E-ciggies argument goes up in smoke

Is vaping the shortcut to quitting that Scots need, or a backhanded way to keep smoking on the map?

We’re talking electronic ciggies, folks those pen-like, battery-operated devices that claim to give smokers their nicotine fix without the cancer-causing side effects of tobacco.

Vapers inhale on e-ciggies like the “real thing” and breathe out “smoke” which is really just water vapor. Last week the EU Parliament was expected to classify them as drugs, but didn’t.

So vaping could soon be on the rise. That could seem ideal. Many Scots are still hooked on the evil weed despite being forced to stand oot in the rain, wind and snow. If they could quit by vaping that would surely be a result?

Medics, though, worry the devices may be dodgy in the longer term the technology is so new big medical trials haven’t been done. Common sense says vaping could hook kids on “harmless” e-ciggies allowing them to move on later to the “hard stuff” a smoking version of the alcopops argument.

E-ciggies already come in Cherry Crush and Cookies & Cream Milkshake flavours. Some say that’s blatantly targeting kids, while vapers say variety-loving adults have taste-buds too.

So who’s right? That’s a toughie.

Many vapers don’t actually want to quit smoking, just tobacco. They see e-ciggies as a relatively safe long term habit like a daily dose of caffeine not totally harm-free but nae exactly a biggie compared to the dodgier ways many Scots trash themselves.

And then there’s cost. One smoker-turned-vaper saved £1,500 in seven months. That’s impressive. But using willpower to quit costs nothing.

So can e-ciggies get more people off tobacco? A small medical trial in New Zealand found slightly more folk were still off fags six months after switching to e-cigs than folk who switched to nicotine patches. But a group who’d been given “fake” vapes with no nicotine did better still!

Controversy really hinges on the fact vapers still look like smokers. The act of popping a fag into the mouth, inhaling smoke and holding the cigarette between draws is apparently the thing smokers miss most about quitting. The trouble with e-ciggies is they maintain these physical actions (it’s why vaping works as a substitute).

That may be fine if you’re already hooked but it’s dodgy if kids get the message it’s normal and acceptable to stick something smoky in your gob when all they naturally need to pop in there is an endless supply of tasty, nourishing food?

And yet a new generation of Scottish kids is still starting to smoke despite the bans, police clampdowns, advertising restrictions and health warnings.

Some say youngsters will smoke regardless to look cool and e-ciggies are less harmful than fags. But deep down we all know kids copy parents, older pals and adults if we keep puffing they’ll keep starting.

Even if that first puff is a “harmless” vape it could still be the slippery, nicotine-coated slope towards a smoking habit Scotland needs to quit.

No one knows that better than ace footie commentator Archie MacPherson, who’s recovering from kidney cancer probably caused by passive smoking.

Non-smoking Archie remembers “naively savouring the almost exotic aroma of wonderful Gauloises French cigarettes as innocently as breathing in the fragrance of a pine forest” and working in press boxes with “the sulphuric stench of Hades”.

That indoors fug has long gone from the workplace, but at this rate a vapour-fumed fug could eventually replace it.

David Cameron’s holding firm on his 2016 ban threat, but vaping could be normal by then.

It’s tough to quit I know. But it’s time to stamp out smoking, not get distracted by vaping instead.