said:

Ding, ding, ding. Hello, mature people know when to vape & not. You don't stand on Superman's cape, don't spit into the wind, You don't prove someone else's point.

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And you DON'T mess around with Jim.

Anyone with the cliffsnotes version of Phil's 42 minute diatribe?

UncleRJ said:

Anyone with the cliffsnotes version of Phil's 42 minute diatribe?

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Actually, I think Phil's 2, yes 2 videos regarding this issue were the most informative. Worth the time to watch. There are interviews with the Event Coordinators/Sponsors, several vendors and attendees. Some of Phil's personal opinion, but not that much. I think you can get a much clearer picture of what went down. There's definitely lots of blame to go around here. I'm not sure if it will be ultimately good for vaping or if it fuels the fire of the haters. You know they say even bad publicity is better than no publicity.

WharfRat1976 said:

Advocacy fellow vapors. This shit will keep happening if we don't stand up for our right to better health.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=MXetgPBrcHg

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Thanks for the link. I had seen the hotel part on Saturday and it convinced me to go anyway. Well worth it. Thanks Phil.
The rest was very enlightening having been there and living in NJ.

@UncleRJ it's worth slogging through both parts. Bail after the interview part way into part 2 if you want to eliminate Phil's advocacy opinion stuff about being under the microscope.

By 4PM on Sunday, the expo was winding down anyway. Everyone was watching the contests and the vendors were half way packing up. Ramification of the bad publicity hurting attendance. It's not like hoards of people were turned away.

IMHO, 8PM is too late for a Sunday end time at any 3 day convention.

NightOwl said:

Thanks for the link. I had seen the hotel part on Saturday and it convinced me to go anyway. Well worth it. Thanks Phil.
The rest was very enlightening having been there and living in NJ.

@UncleRJ it's worth slogging through both parts. Bail after the interview part way into part 2 if you want to eliminate Phil's advocacy opinion stuff about being under the microscope.

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Sadly I live so far out of civilization that air has to be piped in.

The only HS internet we have is by sattelite and we have no other viable option.

We get X amount of Bytes of data per month. And if we go over and need to purchase extra data, it is more like an armed robbery than a business transaction.

Watching even one of Phil's videos will eat up about a day or 2 worth of date as long winded as he is.

UncleRJ said:

Sadly I live so far out of civilization that air has to be piped in.

The only HS internet we have is by sattelite and we have no other viable option.

We get X amount of Bytes of data per month. And if we go over and need to purchase extra data, it is more like an armed robbery than a business transaction.

Watching even one of Phil's videos will eat up about a day or 2 worth of date as long winded as he is.

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Okay I'll do my best with a synopsis. It's not good enough to waste precious bandwidth.

Going by memory and it's a weak one:

First talk of problems he heard was Friday night in hotel bar after arriving. He made a short video telling people to come anyway to support vaping.

Saturday - he talks to vendors, shows speeches from Event Coordinators to B2B crowd before 12PM public opening. Says health dept and Senators are coming. Says 5 times in various forms no nic testing, all other vaping outside in the pavilion, which was coned off parking lot with 6 or so tables near the huge dumpsters. He gives a tour of it and talks to a few people surprised by the sad turn of events. Has video of the state senator and inspectors roaming around warning people, interviews vendors, people guessing on who got tickets and how much they were. Finds one vendor that got a ticket. One scene where people are in a circle having serious discussion.

Phil comes on and is relieved no shut down. He said it was his biggest fear and how sucky that would be for the industry. People seemed to be taking it fairly well. He interviewed senator off camera and gives his synopsis. Senator claimed any bar would call itself a club if that were legal. He also claimed promoters didn't get health permit exemption for something.

Kind of ends there without saying much about people going back to business after the 2 hour interruption.

Sunday morning, Video of coordinators telling crowd they will pay fines and repeats vaping in pavilion rules. he goes back and interviews the two event coordinators. That was the best part. To set the scene, they are sitting in an office stacked with random boxes and their phones are constantly ringing and then getting txt message pings. They stick with the interview to their credit.

They seem like really nice guys, Born and bred NJers who love vaping. Andy's family has known the owner of the NJ Expo center for years, mother had cancer and quit smoking with vaping. The venue worked with the health inspectors, separated food, all employees volunteered to be in vaping environment, all visitors joined club and took risks. They had lawyers and claim they did everything they could and will win in court. They were within their rights on private property. Also think they were set up on purpose. Said they don't make money all for fighting for our rights. First vape convention in e area of NY,NJ,PA Real push for advocacy. Doing all they can to make the convention continue. Vendors making good money.

Phil left after that so nothing about how Sunday was fairly normal. He reports second hand info and photo of the signl of the 4PM closing where they told people coming in it was shut down for capacity reasons. I was inside it wasn't at capacity.

The last part is rant about pole dancers and interview with Vape Candy and Sour Patch vendors and the appearance of promoting vaping to children.'

Apologies for any typos. or misinterpretations.

PS> Forgot, Senator joined the vaping club to get in on Friday I think, which claims he is an advocate for vaping. Andy thinks this will help in court.






S

Thank you most kindly!

I would love to be able to watch that and many of his other videos.

But it is a choice I make to miss out on them so I can have access to the VU and to my email acounts for a full month and not end up a few days short because I refuse to pay extortion money if I go over.

NightOwl said:

Okay I'll do my best with a synopsis. It's not good enough to waste precious bandwidth.

Going by memory and it's a weak one:

First talk of problems he heard was Friday night in hotel bar after arriving. He made a short video telling people to come anyway to support vaping.

Saturday - he talks to vendors, shows speeches from Event Coordinators to B2B crowd before 12PM public opening. Says health dept and Senators are coming. Says 5 times in various forms no nic testing, all other vaping outside in the pavilion, which was coned off parking lot with 6 or so tables near the huge dumpsters. He gives a tour of it and talks to a few people surprised by the sad turn of events. Has video of the state senator and inspectors roaming around warning people, interviews vendors, people guessing on who got tickets and how much they were. Finds one vendor that got a ticket. One scene where people are in a circle having serious discussion.

Phil comes on and is relieved no shut down. He said it was his biggest fear and how sucky that would be for the industry. People seemed to be taking it fairly well. He interviewed senator off camera and gives his synopsis. Senator claimed any bar would call itself a club if that were legal. He also claimed promoters didn't get health permit exemption for something.

Kind of ends there without saying much about people going back to business after the 2 hour interruption.

Sunday morning, Video of coordinators telling crowd they will pay fines and repeats vaping in pavilion rules. he goes back and interviews the two event coordinators. That was the best part.

They seem like really nice guys, Born and bred NJers who love vaping. Andy's family has known the owner of the NJ Expo center for years, mother had cancer and quit smoking with vaping. The venue worked with the health inspectors, separated food, all employees volunteered to be in vaping environment, all visitors joined club and took risks. They had lawyers and claim they did everything they could and will win in court. They were within their rights on private property. Also think they were set up on purpose. Said they don't make money all for fighting for our rights. First vape convention in e area of NY,NJ,PA Real push for advocacy. Doing all they can to make the convention continue. Vendors making good money.

Phil left after that so nothing about how Sunday was fairly normal. He reports second hand info and photo of the signl of the 4PM closing where they told people coming in it was shut down for capacity reasons. I was inside it wasn't at capacity.

The last part is rant about pole dancers and interview with Vape Candy and Sour Patch vendors and the appearance of promoting vaping to children.'

Apologies for any typos. or misinterpretations.

PS> Forgot, Senator joined the vaping club to get in on Friday I think, which claims he is an advocate for vaping. Andy thinks this will help in court.






S

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WOW!! Great job!!! Phil should hire you to interpret his vids for those who can't devote the time!!! Reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live "News For The Deaf" by Garrett Morris - j/k Great job making it concise!!

NightOwl said:

Okay I'll do my best with a synopsis. It's not good enough to waste precious bandwidth.[...]

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Wow! I knew some people were into self-inflicted pain, but summing up a Busardo video... now that's hardcore.

Nice job @NightOwl !! You just keep giving, and giving, and giving... quite a trooper.

Thanks for the share/news/information

Thanks @NightOwl for the synopsis. Appreciate it! Even though I am currently at home (and thus not subject to bandwidth limits) I'd much rather read an overview than to watch a video. I'm the same way with news. Just write up the story, don't make me watch a video. In fact, I've left news websites to go find the text version somewhere else, because of it. But I digress...

Regarding the, if it were legal to call it a club and allow it then bars would do it, claim by the senator. That's pretty much how Oklahoma used to have liquor by the drink back when liquor by the drink was illegal in the state. You had to be a member to enter the bar (which consisted of signing your name to a book, some charging a member fee some not, and then sometimes being handed a membership card), the bar had bottles in the back with various names on them (to be in compliance with law, you were supposed to bring your own bottle and the bar store it for you, but making you actually bring your own bottle only happened at a few places) and then you paid for the service of the bartender pouring your drink and the service of using their glass. Back in those days the bars got pretty wild with full nudity strip shows, etc. After all, they were private clubs

outwest said:

Thanks @NightOwl for the synopsis. Appreciate it!

Regarding the, if it were legal to call it a club and allow it then bars would do it, claim by the senator.

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Andy addressed the state senator's comment saying it was BS. They were not open to the public-private bldg, private party, etc.) and they followed the 2008 Clean Air Act and the 2009 No Vaping laws (has another name) to a T by not forcing any employees to work in the vaping environment. They can't claim no exceptions because the casinos in Atlantic City allow real smoking and vaping.

Keep in mind the NJ Expo Center is tucked away in an industrial park on the outskirts of Edison. It is a destination by itself, no one wanders by and drops in.

Not to take a side here but, If I was going to be interviewed, I would have some paper work in hand and my laptop, with some emails to show the communication . All talk is nice , and they seemed to be ok guys , but I have known some used car salesmen who could charm you out of your underwear . While vaping is being attacked , do we really need pole dancers or a cannabis car on hand ?

jack said:

Not to take a side here but, If I was going to be interviewed, I would have some paper work in hand and my laptop, with some emails to show the communication . All talk is nice , and they seemed to be ok guys , but I have known some used car salesmen who could charm you out of your underwear . While vaping is being attacked , do we really need pole dancers or a cannabis car on hand ?

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First I heard about the car (I wasn't there Saturday), but there is nothing illegal about pole dancers . Phil's point was while that sort of thing is done at car, liquor, shows, etc., our industry is under the microscope. I get that and 100% agree, but some PR gimmicks as much as we hate them, work. It was an adult show with a large majority male attendance. Anyway all that stuff was gone on Sunday.

Remember this interview was Sunday morning in the midst of these guys getting reemed out from every direction. They have court dates, lawyers, and senators to deal with before divulging paperwork to an internet interview. He said he'd share, so hopefully there will be follow up. Has anyone heard anything from them since?

I truly admired their 'show must go on' attitude. If they are insincere con artists, then my whole belief in human nature is going to be shattered.

They have other businesses and jobs. This would be a lot of work for a scam. Worse case they were naive. Cynical me, living in NJ, thinks they forgot to pay protection, so someone found another way to extract it.

As noted in the video, this is important for all of us because letting them get away with this will have ripple effects in other states.

Having not been there, I can only speak to what I've heard, which I think we all need to remember is second hand (unless we were there)! I do think because this industry is so under the microscope we don't need to do anything, regardless of free speech, our rights, etc. that will cause further negative attention. Pole dancers, cannabis advertising (especially in a place like NJ, might be different in CO), nude women body painted etc. None of that is what we are about and it's just not necessary! Do we have a right to do it, absolutely, but it's not necessary. I think this also stretches into companies that are blatantly plagiarizing known companies (i.e. Sour Batch - I know in Phil's vid they said they are changing, but why do it in the first place). We have so much that is GOOD about what we do. We don't smoke anymore! We don't stink anymore! We can taste our food again! And, the technology in equipment and in e-juice mfg. is something to be proud of! I personally believe we can have incredible vape meets/conventions without all these things! So, let's do the things that bring POSITIVE attention to our industry, there is so much positive!

[stepping down off my soapbox]

rolltidevaper said:

Having not been there, I can only speak to what I've heard, which I think we all need to remember is second hand (unless we were there)! I do think because this industry is so under the microscope we don't need to do anything, regardless of free speech, our rights, etc. that will cause further negative attention. Pole dancers, cannabis advertising (especially in a place like NJ, might be different in CO), nude women body painted etc. None of that is what we are about and it's just not necessary! Do we have a right to do it, absolutely, but it's not necessary. I think this also stretches into companies that are blatantly plagiarizing known companies (i.e. Sour Batch - I know in Phil's vid they said they are changing, but why do it in the first place). We have so much that is GOOD about what we do. We don't smoke anymore! We don't stink anymore! We can taste our food again! And, the technology in equipment and in e-juice mfg. is something to be proud of! I personally believe we can have incredible vape meets/conventions without all these things! So, let's do the things that bring POSITIVE attention to our industry, there is so much positive!

[stepping down off my soapbox]

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Amen, to all of that, but sometimes people don't think things through. I liked when the Sour Batch guy said "Yes ,we're changing, it's no fun to be the most hated vendor on the floor."