Meeting of the Parliament 14 September 2023
I thank Gillian Mackay for introducing her motion.
The great vape debate is often, “Are e-cigarettes saving smokers or creating new addicts?” The reality is that it is probably a bit of both. We have seen a welcome decrease in smoking rates in Scotland from 28 per cent of adults in 2003 to 11 per cent in 2021, thanks to policy interventions such as the ban on smoking in public places. Given that vaping is clearly dangerous but appears less damaging than smoking, I am prepared to accept that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking tobacco and, hopefully, continue that trend.