Sometimes, a law isn’t just a law. Sometimes, it’s a warning. And this is a warning. 

British Columbia’s new Bill, Vaping Products Damages and Health Care Recovery Act is being celebrated as a way to “make industry pay.” But when you dig deeper, you see something far more troubling: a government arming itself with extraordinary powers, powers that could crush fairness, stifle innovation, and turn justice into a political weapon.

A Law That Decides Who’s Guilty Before the Trial Even Starts

Modelled after tobacco and opioid legislation, this Act gives the government the ability to sue manufacturers, wholesalers, and even consultants connected to vaping products for alleged health-care costs. The very premise of the Act, that vaping causes costs to the healthcare system, is ridiculous. Vaping saves the healthcare system money. One study found that England”s National Health Service would save more than £500m a year if half of England’s adult smokers vaped instead.

If Ms. Sharma did her due diligence, she would have read this study that finds that exempting e-cigarettes from U.S. drug regulation spurred innovation, reduced smoking, and saved an estimated 677,000 life-years boosting social welfare by $8 billion annually. 

But here’s the problem: the government doesn’t have to prove anything in the way ordinary people or businesses do. Once it claims there’s been a “breach of duty,” the scales of justice tip immediately in its favour.

Courts are told to presume causation and presume damages, even without direct evidence.
Real people and real facts are replaced with statistical assumptions. The government becomes the prosecutor, the plaintiff, and the beneficiary all at once.

That’s not justice. That’s power unchecked and dangerous.

Risk Is the New Harm

The Act goes even further. It redefines “disease, injury, or illness” to include the risk of disease, injury, or illness.

Let that sink in.

They can sue over risk. Not actual harm. Not proven injury. Just risk something invisible, speculative, and subjective.

How does anyone defend against that?

It’s like being fined for speeding when you haven’t even started the car, just because someone thinks you might someday.

Evidence? The Government Will Write Its Own

In any fair system, the burden of proof belongs to the accuser.
Not here. This law allows the government to certify its own evidence and literally sign off on a document stating how much health care it provided or what it cost and that document becomes proof or even conclusive proof in court.  

That allows for a lot of power in the hands of a very few with ZERO checks and balances. 

The Perfect Playground for Greedy Lawyers

Make no mistake: this Act isn’t just a tool for government, it’s a goldmine for lawyers.
Every clause, every presumption, every loophole is a new opportunity for litigation.

A new wave of class actions, consulting contracts, expert reports, and settlements will follow. And who benefits most? The same well connected firms that built their empires on tobacco and opioid class action cases t have now found a new target and a fresh stream of billable hours.

When the line between “public good” and “profit” blurs this much, it’s not justice being served, it’s a system being fed.

A Chilling Effect on Innovation

And here’s the part that should terrify anyone who believes in progress: If this kind of legislation becomes the norm, who will ever innovate again?

If a company can be sued decades later for the risk that its product might cause something, why would anyone invest in developing safer alternatives whether in health, technology, or energy?

Vaping isn’t just about nicotine, it’s about harm reduction, about replacing something deadly with something less harmful. But under this law, that kind of innovation becomes a liability.
When innovation dies, public health suffers.

A Test of Power

The Vaping Cost Recovery Act isn’t just about vaping, it’s a trial balloon. A test to see just how far government power can stretch before people push back.

If this works—if no one fights it—what’s next?
Will they come for the food industry next, for the “risk” of obesity?
For alcohol? For caffeine? For Cars, motorcycles, for walking on the street after dark! 

For anything that carries “risk”?

Once a government learns it can rewrite the rules of evidence, retroactively assign blame, and profit from its own lawsuits, where does it stop?

We Should All Be Paying Attention

You don’t have to vape to care about this. You just have to believe in fairness.
You just have to believe that truth still matters, that evidence still counts, that power should have limits.

Because this law isn’t just about recovering costs, it’s about control for the state.
It’s a warning to every innovator, every entrepreneur, every citizen who dares to think differently:

WE CAN COME FOR YOU TOO! 

And when that day comes, the cost won’t just be paid in dollars. It will be paid in freedom.

If you want to learn a bit more, the law firm McCarthy Tétrault wrote a good explanation of this bill that goes further into details. I am not a lawyer, but they are, so you can read their article here.