The direction that the UK is going, yes which of course is a good thing.
E-cigarettes could be prescribed by the NHS to help smokers quit
- Thread starter dowie
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The direction that the UK is going, yes which of course is a good thing.
And so do lots and lots of other things.
Going to ban them all on the same basis.
And also basing it on a guess. That's always a good basis for a ban.
The only problem with that is the tax on cigarettes is a punitive tax designed to reduce smoking levels. If e-cigarettes are nowhere near as dangerous as tobacco then there is no justification for a punitive tax.
The sensibly solution would be just to increase general taxation if our NHS is under-funded or not waste money in other areas.
Taxing something which is generally agreed to cause little issue in the form of health concerns is not the way to go. A huge vaping tax is simply another highly regressive tax, if anything due to the health benefit over smoking it would make more ethical sense to subsidise them over taxing them.
Taxing something which is generally agreed to cause little issue in the form of health concerns is not the way to go. A huge vaping tax is simply another highly regressive tax, if anything due to the health benefit over smoking it would make more ethical sense to subsidise them over taxing them.
You make a great point but if the gov see an opportunity to squeeze money out of people, believe me they will jump at it.
Soldato
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I have said all along, the government has wanted to get these things incorporated into regulation and 'licensed'.
If it can only be produced under license following strict regulations, costs to the consumer go up through taxing them. They have been angling for a legitimate means to tax e-cigarettes for a while in my opinion but doing so has always fundamentally clashed with the mounting evidence that e-cigarettes are a fair amount safer than real ones so traditional arguments about burdens on the NHS cannot be used.
However, if you introduce regulations and licenses that are issued by the government you effectively control the revenue stream from e-cigarettes in one way or another. They appear to be heading towards making e-cigarettes prescription only, or at least that heavily regulated that the government will make up that lost revenue stream by charging manufacturers for a license as well as increasing duty/VAT at point of sale.
With millions of people now turning to e-cigs and vaping it is a big dent in the revenue stream from taxing tobacco and in these austere times the government want to help plug that gap.
You are talking a large chunk of around a £13b industry that the government are now no longer getting. Based on recent trends, forecasters are predicting e-cigs will have overtaken real smoking by the early 2020's. This has got the government worried I think.
Not to mention the pharmaceutical companies who are used to being the main contenders in the battle to quit smoking as well as providing the drugs to the NHS to the people that end up with cancer and other smoking related illnesses. Like it or not, cancer is big business to them, so if these things do massively reduce cancer rates over the next few decades, that is also a big dent in their market too, at least intitially.
The future of e-cigs is never going to be about how safe/unsafe they are, but about revenue streams.
If it can only be produced under license following strict regulations, costs to the consumer go up through taxing them. They have been angling for a legitimate means to tax e-cigarettes for a while in my opinion but doing so has always fundamentally clashed with the mounting evidence that e-cigarettes are a fair amount safer than real ones so traditional arguments about burdens on the NHS cannot be used.
However, if you introduce regulations and licenses that are issued by the government you effectively control the revenue stream from e-cigarettes in one way or another. They appear to be heading towards making e-cigarettes prescription only, or at least that heavily regulated that the government will make up that lost revenue stream by charging manufacturers for a license as well as increasing duty/VAT at point of sale.
With millions of people now turning to e-cigs and vaping it is a big dent in the revenue stream from taxing tobacco and in these austere times the government want to help plug that gap.
You are talking a large chunk of around a £13b industry that the government are now no longer getting. Based on recent trends, forecasters are predicting e-cigs will have overtaken real smoking by the early 2020's. This has got the government worried I think.
Not to mention the pharmaceutical companies who are used to being the main contenders in the battle to quit smoking as well as providing the drugs to the NHS to the people that end up with cancer and other smoking related illnesses. Like it or not, cancer is big business to them, so if these things do massively reduce cancer rates over the next few decades, that is also a big dent in their market too, at least intitially.
The future of e-cigs is never going to be about how safe/unsafe they are, but about revenue streams.
Soldato
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In my opinion e-cigs don't help you quit at all. It's just changing you from being addicted to cigarettes, to being addicted to e-cigs. The best way to quit is to just go cold turkey. My old man did that and said it was hard, but he doesn't regret it doing it that way one bit. He even said it was probably the old way he was able to quit for good.
Some people don't have the willpower.
If e-cigs are 95% safer than smoking then does it really matter if people switch? They aren't smoking any more so what's the problem?
Soldato
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I never said they were bad, i was just saying switching to e-cigs isn't solving the addiction. Of course i do agree that some don't have the willpower and that they aren't actually smoking fags any more which i guess is still a step in the right direction.
Indeed. Obviously no habit is healthiest but E-Cigs got me off the stinkies and I've been lowering my nicotine level in my E-Juice for the last year. I'm at the point now where I'm considering giving up E-Cigs. Trouble is I'm a gadget geek and they keep bringing out new mods. The latest thing seems to be high powered temp control mods. Makes vaping great, great flavour and no dry hits. I feel healthier vaping than I ever did smoking so I might stick with it a while longer.
Soldato
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No such thing as a "social smoker", no matter who you are you'll still be addicted to the nicotine. It only takes one fag to get addicted.
Unfortunately, your kind of schoolboy logic seems to be quite common. Tobacco is MUCH more damaging to health than Propylene Glycol, which is added to many many foods and medicines. Not everyone can successfully go cold turkey, and switching to an ecig helps you break the psychological link with the tobacco smell and taste, which most people have been smelling and tasting for much of their life. Once you break that link, it makes it much easier to then work towards not smoking anything if this is the goal. However, some people choose to then stick with e-cigs (even without nictoine) simply because they enjoy it or need some small vice in their lives, and it is far better for you than tobacco. That is an outcome vastly preferable to failing to quit smoking tobacco and then going back to tobacco.
Smoking tobacco and smoking an e-cigarette are two very different things in many respects, and the sooner people have the intelligence to realise this and understand that not everything is black and white, the better.
Lol! Utter crap.
I have smoked on and off for 16 years, and only ever when other people are smoking. I've had a packet last me 3 months as I would never smoke it at home solo.
I never get the hankering for a cigarette and have gone months without them when the few times I was offered in social situations I had a cold/sore throat so passed.
Soldato
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Schoolboy logic? lol. All i said was that cold turkey is probably the best way to quit, didn't say it was the only way. I also never said that e-cigs were just as bad as fags. Seem to be making a lot of assumptions based on what i said.
Soldato
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You're either a smoker or not a smoker. Whether you class yourself as a "social smoker" or "on and off smoker", you are still a smoker. I still stand by my point that you are addicted from the moment you have your first fag.
Nasty habbit that should have been banned by now.
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You said:
You saying "e-cigs don't help you quit at all" is untrue considering the amount of people who have sucessfully done so and the rest of your post does not take into account the big difference in physical and psychological effect of tobacco vs ecigs.
As for the "it only takes one fag to get addicted" comment... dear lord that is all kinds of silly consdiering the amount of people I know who tried it once and then never again...