03/11/2022
From the desk of Amanda Wheeler:
Long and short of it, we would have needed a block of Senators wiling to deny funding to Ukraine and shut down the government to stand up for synthetic ni****ne. It just wasn’t happening, we needed some chaos or disagreement in the Senate, but they had the votes easily. We got a consolation prize, which isn’t much but it’s not nothing. We picked up some friends willing to help us work toward enforcement discretion so that we are not out of luck in 90 days. There is a tremendous amount of work that will go into an effort to get a long enforcement discretion period.
And yes, for the record it is an absolute fact that JUUL and Reynolds got Burr to do this. Heard from Burr directly. Their attempts to deny it are lies.
I would like to sincerely thank everybody that donated to fund rapid representation. They were able to get in and quickly have conversations with the key players on this and got some important folks committed to helping us deal with how this is rolled out by FDA/enforcement discretion. Time was just not on our side.
Would also like to acknowledge Paul Blair for rolling with me and the team to some of these meetings to help explain the finer points of FDA failures and consequences to businesses. Paul is an excellent person to be in a foxhole with.
Two things are for sure, litigation and a few million new PMTA’s. I know that it is very hard not to panic, I would encourage everyone to please remember we have been on the cusp on eradication many times before. We are a resilient bunch and we will always keep fighting.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard getting folks to make calls, etc.