We have all paid a price for this malevolent legislation, but the cost that will linger the longest is the precedent it set. The passive-smoking issue was always window-dressing. Everyone knew the real reason for the ban was that a significant number of non-smokers didn’t like the smell of tobacco smoke and the government wanted to make smokers’ lives difficult. In the final analysis, smoking in pubs was banned because people in power didn’t like it.
Saturday, 2 July 2022
15 lousy years
Friday, 1 July 2022
Meet the British Medical Association
Aseem Malhotra, Croydon's part-time cardiologist, was given an award this week by the Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA). Malhotra, whose Twitter feed has been teeming with anti-vax dogwhistles for months, was - incredibly - honoured as a champion of preventive health.
Hi, to be clear: this is not a BMA award and the BMA have played no role in the decision to make this award. We do not endorse the views of Dr Aseem Malhotra
— The BMA (@TheBMA) June 29, 2022
This is my statement of clarification which I read out to our ARM today. https://t.co/bDUY65mWa1
— Chaand Nagpaul (@CNagpaul) June 29, 2022
I'm not sure why this group decided to honour Malhotra or how Dr Nagpaul got caught up in it, but it's not a good look for the BMA's chairman to be seen with this grifting narcissist.
In any case, it was virtually his last act in the job. The BMA has since made changes at the top that do not bode well for Britain.
This week it appointed Dr Phil Banfield as the Chair of the BMA. Dr Banfield first came to my attention in 2016 when he compared e-cigarettes to Thalidomide. As Chair of the BMA's Welsh Council, he was furious when the plan to ban vaping indoors fell apart.
Banfield's views on e-cigarettes are shared by the anti-vaping dinosaur and obese windbag Martin McKee who recently became President of the BMA's President. Irreconcilably opposed to tobacco harm reduction, Brexit and 'neoliberalism', McKee is wheeled out by the media whenever they need someone to go against the UK consensus on vaping. His far-left political views make it more likely that we will see medics going on strike this year.
The BMA is instinctively authoritarian, but it largely dropped its resistance to vaping in 2017. With these two clowns in charge, there is a real danger of the organisation going backwards.
Thursday, 30 June 2022
Do three year olds recognise the McDonalds logo before they know their own name?
Half of all children aged four don't know their own name - but two thirds of three-year-olds can recognise the McDonald's golden arches.
The value of indirect marketing - ads that are not made expressly for kids but are seen by them anyway - runs into the hundreds of millions. The result is that today's average British child is familiar with up to 400 brand names by the time they reach the age of 10. Researchers report that our children are more likely to recognise Ronald McDonald and the Nike swoosh than Jesus. One study found that 69% of all three-year-olds could identify the McDonald's golden arches - while half of all four-year-olds did not know their own name.
Children often recognize the McDonald's logo before they recognize their own name.
Monday, 27 June 2022
A swift half with Mark Schrad
Thursday, 23 June 2022
Minimum pricing continues to go wrong
In the car park of Seamus McNamee’s off-licence, First and Last, located just minutes north of the Border, are vehicles from all over the country.
The customers, some of whom have travelled from the likes of Carlow, Wexford and Roscommon specifically, reflect the surge in business the Jonesborough retailer has experienced from the South of Ireland, following the introduction of minimum unit pricing (MUP) in the Republic.
“Since the Irish Government introduced MUP, it’s just been gradually crazy with people from southern Ireland. Since March, and then the last bank holiday weekend, it’s just been crazy. We’re run off our feet,” Mr McNamee said.
“It’s hard to quantify the increase because of the pandemic, but I’d say it’s jumped up another 30 to 40 per cent.”
Slabs of beer are the most popular for those travelling cross-Border, Mr McNamee said, as they have been most affected by the new law.
“It used to take us maybe three or four weeks to sell a pallet. Now, since MUP, we would be doing three to four pallets of Coors or Bud per week.”
Consumers are buying in bulk, too, and buying for four or five members of the one family at a time.
“They’re coming with a list and getting their bits and pieces here. You can get a spend of between €200 to €400, up to maybe €2,000 or €3,000.”
A PUBLIC health expert has rubbished a Tory MSP's claim that minimum alcohol pricing isn’t working in Scotland.
In May 2018, Scotland became the first country in the world to set a base price for each unit of alcohol sold - driving up the price of cheaper booze.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, Tory MSP for Glasgow region, claimed during a meeting of the health committee in Holyrood that the scheme was failing and that the most vulnerable were cutting back on food to afford the high prices.
The introduction of a £0.50 MUP in Scotland led to a marked increase in the prices paid for alcohol by people with alcohol dependence. There is no clear evidence that this led to reduced alcohol consumption or levels of alcohol dependence among people drinking at harmful levels.... People who struggled to afford the higher prices arising from MUP coped by using, and often intensifying, strategies they were familiar with from previous periods when alcohol was unaffordable for them. These strategies typically included obtaining more money by reducing spending on food and utility bills, increasing borrowing from sources such as family, friends or pawnbrokers, running down savings or other capital, and using foodbanks or other charities. In line with this, the policy increased the financial strain felt by a significant minority of people with alcohol dependence.
However, Professor Petra Meier told MSPs that she didn’t agree with his assessment of the policy and said it was one of the “stronger policies” the Scottish Government has come up with without full control of tax powers and alcohol duties.
... Meier, director of the SIPHER Consortium which analyses the long term impact of health policies, said that she didn’t agree with Gulhane’s assessment.
She added: “It's working on the whole. There are some very heavy drinkers who may not have the opportunity to cut down their drinking who then substitute for food spending. I don't think that's a problem of the price you put on alcohol, I think it's a problem on the health services that haven't been available." [what?! - CJS]
... Meier added that for very dependent drinkers the policy “hasn't had many detrimental effects, but there has been some substitution with big purchases”.
Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that Petra Meier was the head of the Sheffield University group that did all the modelling for minimum pricing. This modelling was virtually the only 'evidence' that the policy would work and it turned out to be deeply flawed.
Wednesday, 22 June 2022
What lockdown tells us about alcohol policy
‘… from the average alcohol intake of a population one can predict precisely the number of heavy drinkers. It is therefore likely to follow that changes in average consumption will lead to corresponding changes in the prevalence of alcoholism and in alcohol-related health problems.’
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Alcohol consumption is at a historic low, temperance lobby demands action
Scots still drinking too much as drop in alcohol intake stallsALCOHOL consumption in Scotland remains too high, amid calls to increase the minimum unit price.
An average adult in Scotland drank the equivalent of around two bottles of wine per week in 2021, based on estimates from alcohol retail sales.Consumption also appears to have stalled after previously falling to a historic low.
In 2020, purchase data indicated that 9.4 litres of pure alcohol - or 18.1 units - was sold per adult per week in Scotland, the lowest level since current records began in 1994. This remained the same in 2021.
However, adults are advised not to exceed 14 units.
In 2021, off-trade premises such as supermarkets and other off-licences, accounted for 85% of all the alcohol purchased in Scotland, compared to 73% in 2019 and 90% in 2020.
It comes after a study published last week revealed that there was "no clear evidence" that minimum unit pricing, introduced in Scotland in May 2018, had reduced alcohol intake amongst the most harmful drinkers, with evidence that they had cut back on food and heating instead to cope with the increased cost.
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said it was "encouraging" to see the decrease in drinking from 2020 sustained, but called on ministers to "optimise" minimum pricing by increasing it "at least in line with inflation". Campaigners have pushed for a hike from 50 to 65 pence per unit.
Ms Douglas added: "Alongside this we need restrictions on the aggressive marketing of alcohol and to reduce how easily available it is in our communities.
Public Health Minister Maree Todd said: "Work on reviewing the level of minimum unit pricing is underway and we will be consulting on potential restrictions on alcohol advertising later this year."
Sunday, 19 June 2022
Paul McCartney at 80
When the Beatles broke up in late 1969, Paul McCartney retreated to his farm in Scotland with his wife Linda and their children. If he had wanted to secure lifelong adoration, he could have stayed there and never released another record. His legend would have only grown. Instead, he set out to do it all again. He never wrote another ‘Blackbird’ or ‘For No One,’ but then who did? It is enough that he formed one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, wrote a string of smash hits, including one of the best James Bond songs and the UK’s best-selling single to date, made at least one classic album, and was still producing high quality work in his 70s. If the Beatles had never existed, Paul McCartney would still be considered one of the greats.
Saturday, 11 June 2022
Debating with Debs
I'm on holiday for a week so I will leave you with my debate with ASH's Deborah Arnott from yesterday. All three of the people on screen are ex-smokers but I get the impression that Debs is the only one who is still itching for a fag.
Friday, 10 June 2022
A swift half with Joanna Williams
It was great to talk to Joanna Williams yesterday about the silly Khan review and her new book about wokeism, the title of which I kept getting wrong but which you can buy here.
Thursday, 9 June 2022
Send in the clowns - Javed Khan's tobacco review
Attitudes to smokingThere is a notable lack of drive or even inclination to quit smoking among many.
Participants considered smoking was an essential tool for dealing with life.
Attitudes to quitting
Awareness of health risks is high but can be rationalised, justified or ignored.
Quitting: attitudes towards support services
Not top of their mind; much disinterest in quit support services; some rejection.
A main barrier is a lack of desire to quit; but some actively do not want to engage.
Policy ideas
Reaction muted and negative. In some instances, negativity linked to perceived increased difficulty to smoke.
Student smokers (who took up smoking at university)
Students are positive, upbeat about the future.
Notably, most are without care about their smoking.
No urge or desire to quit.
Generally minimal concern about ability to quit when they want to; related lack of interest in support services.
Ethnic minority smokers
Generally aligned with other smokers regarding situations, behaviour, and attitudes to smoking.
LGBTQ+ smokers
Generally aligned with other smokers regarding situations, behaviour and attitudes to smoking.
Downing Street accused of blocking plans to raise legal smoking age every year in bid to appease Tory right
Labour has raised concerns over links between David Canzini, Downing Street’s powerful deputy chief of staff, and tobacco companies, and demanded to know what role he had had in any watering down of plans on the new smoking laws.... Mr Canzini used to work for Sir Lynton Crosby’s lobbying firm CT Group, whose clients include tobacco firms.
“Javed Khan has managed to gather the most crackpot ideas from the fringes of nanny state extremism and compiled them in a single document. The idea of raising the smoking age every year would mean treating the adults of the future as if they were children forever. In years to come, perhaps we will see furtive 40 year olds hanging around outside shops looking for 41 year olds to buy them cigarettes.
“Other bizarre proposals include painting cigarettes green, putting health warnings on individual sticks and banning people from smoking in their own home. He wants to ban films which show people using tobacco from being broadcast before 9pm and have warnings flash up on screen when they do.
“His plan to ban smoking in beer gardens will be the final nail in the coffin of the pub industry, while his idea of hiking the price of cigarettes by 30 per cent overnight will be warmly welcomed by Britain’s tobacco smugglers who are already doing a roaring trade.
“It is easy to laugh at some of these proposals and Mr Khan should be thanked for providing some entertainment in these difficult times, but there is a non-trivial risk that a future government will be silly enough to implement them. Before filing this report in the bin, the government should make it clear that adults have the right to smoke and that efforts to reduce the smoking rate will not come at the expense of civil liberties.”
Christopher Snowdon, an author and head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, called the report "absolutely insane".
"I don't why the Government asked this guy to carry out a review," he blasted.
"He has gathered the most crackpot ideas from the lunatic fringe of the nanny state lobby and compiled them in a single document.
"It's an embarrassment."
"The ever-tightening ban on cigarette sales will simply feed an ever-growing black market. The Government is repeating the mistakes America made a century ago in its Prohibition of alcohol. The report points out that the UK is geographically “vulnerable” to illicit trade by criminal gangs. With the advent of free ports, this whole approach doesn’t make a lot of sense.”“The review contains muddled thinking, with proposals that make political impact rather than having any health impact or value."“It would be far, far better for the Government to focus on helping hardened smokers of all ages to switch to reduced risk products. That is how Scandinavia has beaten smoking. It has allowed its nicotine users to switch to snus which every scientist knows is vastly safer than smoking. For decades they have been reaping the health dividend from a product that doesn’t even cause oral cancer. That’s why Switzerland and the USA have authorised snus. But our Government continues to ban the world’s most successful alternative to smoking."
Wednesday, 8 June 2022
Raising the smoking age and other bad ideas
An independent audit of tobacco control would be more appropriate. Anti-smoking campaigners pop up every few years with their stern faces to tell us that they have got a new evidence-based policy which the Government must act upon. The Government then dithers until the pressure builds enough for it to capitulate, the policy is introduced and we never hear about it again. The last one was plain packaging, which was portrayed as something of a panacea at the time (one of its more excitable advocates described it as a vaccine for lung cancer), but when the dust settled it turned out to have no effect on cigarette sales. Randomised controlled trials have since shown that it was never likely to work.
Independent reviews are supposed to ‘take the politics out’ of issues that are inherently political. They are supposed to generate ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘thinking outside of the box’. In practice, they usually involve someone who doesn’t know a great deal about a subject being surrounded by activists, and who ends up parroting the activists’ demands.
In the UK, the age at which people are considered to be adults has generally gone down over the years. Until 1970, you had to be 21 to vote. The age of homosexual consent was 21 until 1994. These days, the only thing you’re not allowed to do between the age of 18 and 20 is adopt a child. With the exception of the age of consent (16), driving a car (17) and giving blood (17), the law has coalesced around the age of 18 as being the age at which people have the physical and mental maturity to make their own decisions.
When the legal smoking age rose from 16 to 18 in 2007, civil libertarians raised few objections since it only created parity with other potentially risky activities, such as gambling, drinking and fighting in a war. Increasing it to 21 brings it in line with almost nothing and looks more like the start of incremental prohibition than a considered verdict on the age at which people have enough wisdom to weigh up risks and benefits.
In 2014, Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, described minimum pricing as an ‘evidence-based policy exquisitely targeted at those, and those around them, who are currently suffering harm’. Gilmore’s partner in temperance activism, Nick Sheron, said that MUP was an ‘almost perfect alcohol policy because it targets cheap booze bought by very heavy drinkers and leaves moderate drinkers completely unaffected’. In another turn of phrase, he said MUP ‘exquisitely targets the heaviest drinkers’.
Today’s report shows just how exquisite minimum pricing is. Carried out over five years and focusing on the ‘people drinking at harmful levels’, for whom minimum pricing was supposedly calibrated, the research has found almost nothing to suggest that putting an arbitrary floor price on alcohol causes anything but misery.
Tuesday, 7 June 2022
Minimum pricing in the mud
- There is no clear evidence that MUP led to an overall reduction in alcohol consumption among people drinking at harmful levels or those with alcohol dependence, although some individuals did report reducing their consumption.
- There is also no clear evidence that MUP led to a change in the severity of alcohol dependence symptoms among those presenting for treatment.
So much for minimum pricing being a policy that "exquisitely targets the heaviest drinkers".
- People drinking at harmful levels who struggled to afford the higher prices arising from MUP coped by using, and often intensifying, strategies they were familiar with from previous periods when alcohol was unaffordable for them. These strategies typically included obtaining extra money, while reducing alcohol consumption was a last resort.
- In line with the above, MUP led to increased financial strain for a substantial minority of those with alcohol dependence as they obtained extra money via methods including reduced spending on food and utility bills, increased borrowing from family, friends or pawnbrokers, running down savings or other capital, and using foodbanks or other forms of charity.
Just like some of us warned.
- Some people with alcohol dependence and their family members reported concerns about increased intoxication after they switched to consuming spirits rather than cider. In some of these cases, people also expressed concerns about increased violence.
This is the 'public health' policy that just keeps on giving, isn't it? Well worth £270 million.
The termination of WP4 [work package 4] meant the project could not explore in detail the impact of MUP on the health of people drinking at harmful levels. However, the remaining WPs did not find any evidence of changes in the general health of people this group.
I don't remember any of this being projected in the models, do you?
This report should be the final nail in the coffin of minimum pricing. As the authors note and anyone could have predicted, "reducing alcohol consumption was a last resort". The Scots shouldn't wait another two years for the sunset clause to kick in. They should get rid of this dreadful regressive policy now.
The Times notes that the report was released to the press, under embargo, three hours before the confidence vote in Boris Johnson yesterday and that Public Health Scotland "risk-scores its publications by their potential for political embarrassment to the government". Good day to bury bad news, Nicola?
Monday, 6 June 2022
More evidence that graphic warnings (and plain packaging) don't work
Daily querying showed that the inclusion of GWLs on cigarette packs increased the percentage of smokers who hid their packs at least some of the time from 41.3% (95% CI, 39.6%-43.0%) during the run-in period to 57.1% (95% CI, 55.9%-58.1%) by the end of the intervention period.
Neither smoking prevalence nor consumption differed by group at any point in the study.
Thursday, 2 June 2022
Illiterate 'public health' bozos
Research has predicted that restricting advertising of unhealthy food and drinks could reduce childhood obesity by two thirds (NIHR: how LAs can reduce obesity). Needless to say it’s our poorest children that have the greatest exposure. Could do better.
— Anna Hartley (@annaghartley) June 1, 2022
Modelling research has predicted that restricting advertising of unhealthy food and drinks between 05:30 and 21:00 could reduce childhood obesity by two-thirds, and help tackle health inequalities.(19)
We estimate that if all HFSS advertising between 05.30 hours and 21.00 hours was withdrawn, UK children (n = 13,729,000), would see on average 1.5 fewer HFSS adverts per day and decrease caloric intake by 9.1 kcal (95% UI 0.5-17.7 kcal), which would reduce the number of children (aged 5-17 years) with obesity by 4.6% (95% UI 1.4%-9.5%) and with overweight (including obesity) by 3.6% (95% UI 1.1%-7.4%).
Under a scenario where all HFSS advertising is displaced to after 21.00 hours, rather than withdrawn, we estimate that the benefits would be reduced by around two-thirds.
Wednesday, 1 June 2022
New Zealand becomes a target market for tobacco smugglers
Data released under the Official Information Act shows the scale of New Zealand's cigarette smuggling problem, after Customs received a $10 million budget boost to fight it.
Cigarettes are being seized at the border in relentless quantities: more than quarter of a million a month, along with an average of 129 kilograms of loose tobacco.
Customs is bracing for the problem to increase as smoking laws get stricter - and promising to put the heat on the people responsible.
The first three months of this year saw more than 800,000 individual cigarettes confiscated by Customs officers, which was 60 percent more than the same three months in 2021.
They also seized a whopping 390 kilograms of loose tobacco.
Officers had observed increasingly bold smuggling techniques.
As the cost of legally purchased cigarettes creeps up - to a current average of $38 a packet - Hart said illicit trade was becoming more and more lucrative.
$38 is nearly £20, folks. When the government is shafting consumers with taxes like that, buying from the black market isn't just inevitable, it's almost a moral obligation.
Tuesday, 31 May 2022
The imaginary government U-turn on gambling
When the changes were first announced earlier this year, there was no clear date set as to when they would come into effect. Some MP’s wanted to wait until April 2020, but a cross-party group argued that this would be too late. That is why the government agreed on a compromise and Philip Hammond announced that the stake would be reduced in October 2019.
Ministers are expected to water down plans for a crackdown on betting giants after opposition from the gambling industry.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) will next month publish a review of 17-year-old gambling legislation that was expected to include the introduction of a “polluter pays” mandatory levy on betting firms to fund addiction and research.
Premier League clubs were also expected to be forced to remove gambling sponsors from the front of football shirts as part of the biggest shake-up of advertising since tobacco promotion was outlawed.
However, both proposals are understood to have been watered down as the government prepares to publish its white paper.
According to sources familiar with the discussions, No 10 is likely to block the introduction of a compulsory levy in favour of greater voluntary contributions amid fears of imposing further taxes on the industry.
The only people named in the article are Carolyn Harris and Iain Duncan Smith, both from the APPG on Gambling-Related Harm (of which Derek Webb is the sole funder now that the likes of Bacta and the Hippodrome casino have dropped out). They are outraged, natch, and will be delighted with the free publicity.
A crackdown on betting giants is to be diluted by ministers - to the fury of anti-gambling campaigners.
Plans to be published next month had been expected to introduce a ‘polluter pays’ levy on gambling firms to fund research into addiction.
They were also expected to propose a ban on the names of gambling sponsors appearing on the front of Premier League football shirts.
But officials at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are said to have retreated from both proposals following opposition from the industry.
An addendum... Josh's story was in today's Mail alongside a report that a promise for a ‘polluter pays’ levy - to fund treatment and research - may be ditched.
— Tom Witherow (@TomWitherow) May 30, 2022
Liz Ritchie, whose son Jack killed himself, said: ‘This is not what we have been promised.’ 👇https://t.co/SCyYgp5vtw
Monday, 30 May 2022
Alcohol policy - theory versus facts
In 2018, Finland relaxed some of its alcohol laws. Notably, it allowed grocery shops to sell alcohol of up to 5.5% ABV. Previously, it had been limited to 4.7% ABV, with stronger beers only available from the state-owned off licences.
This might seem a minor change but it allowed commercial shops to sell standard Finnish beer, which has an average alcohol content of 5.2%.
Due to fierce price competition between grocery stores, medium-strength beer has been available for much lower prices in them than in the state stores, while stronger beer only available in state stores has been minimally affected by price competition. Therefore, the reform was not only expected to affect consumption through greater physical availability but also through lowering prices.
It was widely expected in the public health field that the legislative change would increase the demand for strong beer, cider and premixed alcoholic beverages and raise their average alcohol content.
Twenty-eight Members of the Finnish Parliament, including 15 members of the Centre Party, have issued a joint statement calling for amendments to the bill to reform the alcohol legislation of Finland.
... The signatories to the joint statement are demanding that additional emphasis be placed on the views of experts who have expressed their opposition to the reform bill.
“Not one of the expert organisations (18), and not one of the social and health care providers and organisations preventing the adverse effects of alcohol use that issued a statement (11) is supportive of the draft bill,” they point out.
The reform is set to have unfortunate consequences for public health in Finland, a country where alcohol consumption is already higher than elsewhere in Scandinavia.
Results: There was no overall change in the total alcohol (0.04 [95% CI −0.03, 0.11] litres/year) or beer purchases (0.05 [95% CI −0.02, 0.11] litres/year). Purchases of ready-to-drink beverages increased by 0.10 [95% CI 0.09, 0.11] litres/year (+ 84%). Total alcohol purchases increased in the three highest income groups, whereas they decreased in the two lowest groups (p for the interaction < 0.0001).Conclusions: The increased purchases of alcohol as ready-to-drink beverages were, on the average, compensated for by a decrease in purchases of other alcoholic beverages.
Findings
Throughout the whole population, alcohol consumption had declined in all percentile groups, with the largest proportional declines evident for light and moderate drinkers [e.g. drinkers in the 25th percentile declined by 32.7%; 95% confidence interval (CI) = -41.6, -22.3% per wave]. Broadly collective declines were also found for younger men and women with significant declines in every percentile group, but older groups showed some evidence of polarization. For example, women aged 45–64 years significantly increased their consumption (2.9% per wave, 95% CI = 0.3–5.5%), while consumption for those in the 25th percentile fell significantly (-16.7%, 95% CI = –27.6, -4.2%).
Conclusions
The declines in Australian drinking since 2010 have included important deviations from the collectivity predicted by Skog's influential theory of collectivity of drinking, with markedly different patterns evident among different demographic groups.
Last Orders with Patrick Flynn
There's a new episode of Last Orders out in which we discuss J**** O*****, partygate and Ricky Gervais. Enjoy!
Friday, 27 May 2022
A swift half with Julian Jessop
There's a new episode of the Swift Half online. This week I talk to economist Julian Jessop about inflation.
Thursday, 26 May 2022
The European Commission wants to hear from you
The TPD sets out criteria for a ‘substantial change of circumstances’ and calls for the Commission to withdraw certain regulatory exemptions once those conditions are met (a flavour ban for product categories other than cigarettes and RYO tobacco, labelling exemptions). The Commission followed the market shares closely and no product category reached the threshold that would mandate the Commission to trigger this clause in the reporting period. The closest to the threshold are HTPs. Therefore, assessing the current criteria should be considered.
Emerging products are key to decrease smoking prevalence in the EU. E-cigarettes are a significant harm reduction tool within the mix of emerging products. I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and thanks to the e-cigarette, I have been tobacco free for the past 3 years. I do not think that my freedom of choice should be further restricted if the e-cigarette prevents me from smoking. I also think that flavours play a very important role to switch. I am mostly using fruit flavours and try to avoid tobacco or menthol flavours which reminds me of the time when I smoked combustible cigarettes.
To me it is quite simple - I don't smoke cigarettes when I have access to my vape. A lot of people are already addicted to nicotine, vaping is a safer alternative and legislations against it hurt millions of people who already vape. Legislations against vape juice also open up the already huge black market for potential risky vape juice.
Well I will put it plain simple. After 25 years of heavy smoking's and hundred's of attempt's to quit. I discovered electronic cigarettes and I never touched a cigarette again and that was 6 years ago. That's all I have to say, it works, worked for me and for many around me. If you want to solve the tobacco problem you will have to listen to the smokers and ex smokers, is that simple, listen to us instead of those "doctors" radicals, proibitionists etc In case you come up with more regulations and proibition, well I will find my stuff on the black market, inside or outside my country. My body my rules.