Happy Days For Vaping
NNA’s Sarah Jakes spoke to 500 healthcare experts from 60 countries at GFN18, telling them that vaping is like The Fonz.
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by Dave Cross
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GFN attracted a huge number of healthcare experts, researchers, academicians, consumers, vaping advocates, politicians and representatives from tobacco companies. They came from 60 countries to learn more about harm reduction and on Friday they heard from Sarah Jakes.
Jakes smoked for 35 years before discovering the benefits of vaping. She now speaks on behalf of the NNA and coordinates its actions, as mentioned at another point at GFN: “We began with the EU. It became very apparent that everything was going to be banned. So, suddenly there was this huge resource of vaping enthusiasts who banded together. We had to get organised, so we set the NNA up.”
A group of individuals, free from industry influence, with a focus on advocacy of harm reduction – yet now blacklisted by the World Health Organisation!
She began mentioning that people actually enjoy vaping: “In his talk there, Joe mentioned the scream test. I have a test of my own, I call it the ‘glaze test’. It’s not always easy, especially when talking to a large group of people, to tell whether they’re really with me.”
“They tell me they’re passionate about helping people stop smoking and I don’t doubt them. They say they support e-cigarettes and I don’t doubt that either, but do they really understand? So my test is to throw in a slide about Pleasure. Normally it will include a photo of Vapefest – happy people at an open air festival, celebrating nothing more than the one thing they have in common – their love of vaping.”
“If smoking is James Dean, vaping’s more like the Fonz: more fun and pretty harmless. Probably not quite as cool though” – Sarah Jakes
“I tell them about the colourful tents, the thousands of different devices and liquids for sale, the camping, the barbecues, the music and the friends who wait all year for this event just to see each other in person.”
“And as I look around the room I often see amusement or surprise. The fact that thousands of people come together to celebrate vaping is a revelation. But in others I see eyes glazing over. It’s as if they’re saying ‘look, I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that vaping might be helpful, but enjoyable? Gimme a break’.”
A quick glance at the social media timelines of Stanton Glantz, Martin McKee or Simon Chapman reveals the truth in what she spoke about next – about the fixation that people like them have that we are all either victims or in the pocket of an evil tobacco industry because “they cannot process the idea that people can enjoy the use of nicotine.”
Colin Mendelsohn touched on the inability of people to grasp the basic facts when he spoke: “The tobacco harm reduction is about eliminating the harm. It is not about necessarily eliminating nicotine. We are not too worried about the nicotine. We just want to stop the smoke, which could kill them. And the e-cigarettes give them the hand-to-mouth behaviour and the nicotine they want and the whole smoking experience, without the smoke and the risk.”
It works, we enjoy it – they don’t get it or they simply don’t like it.
But rather than hating vaping and vapers, we should deserve their pity or laughter – as well as their support. Jakes highlighted a key point: “If smoking is James Dean, vaping’s more like the Fonz: more fun and pretty harmless. Probably not quite as cool though. What we’re seeing now is a revolution. People can take control of their own smoking without feeling ashamed, replace it with something equally pleasurable but less risky and be satisfied in the knowledge that they did it for themselves.”
“It’s empowering and it works.”
The full transcript of her presentation can be read at the NNA website, where you can also sign up as a supporter for free.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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