News Roundup
A roundup of some recent vape and harm reduction stories from Vietnam, America, and Ireland
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by Dave Cross
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Verification For Vietnamese Vapes
Self-appointed “experts” in Vietnam are calling for a block on the legalisation of vaping and heated tobacco products despite evidence from around the world demonstrating they deliver varying degrees of reduced risk.
Like nature finding a way in Jurassic Park, vaping circumventing the prehistoric attitudes behind the current ban in the country. Vietnamese media reports a flourishing cross-border smuggling operation that is responding to consumer demand for reduced harm.
One group in particular has pressed it’s “worry” about the illegal importation to the government, with both sides agreeing that a pilot study is better than legalising tobacco harm reduction. The group? The Vietnam Tobacco Association: concerned that a boom in vaping would threaten domestic cigarettes production.
The Drugs Don’t Work
Yale academics think there’s a problem with atomisers that allow users to add their own e-liquid. Clearly the best way to deal with a popular consumer product that works is to reclassify it as “drug paraphernalia”.
They write: “A comprehensive regulatory strategy for e-cigarettes must address 3 challenges: structuring consumer incentives toward harm reduction, reducing the profitability and appeal of informally sourced e-liquids, and ensuring that policies do not harm one demographic in order to help another.”
They believe “concrete policy opportunities” exist, “including designating open-system e-cigarette devices as drug paraphernalia”. Friedman and Tam justify this insane approach because of the EVALI outbreak last year. One small problem, EVALI was caused by illegal black market closed-system pods.
Irish Gateway In Trouble
Last year, former Irish health minister James Reilly typified the opposition to vaping in the Republic when he called upon the Taoiseach and government to implement a flavour ban.
“Our approach must be rooted in the idea that vapes are designed to introduce people to a new habit and keep them active in that habit,” he said. Reilly believes vaping acts as a gateway into tobacco use.
Once more, a staunch opponent of tobacco harm reduction products has conveniently overlooked a critical fact – something that has just been repeated in a key report on alcohol and other drugs by the by the EU Drugs Agency.
The paper details how the teen smoking rate in Ireland continues to decline
So which is it, Mr Reilly: Is vaping a gateway into smoking or, as the data clearly shows, is it acting as a disruptive technology and preventing teens from taking up the tobacco habit?
Related:
- “E-Cigarettes: Matching Risks With Regulations”, Friedman and Tam – [link]
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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