My Glasgow Herald letter on 08/01/24.
Another 233 independent vaping shops has opened in our high streets is not good news for parents, worried about their children becoming addicted to nicotine, from vapes. The UK now has 3,573 independent vaping shops.
The public should be aware that the so called independent vaping shops are nothing of the kind, they are all a front for big-tobacco’s world-wide efforts to replace the millions of people, that have quit smoking. Big-tobacco own the majority of producers of E-cigs and vaping products.
According to the Local Data Company, vaping products saw a £897.4 million growth in sales, in the last year. In Scotland alone 51,000 children under the age of sixteen, are now vaping, that potentially generates around £26.5M income to big-tobacco, masquerading as the saviour of people quitting smoking.
The UK Vaping Industry Association director general, John Dunne says ”The independent vaping shops play an important role in advising smokers how best to make the switch to vapes and ultimately how to continue their journey to zero nicotine” They claim to have helped 50,000 people a year to quit smoking - but I have never seen any reliable evidence of that. Mr Dunne does not mention that hundreds of thousands of smokers, who have been conned into vaping, to quit smoking, then find themselves even more addicted to the highly addictive stimulant drug nicotine, not to a life of zero nicotine use.
I do not believe that the independent vaping shop network can be trusted to support people on their journey out of nicotine addiction, for the simple reason that their only business is to sell as much nicotine as possible. I have visited independent vaping shops and been appalled at how the mainly young and minimally trained staff, perpetuate the myth that “vaping is 95% safer than smoking” they also are steering customers to products with stronger and stronger nicotine content. One vaping shop chain has a 26 page catalogue full of misinformation on the dangers of nicotine addiction. It makes no mention of the laws on vaping, no mention of health issues associated with nicotine, especially for children, people with asthma and other such lung problems.
Sadly, the 3,573 independent vaping shops are just a tiny fraction of shops selling vaping products, because our laws are so inadequate, literally anyone can sell vaping products, without a license. Vapes can now be bought in garages, supermarkets, corner shops, hairdressers, hardware shops, post offices, newsagents and corner shops. See the photo above, illustrating how rediculous our laws are about who can sell vapes.
The UK government’s Tobacco and vapes bill, consultation closed on December the 6th. I see little hope that a conservative government is serious about controlling this latest drugs problem as the conservative party happily accepted £350,000 donation from one of the biggest vaping companies in the UK.