It’s every dad’s worst nightmare: coming home from a long day of screwing the economy and finding your 12-year-old daughter puffing on a vape.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he’s “deeply concerned” about a rise in the number of children vaping, especially his own, as companies “unacceptably” target young people. NHS figures released last year showed vape usage had risen to 9 per cent among 11 to 15-year-olds in England, up from 6 per cent in 2018.
Punching Up took to the streets of Sheffield, to ask local vapers and non-vapers alike what they thought.
Despite the potential harm it could cause young people, the government says vaping is “an important tool” to help adults give up smoking.
Meanwhile, impotent tool Sunak is so intent on cracking down on illegal vaping that he dragged Ghost of COVID Past Chris Whitty out of the attic yesterday (May 30), to announce his vaping clamp-down.
The government is set to introduce an ‘Illegal Vaping Hit Squad’ (coming to cinemas this summer) to stop shops selling vapes to children.
Earlier this week, Sunak told ITV’s This Morning (yes, that’s somehow still on) that he feared his young daughters could be “seduced by these things”.
Vapes are thought to be safer than normal cigarettes as they do not contain harmful tobacco, but they still contain the addictive drug nicotine.
Sunak will know from his own raging coke addiction that these things must be nipped in the bud – and not the Snoop Dogg kind.
However, if used properly and by people the right age, vaping could help the government reach its target of making smoking obsolete in England by 2030.
That’s as long as the government itself isn’t made obsolete beforehand.