UK vs Scotish approach to vaping
#AddictionEconomy Thought For Today - How perspective changes everything, diversity of viewpoint essential and you have to do more than one thing at once.
Compare the English NHS and UK Government focus on hashtag#vaping and that of Scotland. Both initiatives just launched.
Scotland: Trying to put young people off hashtag#smoking with a campaign and website - Vaping Soon Takes Hold (not sure that scare tactics work best, we are working on that). Their focus is on stopping young people being addicted to vapes.
UK/NHS: Is totally focused on using vapes to help smokers quit. If you put 'vaping NHS' the first thing you get is advice on how to start. Right at the end you get something on giving up vaping, which only just went up. This new 'Myth Busting' initiative is all about telling people - smokers - vaping isn't as bad as they think.
UK government advice is “If you smoke, swap to vaping; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape”. Lots being done on the first part, nothing being done on the second.
At the recent E-Cigarette Summit SocietyInside I was told personally by Martin Dockrell of Public Health England (ex ASH) that "nicotine in vapes is not the same as nicotine in cigarettes’ suggesting that young people just think they are dependent, but they'll get over it as they get older and that “it’s not a problem that needs solving” and by Deborah Arnott Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) that by airing concerns about vaping and young people ‘we are focusing on the wrong problem.”
Contributors to ASH webinars were asking for stop vaping services but speaker Louise Ross, chair and mental health lead of the New Nicotine Alliance, urged the government “don’t waste public money on stop vaping services when people can manage their own reduction very nicely”. A previous Director of ASH Clive Bates accusing regulators, healthcare professionals, WHO and NGOs in the US and Australia as being “worse than the tobacco industry ever was’ because their precautionary vaping policies may result in smoking deaths from those who could have vaped.
We are hearing from others who have aired concerns that vaping is becoming a real problem for non-smokers and got firmly told they are inflating a problem.
We have to do both things at the same time. The immediate short term needs of smokers (and the government SmokeFree by 2030 campaign) cannot take overwhelming priority over the mental and physical health of children, young adults and non-smokers who are being deliberately targeted by vape companies and retailers to replace lost revenue from cigarettes.
Research here on why vaping is as addictive as smoking.
https://lnkd.in/deRrRD4p
Talking to Labour about this, who are more receptive. Please do share ideas and contacts on hashtag#addiction, hashtag#unaddiction and interesting stories