Smoking is an addiction and addiction, in whatever form, is notoriously difficult to stop. People say 'well why not just stop and show some willpower?' which is not helpful at all. If it this was that easy there would be no one addicted to anything. Therefore people use e-cigarettes as a safer substitute for the horrid practice of smoking real ones, not necessarily to give up.
There is a risk, which is shown in your article, that if e-cigarettes were classed as a stop-smoking method they will then have to be classed as a 'medicine' and be severely prohibited and then become inaccessible to many people.
If this were to happen many thousands of people will automatically revert to the nasty habit of smoking real cigarettes, including me. I used to smoke 30 or more cigarettes a day but now, even though I am addicted to my e-cigarette, I use it less and there are not the health problems and social annoyance I used to have. Obviously serious studies should be taken into the consequences of using e-cigarettes, but it is a win-win situation whatever the outcome. Even health experts already say that the use of e-cigarettes is many, many times better than smoking proper cigarettes.
There are very real plusses to the use of e-cigarettes: Fewer cancers, less burden on the NHS, less personal angst related to smoking real cigarettes, and it keeps people at their desks working comfortably and efficiently rather than racing outside to have a quick puff. The use of e-cigarettes is a slightly fiddly enterprise and you have to get used to ordering supplies in advance and getting used to the technologies of the different devices available, but once this has been conquered it is a much, much better habit than nasty real cigarettes. Ultimately, I would like to see real cigarettes banned and replaced by freely-available e-cigarettes. If it is possible to have safer addictions, then surely this is better?
JONATHAN KELLY Hazelbank Avenue Mapperley HAVING read your articles on the forthcoming St Patrick's Day festivities in Nottingham, as a man with Northern and Southern Irish roots I get dismayed that the festivities are not Ulster Protestant-friendly, as the day always seems to have an Irish republican theme and agenda. For example, the continuous flying of the Irish tricolour and the showing of films like The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a pro-IRA film. I believe the time has come to have St Patrick's Day celebrations that welcome everyone to the Irish national day, and not just for Irish republicans to swagger around our city. Nottingham Post
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