Scotland Fury
Scotland’s proposed vape restrictions have been slammed by a swathe of industry and consumer voices
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by Dave Cross
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Public Health minister Maree Todd said: "Reducing exposure to the promotion of vape products is the best way to protect non-smokers, young people and children from experimenting with these products."
Todd’s comments come following ASH Scotland expressing its support for the proposals to block vape stores and ecig manufacturers from telling the truth about vaping.
Ash Scotland says it wants “more restrictions on spaces such billboards and bus shelters that carry vape advertisements as well as limiting promotional or sponsorship activities”.
Unlike ASH UK, ASH Scotland are taking an American line on hysterically overegging the vape threat posed to Scottish teens. Conflating full-time use with ever tried on purpose, it says it is “concerned that young people are finding these products attractive due to the flavours they come in and the colourful packaging.”
Ash Scotland’s Sheila Duffy said: “We owe it to forthcoming generations in Scotland to restrict the advertising and promotion of vaping products now.”
We Vape’s director Mark Oates declared that vaping saves lives and “if Nicola Sturgeon has her way, Scotland will have the strictest laws on vaping in Europe and its chances of hitting the country’s smoke free target of 2034 will be doomed. A planned ban on advertising e-cigarettes serves only to limit information to the public that could stop them dying from a preventable disease.
"We know there is a mass of misinformation out there, perpetuated by critics who choose to ignore science and every report that states vaping is a fantastic harm reduction tool. Banning the advertisement of something that saves lives is disgraceful and somewhat sinister. I do not for one second believe if the canny Scottish public knew the level of misinformation pumped out about vaping, they would want an advertising ban.”
The prospective ban has also been criticised by two trade bodies who fear that it could financially damage their members.
The Association of Convenience Stores steamed in to attack the proposals too. Its chief executive commented: “We do not support proposals to ban in-store displays or use of leaflets and flyers that promote e-cigarettes. These types of interventions have a disproportionate impact on local shops that have limited space to display products meaning they would incur significant financial cost to refit stores.
“Banning in-store promotions and other advertising mechanisms would also reduce access to vaping products, which are a growing category for retailers and are widely considered to be an important smoking cessation tool. The Scottish Government should instead focus resource on enforcement activity to remove illegal e-cigarette products from the market.”
The Scottish Grocers' Federation added that the ban would be completely unjustified, also revealed that they thought the potential promotion ban was unjustified and risked hitting disadvantaged communities the hardest.
“These types of interventions have a disproportionate impact on local shops that have limited space to display products, meaning they would incur significant financial cost to refit stores. Banning in-store promotions and other advertising mechanisms would also reduce access to vaping products, which are a growing category for retailers and are widely considered to be an important smoking-cessation tool. The Scottish government should instead be focusing resource on enforcement activity to remove illegal e-cigarette products from the market.”
Photo Credit:
Photo by Neenu Vimalkumar on Unsplash
Photo by Alessandro Bellone on Unsplash
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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