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The Daily PollTHOSE AGED UNDER 18 years old will no longer be able to lawfully buy e-cigarettes under new legislation that has become active today.
Those who sell such products to children could be fined up to €4,000 or face six months in prison.
The new law comes as a public consultation has been launched to determine a range of stricter regulations on the pricing, display and advertising of e-cigarettes and vapes.
Today, we want to know… Should Ireland introduce further restrictions on e-cigarettes?
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Ban the disposables if anything. You see them littered around everywhere.
@Jen McC: ban the stickers that are all over the bins
@Jen McC: Ban everything!… the Black market rubs its hands together, it does create employment in regulating and restricting, good times coming for customs officers, the gardai, when we privatise the jail industry, lawyers, etc. money to be made
@Thesaltyurchin: Having a Black Market for anything isn’t an excuse to just let it go
@Jen McC: Yeah, even as someone who is very pro-vaping these have to go. The refillable mods are fine. You can recycle. But the disposables are one of the most wasteful and polluting products going. Handy oh so handy but not fair on the wildlife and natural world that pays the price as ever. Not so keen on the panic extending to regular vapes though. It feels like it’s in fashion to hate vapers. It’ll be something else next. People just love to pick a common enemy to pour their frustrations on. They are still the best way of getting off tobacco bar none.
@Peter: true, personal freedom is far more important. Black markets are inevitable regardless.
@SerotoninWars: You’re not wrong. Fair play to any smoker who wants to switch to vaping. Hard enough to tough it outside in winter without meanminded f0ols giving out.
@F Fitzgerald: Ah cheers. For smokers who want to get all that tar and carcinogens out of their life they’re brilliant. They’ve been around longer than some people think and as many will attest you feel so much better and your lungs thank you for it. Perfection is the enemy of progress as ever and some people need to appreciate that overall it’s a pretty great solution for getting people off cigarettes which are immeasurably worse.
@SerotoninWars: Interesting.. what damage do you reckon the regular high doses of nicotine doing to your nervous system, your vital organs and your long term health. Any idea? Very few do. Cigarettes were worse isn’t a valid answer.
@North Dub: Alas there just isn’t any evidence that nicotine on its own minus the tar and carcinogens is any worse than caffeine. You can check out endless reputable medical and health advice sites that will attest to this. Yeah in an ideal world you wouldn’t start but for all those who did many moons ago it’s a no brainer to quit the smokes and go for an option that is far safer. High doses of nicotine have been around for ages. All those heavy smokers died of lung conditions and cancers not nicotine.
@Jen McC: you also see cigarette packs, coke bottles, beer cans, Tyres and batteries- ban them all I say!
@Silvio Berlusconi: And vegans as well!
@Jen McC: exactly
The irish government is now being sued by some NGO for not providing enough accommodation to the multitudes arriving??? The lawyers will have a field day. Yet day after day we’re being told we’re “not full”???
@Ken Mc Carthy: There’s loads of accommodation for vapes!
@Ken Mc Carthy: Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
The people are waking up to the con though at long last.
@Finn Barr: NGOs are not migrants.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Obviously
@Ken Mc Carthy: Could you post a link to that story please.
@John Moore: Irish Examiner headline this morning…..apologies can’t do ‘links’
@John Moore: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41295571.html
IHREC launches High Court case against State over failure to accommodate refugees
@Donal Ronan: Thanks Donal…..bit beyond my computer capability.. seasons greetings
@Ken Mc Carthy: Find an unused boat, like a big tanker.
Put ALL asylum seekers inside.
Send it to the sea good luck, preferably when it’s stormy so I will sink.
@BanIslam.: it*
@Ken Mc Carthy: refund all these parasite NGO’s
@Thomas Sheridan: I meant Defund
@BanIslam.: let me give you 2 free nuggets of wisdom…..:
1. When I began my apprenticeship in plumbing ( 1970′s) on 1st day the lecturer said…” lads, if a sink is full & overflowing….the 1st thing to do is turn off the taps.
2. If I go to pub / nightclub tonight & doorman ( bouncer) says ‘ here mate we’re out the doors stuffed’…..is there any point in me going to an NGO & looming to sue the pub?? Like it’s not the pubs fault they’re at capacity???
@Ken Mc Carthy: you’re a dose of the clap.
The age restrictions are sufficient. Anything further is nanny state stuff.
@Jimmy Wallace: 100%… don’t go into people’s houses and demand they live the way you think they should. (which is what this is).
@ecrowley ecrowley: Ah yes, why try to stop littering right?
Irish are already dirty, why would we introduce some sensible measure to prevent more littering ?
@ecrowley ecrowley: The disposables really should go.
Absolutely total ban in my opinion.
@Willie Marty:
I agree, alcohol should be totally banned, the damage it does to a person’s body and society is known too long without being addressed.
I vape, btw…
I’m off tobacco 1 year and have gone from 18mg of nicotine to 12mg to 6mg, and I’m now I’m on 3mg and hopefully I’ll will be off nicotine in the new year, thanks to vaping.
@Willie Marty: lol…total ban is it…and what about cigarettes?
@KTH: good for you KTH and hopefully you can wean yourself off the vapes as well in time to come.
@damien leen: same
@Willie Marty:
You’re telling me you didn’t read my post by your response.
@KTH: and sweets aslo
@KTH: Ban alcohol?
You’ll take my cooking wine from my cold dead hands.
@KTH: You’ve described what ive done. Although im 2 years off the smokes. My breathing is so much better on the vape. Ive gone from 18mg down to a mixture of 3 and 6. About a 50/50 mix but I’ll be down to 3mg straight after Chrimbo then nicotine free by Paddy’s Day is the plan.
Vaping does actually help you off the smokes i advise people to at least try it.
When i started i was doing both but it was too much nicotine. So i persisted on the vape im so glad i did. No more coughing up wallpaper paste every morning. Sure im up walking the mountains twice a week when possible.
Get on the vape smokers you’ll be glad you did.
Oh i use an Aspire PockeX the tubular ones.
@KTH: Yes because prohibition worked a treat when it was actually tried.
@John Moore:
Again, sarcasm.
@Willie Marty: That primordial human need to enforce one’s will on others… it’s a big problem for personal freedom.
@KTH: Most vaping are doing it for saving money and that’s it. They’re still getting their nicotine. You’re one of the few who is actually doing what you’d want to use vaping for.
@Thesaltyurchin: sometimes the common good takes predecence.
@Willie Marty: precedence
@Willie Marty: If only that was the focus, but in this case, it’s not… Ideologically it makes sense but in reality, capitalism won’t allow it. Karl Marx wrote a book about it.
@Willie Marty: but why tho?
I stopped vaping, but I succeeded to stop smoking by using capes as an alternative… Reduced strength until zero, then stopped all together. The greatest thing was the cheap price compared to cigarettes. I don’t look back now, finally off past 6 months and 2 years and a half for cigarettes…
@Dominic Leleu: Fair play, and well done… If only more people were able to manage themselves correctly, we wouldn’t need to ban anything.
@Thesaltyurchin: We don’t need to ban anything.
@Dominic Leleu: medication are far more effective this vapes…
@BanIslam.: than*
@F Fitzgerald: But we desperately want to. That is where the illusion of progress has got us, boxed in, looking for wall space to put up another restriction.
@BanIslam.: not true. Vapes have been proven to be far more effective than nicotine gums, patches or potentially dangerous drugs like champix that the HSE are pushing at tax payers expense.
How about putting up a real poll, afraid of the outcome?
@tiobraiddroicead: like is santa claus real?
@brian madden: There would be no point in such a poll; we all know Santa is real.
@brian madden: yes he was real , saint Nickolas , born in the 3rd century in turkey I believe. The name Santa Claus stemmed from his Dutch nickname sinister Klass which is a shortened version of his real name .
@tiobraiddroicead: How about a poll on immigration? or better yet, A REFERENDUM!
I thought vapes were introduced to help people quit smoking. They should never have been available to anyone who didn’t smoke cigarettes in the first place and should only be available in a chemist or pharmacy.
@Mayo seem to be the football equivalent of Waterfo: the funny thing is that pharmacies are not allowed to sell them as they contain an unregulated medicine, mind blown. Whilst vapes are extremely useful to help people stop smoking ; in their own right they are much more addictive than cigarettes due to the fact that they don’t smell (that much) and 1-2 drags can be taken at any time in any place ; with a cigarette the smoker needs to go someplace that’s permitted to smoke and they have to smoke a whole cigarettte rather than take a couple puffs ; dramatically increased usage of the vape and the addictiveness
@Mayo seem to be the football equivalent of Waterfo: Agree 100%. Pharmacy’s to sell them with plain packaging . Take them out of shops and vending machines..
Phase out cigarettes in shops too over 5 years period maybe
@Mayo seem to be the football equivalent of Waterfo: the flavours are a huge problem, cigarettes taste horrible, that was the point of the original ones, menthol cigarettes were banned for this reason. Origanal ones are refillable not disposable.
I bought vapes recently. I smoke in the evening. They’re dangerously addictive. Even worse than cigarettes
@Paul Kavanagh: no….no they’re not!
@Paul Kavanagh: nicotine in itself is more or less harmless. Vapes certainly better than cigs.
@ecrowley ecrowley: Nicotine is a deadly poison. It is also highly addictive, with some studies showing it to have a psychological addiction similar to that of heroin.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: it’d need to be ingested/consumed in huge amounts for it to anything close to poison. Nobody is disputing its addictive qualities but that’s separate to the harm of tobacco.
@ecrowley ecrowley: Actually tiny amounts are fatal.
@ecrowley ecrowley: I just looked it up – 30-60mg is regarded as a fatal dose.
(That’s milligram, thousants of a gram.)
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Sher people would surely be dropping like flies after a cig or 2 if that was the case.
@ecrowley ecrowley: You can look it up for yourself.
@ecrowley ecrowley: The human body only absorbs 10% of nic dose. Around 1mg per cig. So how you’d reach a toxic dose without literally consuming raw nicotine….
Anyway I dunno if I’ve ever heard of a nicotine poisoning case so it’s a moot point.
@ecrowley ecrowley: The reason these things are known is that there have been cases.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: in modern times, under normal circumstances?
@ecrowley ecrowley: That there have been cases of lead poisoning leads us to know that lead is a poison.
That these things were discovered some time ago does not change that.
Nicotine is also know to be a poison; a deadly poison in small, even miniscule amounts.
Whenever these things were discovered does not alter that.
Nicotine also accumulates in the system, somewhat like lead.
But this is all just to clarify your claim that “nicotine in itself is more or less harmless”.
Nicotine is certainly not harmless. It is both highly addictive and a deadly poison.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree about the dangers of nicotine, in and of itself. Lots of things we consume in small quantities as a matter of course, if consumed in large or unrealistic amounts, are potentially fatal. Nicotine is a case in point. As are most medicines. I’ve never disputed its addictive nature.
@Paul Kavanagh: Lol!… maybe they are for you, maybe they’re not for others. Who gets to make the call?
How about some further restrictions on the amount of people still coming into the country.
Off the cigs a year thanks to vapes but now they’re gonna tax them like everything else, and as for the under 18s they can still get cigarettes too makes no difference
Ban all flavoured vaps, and if the government want to do something more useful to help families with loved ones with massive gambling addictions destroying the country ban all online gambling
@M G:
Ban all flavoured vapes?
So that would be ban every vape then…
I’ve never seen a non flavoured vape, and I vape.
A societal lecturer that travels the world to hold discussions and debates in colleges, universities and on tv Jordan Peterson, claims that over 50% of violence, assault and rape is as a result of the intake of alcohol. No mention of vapes causing anyone to do any of the above.
@Andy Preneur: yea but the casual nature of youth is upsetting Nick and Noola, who are not happy! (about anything, but this week it’s ‘vapes’).
Regulate the contents and manufacturing process, ban fruit flavours and leave as a smoking cessation asset.
@M Bowe: The ingredients and manufacturing is regulated, flavours are integral to the success of vaping replacing smoking, the evidence is the gateway doesn’t not exist and there is substantial certain evidence vapes work better than nrt. Some facts in the comment section is unusual but I like to mix thing up.
All the perfect people want to ban everything they don’t agree with
@sleepy joe: Big Pharma not good. Big cigarettes and vapes fine.
What should be banned is people smoking beside me in a public space.
10 years late on the 18 age limit. I can’t understand how the government failed to pass a simple law that children can’t buy nicotine. like seriously. The disposable ones need to be banned to.
I used to vape until I heard an interesting point made by my gp. He said, while vegetable glycol and propylene glycol are reasonably safe as stand alone chemicals, it’s when you combine them with artificial flavors and nicotine, heat them with an electric coil and then inhale that vapor. When it was explained to me like that I threw it in the bin. Yes I used it to give up smoking, but I vaped continuously for 4 years, it was never out of my hand unless I was asleep. I’m glad I’m off the damn thing
@SOCOMJON: Did your GP also tell you how many people have died from vaping in the EU in the last 10 years? ZERO is the answer compared to 7 million deaths from smoking. Let that sink in, ZERO compared to 7 million. Does your doctor sit in a teepee and use crow feathers as treatment?
@FFS This: Why so angry, I vaped for 4 years and recently I quit because of a small bit of info from my gp. You’ve no idea how great it is not to stink like a urinal cake. Keep vaping mate
They should be on prescription only.
@Alan B: It’ll help you get over it
@Peter: That’s his point – it helps no one. There are a lot of very depressed people in the UK struggling to cut down. It’s something a person has to want to give up. No one ever gave up driving or television because someone decided to steal what they had. Let people live.
I think the erstwhile New Zealand approach is worthy of consideration – raise the age each year.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: a very sensible plan, I hope we adopt it here. Some ape in NZ to abandon the plan.
@ecrowley ecrowley: One would wonder at the stupidity of that decision alright.
The very least they could have done was let it run for a long enough time to see how it worked out.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I can’t see any downsides to it. Phasing out tobacco over time eliminates so many potential problems.
The nanny state strikes again
As a vaper and ex smoker. No U18 sales, no advertising online, TV, media, restricted visibility. Shops needs to be low key. Adults should be able to vape if they want, just need to reduce awareness or visibility to those under 18.
@Simon hall: but aren’t all smokers starting under that age? Why not give them a safer alternative to tobacco? Tricky I know to address but that’s the reality. Breaks my heart to see local lads and young girls smoking. My heart lifts when I see them vaping. Very rare. But a hell of a lot better than cancerous tobacco.
It’s nice to be the first!
@Ah Come On Now: Good for you pal, have a great Friday:)
@Ah Come On Now: Awww!
And now you’re last.
Come on guys – upvote and make this first again.
Ban vape cigarettes ban shots in pubs ban chewing gum and clean up the streets
Thid is all good and all, problem is the judges will give a suspended sentence to those who illegally sell them to under 18s. The issue is not the law, its the judiciary system
@alan scott: No judge involved, the fines are like parking tickets, you pay on demand.
This is ridiculous.
The whole point of e-cigs is to make them an alternative to the real thing.
Might as well smoke.
@Steven Schulz: alternative. Think about it.
So 18% of the population understand vaping.
Is there a role for parents on this issue, if it’s all about the children. Vape shops don’t sell to under 18s. Vape vendors have regulated themselves for over a decade. How has it taken government so long? On a personal note, I started smoking at 16. The last of my gang, who started much younger. Spent over 35 years heavily smoking until vaping came along. Should we continue to accept alcohol and tobacco for that age now or offer them far safer alternatives? Nicotine is not a carcinogen.
I seen an interview recently and they said if someone invented alcohol now and said right we are gonna sell this in places called bars and pubs etc and it might make you happy might make u angry cause you to do things say things u normally wouldn’t. Well not many people would drink this stuff. Was along that line anyway. But sure made me think.
Each to their own but there the most abhorrent devices. Ok I’m a non smoker. It apparently helps you stop but incessantly sucking these can’t be a good thing. As for the school kids doing it…. (Smacks forehead).
@Happy Harry: it’s bigger than that for people with a smoking addiction . The old adage holds true. People smoke for the nicotine, but die from the tar. Vaping is a way out. Abhorrent devices? Who cares when people are being saved from cancer.
@NoelDublin: vaping is far from safe. Going from one bad habit to one “less bad” ?? Google the effects of vaping.
Personally I think marketing restrictions are justified but taxes on the product for being detrimental to one’s health are not. They should be putting taxes on oven pizzas with a picture of a obese bed bound person on the box otherwise, if they want to be consistent.
It’s hilarious seeing the marketing restrictions on cigarettes and tax because it’s cancerous while the vapes are in a glowing display case at €7 per disposable of an equally damaging product.
have your say