Let’s support choice, not sabotage it

Further to my previous post, there was the usual deafening silence from vaping activists to the news that France is to extend the smoking ban to many outdoor public places.

I know this to be true because Forest monitors the mainstream and social media and the number of vapers who stick their heads above the parapet to defend smoking wouldn’t fill a Mini.

This includes those who, 15 or 20 years ago, were smokers and actively engaged in the battle against anti-smoking legislation.

Now they’ve switched to vaping, and describe themselves as ‘tobacco harm reduction’ campaigners, they’ve lost interest, it seems.

The irony is that smoking bans will be followed, inevitably, by vaping bans.

It may take a bit longer - several years, a decade or so, perhaps - but the process has already started, even without legislation.

For example, how many pubs have banned vaping inside, even though there is no law that says they have to?

Likewise, in the few places where smoking is banned outside pubs, proprietors often include vaping too.

Yesterday the chairman of the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) posted on social media:

Banning flavours in e-cigarettes will backfire on public health.

#Vaping helps smokers switch because it tastes better than smoking — that’s the point.

Let’s support #harmreduction, not sabotage it.

In response Forest replied:

Vaping tastes better than smoking? That’s subjective.

Many smokers have tried vaping and prefer the taste of tobacco and the warmth and feel of a combustible cigarette.

Let’s support #choice, not sabotage it.

The problem is, far too many vaping advocates have convinced themselves the battle is about ‘harm reduction’ (a noble cause, I’m sure, but largely irrelevant).

What it’s really about is choice, and that means defending the right to smoke, vape etc while actively opposing excessive restrictions on tobacco, vapes, alcohol and so on.

Instead, vaping advocates - a curious coalition that includes ex-smokers and professional anti-smoking campaigners - have effectively joined forces to make cigarettes, and smoking, obsolete.

The word ‘choice’ may be in their vocabulary but only in relation to the right to vape. Smoke? Not so much.

Smoking cessation ‘experts’ I can almost forgive - it’s their job, after all.

Those I can’t forgive are the ex-smokers who, not content with quitting their old habit, are actively campaigning for a ‘smoke free’ (sic) future.

Or the self-styled champions of consumer choice who have turned their backs on those who enjoy smoking and don’t want to quit.

Meanwhile, the ban on disposable vapes is merely the start of the path to prohibition.

The idea that the anti-nicotine lobby will now ease off vapes is naive at best, which is why I found it so funny that the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) were among those supporting the disposable vapes ban.

I can’t wait to see their response when renewable vapes become the next target. Oh wait …

UK single-use vape ban could fuel boom in reusable products that ‘look the same’ (Financial Times)

You couldn’t make it up.

Update: BBC News is reporting:

As disposable vapes are banned across the UK, one charity is calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to create smoke and vape-free places.

Fancy that!

Update: Honourable mention to Claire Fox for writing this on The Spectator website today:

Smoking was and is a personal choice, and in a free society we should be allowed to indulge in a legal bad habit, however risky or unhealthy.

Although Claire (below, speaking at the Forest annual lunch in London last month) has quit smoking after 40 years, she is one of the few ex-smokers who continues to publicly support the right to smoke.

That’s one of many reasons I admire her, something that can’t be said for those former smokers who have gone from poacher to gamekeeper.

See: Disposable vapes are fantastic. Naturally, they’re demonised (Spectator)

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

I can't stand the sickly nauseating stench of vapes and it would be an awful world if the organic aroma of fresh cigarette smoke was replaced by the chemical malodor of ecigs everywhere. If that happened, I think I would have to get in the AVH bandwagon - Action on Vaping and Health. I am so sick of standing up for a habit I despise in the name of choice when those who despise my choice can't stand up for me.

It's nice that at least someone supports the smokers right to continue to enjoy smoking. I can't read all of the behind paywall article but aside from giving smoking and freedom a mention, Claire's article does seem to be all about the vapes and the poor addicted smoker finally saved and reborn. Hallelujah!

And that's the problem for me. If it's about harm reduction then why not promote harm reduction to smokers who do not wish to quit completely but who can't stand vaping and, as Claire says, don't find the myriad of anti smoker quit products useful either.

It was obvious from the very start of the vaping movement that their goal was not choice . They always had to attack smoking to give their product respectability and get the very vocal and well funding enemies of choice on their side.

It's such a shame because together we could have turned back the tide of fascism and supported each other but I guess there's no profit in that.