The drive to make Scotland smoke-free risks being set back if too many restrictions are placed on the flavours available to vapers, the Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) has warned.
The convenience store trade body has written to all MSPs urging them to consider carefully the level of regulations placed on products as wide-ranging new legislation comes into play.
It argues that it is possible to simultaneously prevent vapes from being attractive to under-age vapers while also ensuring that smokers looking to quit can have a full range of less harmful alternatives available to them.
The new UK government has announced that the previously published Tobacco and Vapes Bill will now be brought forward in this parliament. The bill proposes new powers for ministers to further restrict key features of nicotine vaping products.
The Scottish government has already proposed a ban on single-use disposable vapes from April 2025 and has said it will use its devolved powers to further restrict the product north of the border. It is in the detail of the proposed legislation in which SGF is urging caution on over-restriction.
“We were among the first organisations to publicly call for measures to ensure that product names and packaging are not attractive to children,” Pete Cheema, SGF chief executive, said.
“But what our members in convenience stores across the country tell us is that their customers say that the range of flavours - and finding one that works for them - has been the key factor in them stopping smoking.
“If those flavours are not there, it will reduce choice and potentially make it more difficult for smokers to quit, if they want to. That risks setting our public health agenda back and increasing the strain on our NHS.
“We are keen to work with MSPs and the Scottish Government to provide workable legislation which simultaneously encourages vaping amongst adults who wish to quit smoking and discourages it amongst non-smokers, particularly given the evidence of young people vaping.”
SGF has also reiterated its calls for retailers to be allowed to openly display vaping products so that smokers can see the less harmful alternatives available, albeit in a way which presents them as an alternative to smoking, rather than an addition.
It has argued for a nuanced conversation around the future of vaping policy as part of its Healthier Choices, Healthier Communities drive, which outlined a series of measures which it believes can help dramatically reduce vaping among children while also ensuring that adult smokers, who wish to quit smoking, can freely and easily access life-changing and life-saving alternatives to cigarettes.
That document has also been shared with MSPs and includes a call to policymakers to ensure current legislation is fully enforced to punish retailers and wholesalers responsible for illegal sales of vapes.
