THE GUARDIAN:
As many as 15% of 11- to 15-year-olds use vapes, experts suggest, with products often packaged in bright colours
The relatively short history of e-cigarettes means there is minimal knowledge about long-term health effects. Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Alamy
Ministers are facing mounting pressure to impose an outright ban on single-use vapes, amid concern about their rising popularity among children and wider worries that officials have minimal grip over a fast-moving sector.
While it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s, some experts suggest as many as 15% of 11- to 15-year-olds use vapes, with Rishi Sunak
saying this week he was worried that his daughters could be “seduced” by a heavily flavoured product often packaged in bright colours.
» |
Peter Walker, Deputy political editor | Friday, May 26, 2023
This just goes to prove that the government’s relentless war on smoking is having a deleterious effect on children!
It would have been far better and more sensible if successive governments had simply used infomercials to make the public aware of the dangers of smoking and let the people decide for themselves whether they wish to smoke or not. In fact, that was the original strategy of governments to reduce smoking rates anyway; and, it must be said, that strategy was effective. It brought smoking rates right down over a period of years.
However, governments weren’t satisfied with this softly-softly approach. They have been determined to stub out the smoking of tobacco altogether which, of course, they will never be able to do.
The result has been that they have encouraged people to vape instead. The dangers of vaping are not yet well-understood. But the people in government have pushed ahead with this silly and ridiculous policy anyway.
At first, it was hoped that vaping would be used as a way of transitioning from smoking tobacco to not smoking at all. But it hasn’t turned out that way. Rather, vaping has become in itself a source of kicks for many people, including children. Vapes in multifarious flavours and forms have become particularly attractive even to young children, something which conventional cigarettes never were. The smell and taste of tobacco for children is often very off-putting. It certainly was for me as a child. As a child, I hated being around anyone who smoked cigarettes.
When I studied economics back in the day, one of the very first lessons we were taught was this: Governments should avoid at all costs distorting the market of any product, because the distortions caused by excessive taxes, etc, will often produce far more deleterious results than the use of the product the government is trying to stamp out. Clearly, our politicians haven’t learnt this lesson.
The moral of the story is quite simple: Stop interfering in the marketplace and stop interfering in the lives of the people. Let the people decide what they wish to do for enjoyment. Moreover, one shouldn’t be surprised that children are attracted to vaping when they are available in so many attractive flavours such as apricot, peach, blackcurrant, orange, etc. Make them taste of tobacco and most chidren will run far, far away from them! – © Mark Alexander
