Tim Dower: We've Created A Whole New Class Of Addicts

There's a fire sale underway at the vape retailers, and some pretty arresting advertising lines are being used.  “Stock up while you still can” ... “Get them before they’re gone” ... “Don’t be left stranded without a vape”  By gone, they mean illegal...new laws from the 21st of this month put restrictions on disposable vapes...including maximum nicotine limits.  So, at some places it's basically a fire sale, devices going for a couple of bucks or even being given away free.  Fair enough I suppose if you've bought stock in good faith and then basically had the rug pulled from under you by a law change.  But there's also a whiff of the frenzy to dump synthetic cannabis products, when that particular experiment went so badly wrong.  And thinking about it...our experience with the whole vape thing has been uncannily similar to the synthetics.  Hailed as a legal...controlled...and therefore theoretically safe alternative to the real thing.  And with vaping pitched at us as a tool to help the sorry old smokers get off tobacco...it was pretty easy to get it on the market.  Reality...vapes hit the shops and people are out blowing vast clouds in the streets...and something quite different happens.  Before you know it...lolly flavoured vapes are pitched at the kids, and we've created a whole new class of addicts.  The number of 15- to 17-year-old New Zealanders who vape daily quadrupled in just a couple of years.  Only last week, front page stories about 8-year-olds caught vaping at school, it's out of control.  The thing is, there's a perception these products are completely harmless...that's what the kids taking it up think...but the fact is we just don't know that.  Less dangerous than tobacco...maybe...probably even...but the fact is we just don't know.  So, what we've been doing is running an experiment on a living population of people, just to see how things pan out.  In the end, if it all turns to the proverbial...well...we can always ban it outright...or just tax it, more and more every year.  That'll get them to quit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.