Normalising prohibition

I was on BBC Radio Sussex this morning discussing the disposable vape ban that comes in on Sunday (June 1).

I said Forest is opposed to the ban, and explained why.

Also on the programme was Liam Humberstone, spokesman for leading vape retailer Totally Wicked, who backed the ban on environmental grounds. (Earlier he described it as a ’positive’ step.)

We didn’t go head-to-head otherwise I would have reminded Liam that Hazel Cheeseman, CEO of ASH, recently described the disposable vape ban as merely a “useful first step”.

The next step is more restrictions on packaging, displays and flavours.

After that? I imagine there will be calls to increase the legal age of sale of vapes leading, eventually, to a ban on all vaping devices.

That’s the tobacco playbook and the likes of ASH will follow it to the letter, even if it takes 20 or 30 years.

Another vape retailer who supports a ban on disposable vapes is Doug Mutter, director of VPZ, who last year endorsed the idea on condition it didn’t create a black market. (Good luck with that!).

However, headlines like this (Vape store boss supports ban on disposables) were less nuanced and must have been music to the ears of the prohibitionists.

VPZ, of course, is the company that in 2023 launched a much derided campaign to ‘Ban smoking for good’, which I wrote about here and here.

Ironically Mutter is a spokesman for the UK Vaping Industry Association whose director general John Dunne ‘delivered a clear message on BBC Radio Sussex this morning: bans don’t work’.

Talk about mixed messaging.

I'm pretty sure too that I read that another vape retailer has been collaborating with Laura Young (aka environmental campaigner and 'ultimate ethical influencer' Less Waste Laura) whose one-woman campaign to ban disposable vapes took her all the way to Westminster via Holyrood.

Appeasement rarely works so my message to Totally Wicked, VPZ, and any other vape retailer who supports a disposable vape ban is this:

Be careful what you wish for because the public health lobby won’t be happy until all forms of recreational nicotine are outlawed.

By supporting a ban on single use devices you not only encourage campaigners and government to move on to the ‘next logical step’, you normalise prohibition.

How foolish is that?

PS. Disposable vapes ban unlikely to reduce appeal, says campaigner (BBC News)

Disposable vapes will be banned in the UK from Sunday in an effort to curb youth vaping rates and reduce electronic waste.

But Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said new reusable vapes are "very similar" to single-use vapes, meaning it is "unlikely [the ban] will have that much impact on the appeal of products".

Next step: a ban on reusable vapes?

Update: Trade boss says businesses mostly pleased with ban (BBC News)

Most members of the IBVTA [Independent British Vape Trade Association] were “delighted by the news of the ban”, [chief executive Gillian] Golden says, because they “were uncomfortable“ to be selling the wasteful products.

Fancy that!