Irish Harm Reduction Idiocy
As it passes a law to ban the sale of vapes to under-18s, the Irish Health Minister announces that he plans to seek further restriction on vaping that will impact on adult vapers and smokers
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by Dave Cross
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Minister Donnelly is delighted that the ban on the sale of nicotine inhaling products, including e-cigarettes or ‘vapes’ to under-18s will come into law before Christmas.
The Minister for Health said: “I am delighted that this Bill has passed all stages in both Houses of the Oireachtas. It will now go to the President for signing and we are on track to ensure that our ban on the sale of nicotine inhaling products, including e-cigarettes, to minors will be in place before Christmas.
“Our public consultation on the further regulation of e-cigarettes was launched on 25 November 2023. We are seeking views on a point-of-sale ban, on packaging, on flavours and other interventions to decrease the appeal of e-cigarettes for our children. I look forward to the results of the consultation and to taking further action to protect the health of our children."
As well as banning the sale of nicotine inhaling products to under 18s, the current Bill will:
- prohibit the sale of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products at events for children
- prohibit the self-service sale (vending machines) of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products
- introduce a strict licensing system for the retail sale of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products
- prohibit the advertising of nicotine inhaling products around schools and on public transport
- provide additional enforcement powers to the Environmental Health Service for measures in the Bill and for all previous Tobacco Control Acts
Donnelly, and the Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drug Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton launched a public consultation on 25 November 2023 “to help inform future regulation of tobacco and nicotine inhaling products such as e-cigarettes or ‘vapes’.”
The consultation remains open until 5 January 2024 although the direction of travel for the Irish government appears to be clear regardless of the findings.
“Vaping has become more popular in recent years, particularly among young people. Compared to cigarettes, vaping may be less harmful, but vaping is not harm free. Most vaping liquids contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance,” it says – indicating that it will be happy to ignore the science and impose its anti-nicotine agenda.
Their consultation looks at what additional measures “could” be introduced “to decrease the appeal of nicotine inhaling products to children and young people and further denormalise smoking and improve public health.”
The areas the Irish government is planning to clamp down on includes:
- In-store vape displays of products and eliquids
- Banning eliquid flavours other than tobacco
- Plain packaging for all vape products, equating them with cigarettes
- “Proxy sales of tobacco and nicotine inhaling products”
- Banning vaping from public outdoor spaces
- Extending smoke free restrictions to include vaping
- Increasing the age at which adults can buy vape products
- Placing a sin tax on vape products
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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