How Will UK "Smokefree Generation" Law Affect Vapers?

[Toby iVapour]

From Christopher Snowdon -
https://snowdon.substack.com/p/stick-that-in-your-pipe-and-smoke

No one really knows why Rishi Sunak decided to make tobacco prohibition a cornerstone of his prime ministerial agenda.

There is talk in Westminster that Sunak was personally persuaded by Chris Whitty (the Chief Medical Officer) who has been banging this drum for a while. Whitty then turned up at the Covid inquiry and laid into Sunak, nicknaming his Eat Out to Help Out scheme ‘Eat Out to Help the Virus’. I scratch your back, you knife mine.

And here are some quotes from how Christopher Snowdon responded to the consultation -

Incremental tobacco prohibition is arguably the most idiotic and illiberal policy any democratic government has devised in the twenty-first century. It manages to combine the hubris of Napoleon, the absurdity of late-period Caligula and the authoritarianism of the Taliban.

It doesn't matter whether proxy sales are banned or not. Older adults will have no moral objection to buying tobacco for younger adults because - and this is the point that the government overlooks - informed adults can decide for themselves whether they smoke or not and there is nothing the paternalistic fantasists at the Department of Health can do about it.

The inclusion of snuff and cigarette papers in the proposal gives me hope insofar as it makes me wonder whether the whole thing may be an elaborate hoax. If so, well played. If not, is there an epidemic of teenage nasal snuff use of which I am unaware?

In the proposal as it stands, the government will be literally banning the sale of pieces of paper. It is difficult to find the words to describe how insane that is.

The government's justification for incremental prohibition is that smoking cigarettes is exceptionally harmful and yet it intends to ban products which are not exceptionally harmful, presumably just because it can. This is not a science-based endeavour. It is an ideological crusade.

Banning vape flavours is the favoured approach of the e-cigarette prohibitionist Michael Bloomberg who has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into anti-vaping advocacy worldwide.* The strategy is to present flavour restrictions as a minor piece of product regulation and hope that politicians don't realise that it is actually prohibition by the back door.

Anything that deters people from using e-cigarettes is a de facto pro-smoking policy. That understanding should underpin everything the government does in this area. The biggest problem with e-cigarettes is that people of all ages think they are far more dangerous than they are. Applying tobacco-style regulation to them will only confirm that misperception in the minds of the public.

If anyone still hasn't filled in the consultation yet, there are 2 days left!
https://consultations.dhsc.gov.uk/en/65201ed1f3410a69990d3081

The consultation period will run until 11:59pm on Wednesday 6 December 2023.

 

[Netvaper]

I imagine with NHS waiting lists as long as both arms most people would prefer the government to concentrate on doing something about that as opposed to some easy peasy draconian legislation nobody has actually voted for.

 

[vapesmarter]

I had a conversation with a young lady the other day she saw the Vapesmarter van and asked do I sell mods as she had just come off disposables she was in her early twenties and said she had been vaping for 12 months and was using a run of the mill tank and mod....however, she didn't smoke and had never smoked I was taken aback by this... why vape ? studying for her finals in uni she was stressed out of her mind because the money, the cost the exams the job offers/placements {not coming in} with her degree that landed her a 30k bill so to help with the stress she vaped

her mindset was sure I could drink or do drugs or drink some herbal tea or yoga but you can't do tea and yoga all the time and vaping was far simpler and easier and safer

her degree was a medical one

there you have it in this stressful cost-of-living world a first-person perspective from what rishi would see as one of the future industry people

 

[Rickster]

I imagine with NHS waiting lists as long as both arms most people would prefer the government to concentrate on doing something about that as opposed to some easy peasy draconian legislation nobody has actually voted for.

It's all about control though.....not so long ago they told people not to the pub n shut them just in case people did... your choice of car and heating your home is being dictated all of which nobody voted for.

 

[Netvaper]

Since the pandemic the decline in smoking rates has apparently plateaued with a fall amongst older adultss offset by an increase in those taking up the habit by young adults. Maybe the authorities should be more concerned with that than vaping.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67703066

 

[John R Phillips]

They should, but they won’t

 

[Toby iVapour]

Since the pandemic the decline in smoking rates has apparently plateaued with a fall amongst older adultss offset by an increase in those taking up the habit by young adults. Maybe the authorities should be more concerned with that than vaping.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67703066

Yes, and the lead author of the report acknowledges that -

Young adults may start smoking because they believed e-cigarettes were equally bad for them, Dr Jackson said.
"There has a been lot of talk about vaping and there has been a real disconnect about the risks of vaping and risks of smoking among young people," she said.
"The risks of vaping are substantially lower than the risks of smoking.
"Smoking is uniquely lethal, yet most of the concern is about young people vaping."

But, then go on to justify the (IMO crazy/unjust) generational smoking ban -

The researchers supported a government proposal to raise the smoking age, which would mean a child turning 14 this year could never legally buy cigarettes.