Welcome back.
My first post Christmas media enquiry was a phone call at 9.47am yesterday (Boxing Day) about vaping.
The Daily Record had reported that the Scottish Greens want to ban or hide the display of “sweet flavoured” vapes in shops to “protect” children.
The Times asked Forest to comment and today’s edition features this response:
Simon Clark, director of Forest, the smokers’ rights group, said that policies on vaping must be evidence-based and that there was very little evidence that vaping was a gateway to smoking, which carries more health risks. He added that the sale of e-cigarettes was already prohibited for under-18s and a ban would deny consumers access to products that might help them quit smoking.
“A ban on flavoured vapes would be a massive own goal because it would deter many smokers from switching to a far less harmful product,” Clark said.
“Adults like sweet flavours too so restricting their choice of vapes is not only illiberal, it could be counter-productive in terms of public health because the banned flavours will almost certainly appear on the black market, where unregulated and potentially more harmful products could be sold to children as well as adults.”
Full report here.
As I also wrote on LinkedIn (where I am followed by several vaping advocates) I will always defend an adult’s right to vape but it would be nice if advocates of vaping extended the same courtesy to adults who choose to smoke.
The debate about smoking and vaping, I suggested, is not just about health. It’s also about choice and personal responsibility. If adults choose to take greater risks with their health (by smoking, for example) it’s their life, not yours, and that choice must be respected, publicly.
The Scottish Greens may be a minority party in Holyrood but they’re in government with the SNP so they have some influence and with this policy they may be pushing on an open door in Scotland.
That makes it even more strange that apart from the UK Vaping Industry Association (in the Herald) I haven’t heard a peep from other pro-vaping groups in response to the Greens’ initiative.
I know it’s Christmas and many people are still on holiday but shake off the turkey, folks, and wake up! If Forest can find time to respond to threats like this so can you.
PS. Forest has also been quoted by the Scotsman and The National.