Listen to Mark Slis's testimony on September 12, 2019 (posted on YouTube). I know it's a repeat from my previous post :)
Worth repeating.
You can read the transcript of the video below. Thank you again Mark.
I also suggest you read this May 2020 article about the lawsuit filed by Mark Slis against the flavor ban: "It was my livelihood and the lives of my customers.”
Thank you for inviting me. My name is Mark Slis. I am from Houghton, Michigan. I drove 501 miles to get here. I believe I own the furthest vape shop from the Capitol. I am also not a public speaker, I am very nervous so I'll apologize in advance. I am just gonna read a small prepared statement here. I reside in Hancock Michigan. I am a lifelong resident of this state, I'am a 55 years old father of 3, a dentist, a nurse and soon to be doctor. I'am a college graduate, a scientist, I own two businesses in the state, an international geophysical firm that I started in 2009 and a vape shop I purchased in 2015. I smoked for 41 years, you can probably hear it in my voice. I spent 30 of those years trying to quit with every available method I could find, not just in this country but in other countries because I worked abroad, including hypnosis. I tried all of these things multiple times non stop for 30 years and failed every single time. I don't think I ever quit for even one day over 30 years. Not my wife, my children pleading with me to quit worked, my doctors, I always had a team of doctors, I work in a dangerous environment and they watch your health very carefully. Them telling me that I would die did not help, nothing helped. In March of 2014 I noticed a new business in Houghton, downtown Houghton and I just popped my head in to see what it was and there was a 19 years old young man behind the counter and he told me that they sold electronic cigarettes and he invited me in: 20 minutes later, I walked out a non smoker. That was 100 per cent due to the flavors. I've tried everything, nothing worked, it was the flavors. In fact I even tried an unflavored nicotine manual cigarette which was just a nicotine soaked sponge that you drool on: it did not work. So, a 19 years old kid, with a high school education, did what nobody else could do, what government couldn't do, what public health couldn't do, what the medical community couldn't do in 30 years: get me to quit smoking. It did not cost the state or the federal government a dime, it was a simple explanation and it worked and a simple product from where you said that it didn't cost anything, you should know that. Year and a half later I bought that shop that saved my life. In Finland (??) in the next 4 years I've saved about a 1000 lives, I've saved 1000 people from smoking. They permanently quit and that's who I am here to represent and those people I haven't yet reached. Those 1000 people they're all from Houghton County, it has a population of roughly 36,000 people according to US Census, so the people I've helped to quit and to save their own lives, that's 2.7% of the total population of my county, not just adults, that's 2.7%, I don't know what percentage of adults, I didn't look that far. I can't imagine anybody not seeing that it's not only significant but extraordinary. I defy anybody in my county to say that they've helped to save that many lives, including the doctors. That's a lot of people in 4 years. My customers, my current customers include nurses, doctors, officers from every single local police department, the state police post, even a chief of police, multiple business owners, firemen, first responders, teachers, elected officials, most importantly dozens of veterans, and these people are all grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. They're my friends and my neighbors. There is nowhere I can go in Houghton County and not run into a customer or a former customer who is still not smoking. It happens every day. I'm extremely proud of this, extremely. Helping these people to save their own lives has been the most rewarding experience of my life by far, outside of raising my 3 children of course, especially if they are listening. And now our governor seeks to make that a crime punishable by 6 months in prison. These orders also make it a crime for my customers to have more than 4 bottles of a flavored liquid punishable by 6 months in prison. All of my customers, every one of them walk around with 3 or 4 bottles of different flavors. To the flavors themselves, because that's why we're here. All my customers have 3 things in common: they are adults, they are desperate to quit smoking after years if not decades of failing and they all use flavors. The numbers in my shop are that 99 per cent of my customers use flavors. The flavors are absolutely necessary and they are the key to quitting smoking, the single largest killer of humans in this state, in this country and honest planet. I don't know why it's not being taken into greater consideration with these orders. We carry 80 flavors at my shop. all of them are chosen by my customers, not me. All of my customers are adults. One example: the favorite flavor of my oldest customer or at least the one I was brave enough to ask, she was an 87 year old grandmother, her favorite flavor, the flavor that she quit smoking with is Fruity Pebbles cereal. She is 87 years old. That was her choice. I've heard people up there say that adults don't do these flavors. That's not true. I've 80 flavors chosen by adults, not one of them chose tobacco flavored, the only one that will be left. So the result of this is: for me, if the governor or governor's order stands and flavors are banned, I will immediately go out of business and file for bankruptcy. No question. I've already talked to my accountant and my lawyer and they agree, it's over. I think my experience will be mirrored across this state and you'll see every vape shop close up and owners file for bankruptcy, and employees be fired, lose their jobs. You won't just be banning flavors, you'll be banning a life-saving industry from this state, guaranteed. The results of that will be that everybody that's currently trying to quit will be forced back to smoking and trying to quit again. The other available methods have 93 per cent failure rate. That's what you'll doom these people to. That's unforgivable. That is absolutely unforgivable. My customers, in comparison, they enjoy an 80 to 90 per cent success rate, the exact opposite. I know I am saving lives, I am getting these people to quit at those kind of numbers and you'll doom them to a 93 per cent failure rate and a good chance I think, I think the statistic is that half the people who smoke die from smoking. In this country that is 480,000 people a year, 3,100 a day, that's huge, those people are not being considered with this order, at all. I'd like to delve into the science, I'm a scientist first, but I know I don't have the time, the only other thing I'd like to say is, and I don't know if it was brought up by the gentleman previously, from England, but the difference in public health between here and there, is the government not only encourages it, the Royal College of Physicians, Public Health England, they are now currently opening vape shops in their hospitals. I think the people in this country, the decision makers, the regulators, they are being deceived. The science is out there, this has been studied for a long time. They're not making a mistake in England putting vape shops in hospitals, they know it works, they know it saves lives, as has already been stated harm reduction works and that's being ignored.
A few extra links:
Governor Gretchen Whitmer's executive order of September 4, 2019
"to protect Michigan kids from harmful effects of vaping"
"After her Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, made a finding that youth vaping constitutes a public health emergency"
Here is a good article (and short video) about the September 12 session.
The minutes, which have all of the people who testified can be found here: http://house.mi.gov/MHRPublic/
While the present governor is a democrat, the house of representatives is controlled by the republicans (58/52) as is the Senate.
An Executive Order inMichigan can be rejected by a majority in both chambers, as was already the case this year. The situation would be different in other states.
The oversight committee Michigan's House of Representatives
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