um anyway we uh proudly welcome back Tony to the program and anyway he's the executive director of VTA Vapor technology Association they're at the Forefront of Defending The Vape industry and you might say well Hannity why do you care about this well we've seen you on TV you vape I'm like okay guilty is charged uh probably not the healthiest thing that I do in my life but you know what I do it so um or I chew Nicorette I do that too and I kind of go back and forth between the two and anyway long story short is I gave up smoking cigars uh you know many many years ago uh I was smoking way too many of them and uh the same with when I was a kid I smoked cigarettes when I was 11 and 12 in a restaurant it's ridiculous but it was a different time my parents smoked my sisters at the time all smoked they you know ended up all giving it up as it did I I gave it up when I was 20 it never was a big I never really liked how to smell but you know I don't know why I like a very low I I use two different Vapes one that has no nicotine at all and one that has nicotine just a very low 0.3% and um however I believe in Freedom and this is a an ongoing discussion that we have had that the party of joy and the party of Freedom would take away and tax you to death on the issue of choosing to vape or not Vape I would not recommend recommend smoking I would not recommend drinking in excess um our friend Tony Abu is back and Tony great to have you sir how are you uh I'm doing really well Sean thanks for having me on this program I appreciate it very much you know I'm I'm not recommending anybody get nicotine patches and Nicorette gum or vaping or I'm not recommending any of that for anybody you know but there are zero nicotine Vapes I I have one that's a menthol it's actually very good uh but you know a lot of these if I lived in New York I wouldn't even be able to buy it there right that's true well look this Administration is doing everything it's power to take away your freedom to vape and as well as every American's freedom to choose flavored Vapes or any other flavored nicotine product that you know I know and the FDA knows is dramatically less harmful than smoking cigarettes um what this really amounts to Sean is I I view this as an attack on on working people I mean who are the people that smoke people with low incomes now struggling from paycheck to paycheck not people on Wall Street people who work in the trades not in Silicon Valley but this Administration is literally ripping these Vape products which are the least expensive and the most effective smoking sensation tool out of the hands of everyday hardworking Americans and as you noted earlier they're trying to tax them out of existence also I mean shouldn't we want a tax on less harmful products to be lower than the taxes on cigarettes this is not about public health anymore this is about restricting personal freedoms and trying to convince Americans that they should quit everything which isn't a realistic public policy and it's not good for the people themselves well I mean this is part of a a pattern they they claim that they're doing this you know all out of our best interest but none of this is in our best interest is it no it's not I mean Sean the hypocrisy on nicotine goes beyond anything that you and I have seen in our lifetime the same people who are pushing legalized marijuana are the same people that are trying to ban flavored Vapes and other nicotine products from the market by the way how bizarre is that I mean the because especially marijuana I mean look I know there are some people that use it and and I guess can be functioning High performing functioning adults but that's not the average person that I've experienced in my life you know a lot of people that I know can't they they end up wasting their lives away and it it does lead I have found it to be my own personal experience and there are mixed studies on it I don't want to get into a study versus study debate right but in my view it is a gateway drug and once you like getting high you're going to keep getting high well there's no question that it has a psychoactive impact on on the person that does impact kind of how they perform but nicotine as you've experienced is is by comparison relatively benign but but these again are the same people who are advocating for flavored cannabis gummies but they refuse to even let adults choose a flavored vaping product which can help them quit smoking they're also the same folks that are using taxpayer funds to give people tools such as free needles to continue using heroin but they want to tax out of existence ecigarettes the tool that people are using to quit smoking none of this makes any sense and this is where Americans can smell hypocrisy um very very quickly um and even with fenel Sean I mean taxpayer funded campaigns right in New York City telling people it's okay to use fentanyl as long as they use it safely but this administration's FDA has refused to tell Americans they should even try using an ecigarette and they have to quit everything all together I mean that's just not real policy it's not real science and it it demonstrates a desire to get rid of all things that are related to Nick they just don't you can get you can get addicted to anything I mean you know there's an epidemic now that is emerging in the country that people don't talk about and that is you know online betting I mean you could you could literally be in a casino in your own home 24 hours a day uh for for most people depending on what the state law is and it's most States uh you could be you could be sports betting all day long too I'm not against people doing it I believe in the liberty and freedom to do it but it is leading to an epidemic of addiction that I don't think we're paying enough attention to yeah I I I think that's right and I think that the key here is when you think about where this discussion has gone in 2019 the FDA tried to convince president Trump to ban flavored ecigarettes saying that it would protect kids but he did something a lot smarter if you remember he chose to raise the age to 21 to buy any tobacco product and that decision guess what youth vaping in this country has plummeted in fact the numbers just came out again yesterday youth vaping year-over-year is down another 25% and down 71% since president Trump made that bold move when he was being told oh he has to get rid of flavored vaping we can't trust Americans to make in making the correct choice I mean that's a huge Victory and one that we were proud to be a part of but unfortunately since he left office the bureaucrats FDA they've reved up their band e cigarettes machinery and they're doing everything in their power to deny access in the marketplace and they're doing everything they can right now this is scary part to shut down the 13,000 small businesses that President Trump saved in 2019 and the way they're doing it is even more concerning they're going into mom and pop shops Sean finding one flavored Vape on the shelf and issuing a first time fine of $20,000 on a small business I mean the administration cannot pretend it's trying to bolster small businesses in this country when its agents are taking them down every day yeah really is amazing well we appreciate you uh talking about the issue of Liberty and freedom from the freedom and joy party that is anything but the freedom and joy party but of course you know we can't question them because they won't to an interview a gaggle a press conference anything they won't talk to anybody uh Tony aboot thank you my friend 80094 one Sean if you want to be a part of the program uh listen I want to speak