Meeting of the Parliament 14 September 2023
I join members in thanking Gillian Mackay for bringing the debate to the chamber. It is an issue that I have spoken about before, and it is one of real concern.
It does not seem that long ago that vaping companies were lobbying me in meetings in my office, trying to get my support. To their surprise, I was strongly against universal access. They thought that I would support them because vapes were being marketed as a tool to quit smoking. Indeed, that is the one area in which I support their use, particularly as a medical intervention recommended by a medical professional.
I well remember asking the representatives of one vaping company about who owned it. Of course, I knew that it was a tobacco company. The question that I put to them was whether they were really suggesting that tobacco companies were producing vaping products to help their customers to stop using their products, thereby putting themselves out of business. By that logic, once they had helped every smoker to quit, there would be no need for any of their products. If vapes were solely for the purpose of smoking cessation, why were there so many flavours and additives to draw in users and potential users? I informed them that I was not that gullible. Stephanie Callaghan and I attended one of those meetings together, and she saw my frustration with that particular vaping company.
One thing that concerns me is that people can go into significant high street confectionery stores and find walls of single-use vaping products. Everything that I was concerned about back when I was in those meetings has manifested and then some.
I have a daughter in secondary school, and I am shocked at the level of vaping among pupils. There is anecdotal evidence—and my daughter thinks—that as much as half the student population has tried or regularly uses vaping products. Moreover, there is a whole microindustry around students buying and selling the products in schools, which is evidenced by the quantity of products confiscated daily by campus policemen. More significantly, the number of students smoking tobacco, marijuana or worse remains high and is climbing. Vaping is a door to addiction and a step towards using more harmful products; it is not just about smoking cessation, as the marketing says.
Single-use vapes are a health hazard in and of themselves, as Gillian Mackay said, because so many of them are found on our beaches and in public spaces, and recycling lithium is incredibly difficult, especially from vapes.
I know that we are short of time, Deputy Presiding Officer, so I will be brief to try to give you some time back.
We need to regulate vapes much more effectively and keep them out of the hands of schoolchildren. The marketing budgets of tobacco firms have been used to entice entirely new customers, which will lead to the use of even more harmful products. The use of vapes is a habit, as well as a social statement. Peer pressure is a key driver; after all, it is not really smoking, is it? As to the wonderful flavour of bubble gum, for goodness’ sake—yeah, that is really aimed at adults wanting to quit. It is too easy for pupils to be drawn in, making the step to the next level of substance use a bit easier.
As a Parliament, we can surely come together. There are things that we could do and steps that we could—and have to—take to ensure that we stamp out the use of single-use vapes. I thank Gillian Mackay for giving me the opportunity to raise the issue once again.
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