Gino Kenny urges tighter vape rules, opposes full ban
Gino Kenny welcomed the principle of a bill to ban the sale of vaping products to under-18s while urging stronger regulation on flavours, packaging and sellers and warning against a total ban. He said vaping can help heavy smokers quit but called for a tighter, better-regulated system to protect young people.
Support for the bill's principle
Gino Kenny and People Before Profit welcome the principle of the bill and question why legislation banning sales to under-18s is only being introduced now, given that vape products have been available for more than a decade.
Youth vaping and industry tactics
He warned that tobacco companies are luring young people with very seductive packaging and thousands of flavours, and noted visible use of disposable vapes by people who appear to be under-18.
Regulatory gaps and sellers
Kenny described the current market as a "Wild West" where proliferation of vaping products has gone beyond remit, with essentially anybody able to sell them and some sellers being completely unscrupulous. He called for a crackdown on regulation, packaging and who can sell these products.
Position on vaping and bans
He said he is not against vaping for smokers transitioning from heavy cigarette use, but argued that a total ban — as in Australia — would drive the market underground and create a worse situation. He expressed skepticism that vaping can be fully banned and warned against repeating that approach.
Policy recommendations
Kenny advocated limiting flavours to a small number rather than imposing a single flavour and urged better regulatory measures and packaging rules alongside the bill to create a safer system for those who choose to vape.
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We and People Before Profit welcome the principle of this bill. Many will ask why it took so long in relation to banning the sale of these products to under-18s. It's hard to believe that we're only introducing legislation now, because vape products have been around for over a decade. So I think there has to be questions asked, and there's no doubt that tobacco companies are luring particularly young people with very, very seductive packaging. We've said that there's many, thousands upon thousands of particular flavours, and you even see young people that are definitely under-18 using these products to kind of disposable products. So that is not a good sign where young people are engaged in this kind of behaviour. And I'm not against vaping as such. I think it has a place in relation to those that have gone from smoking 20, 30, 40 cigarettes a day to actually vaping. And I think, I mean, the genie is out of the bottle in some ways. I don't think you're going to ban vaping. I think that's going to be impossible. Do not go down the route where Australia has gone down. I think it will just drive it underground. There needs to be a better regulatory system. Because at the moment, it's quite of the Wild West in relation to flavours, in relation to who can sell these products. Because at the moment, the proliferation of vaping products has gone well, well beyond this remit. And essentially, anybody can sell these products. And there's no kind of, and some of these people that are selling these products are completely unscrupulous. They'll sell them to anybody. So there needs to be a kind of a crackdown in relation to the regulatory system, in relation to packaging. In relation to flavours, I think banning flavours just for just one nicotine flavour, I think it's very, very difficult to do. I think there should be a limited amount of flavours, small amount of flavours. Because I think if you go just have one flavour, I just don't think that's going to really work. So I think we're all in agreement that we need to do something better. Because we do not want a kind of repeat of young people that never smoked. Because obviously in the last 15, 20 years, there's been a huge reduction in people smoking. That's a really good thing. Can we have a tobacco-free world? Absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible. But we can do it better safely for people that choose to vape in a safer manner. Other than banning products, which again, we do not want to go down this route. Because if we go down this route of banning vaping completely, we'd be coming back here five years with a worse situation than we have now. I guarantee you, Australia have made a huge mistake of banning vaping completely. And hopefully, you know, with this legislation, and other legislation, particularly around packaging, we'll have a better system than we have now. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time. Thanks. Thanks, guys. You guys!
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