Vapouround magazine ISSUE 17 | Page 40

FEATURE THE VAPE DEBATE WHY I DON’T WANT TO SEE HEATED TOBACCO PRODUCTS IN VAPE SHOPS BY VICTOR MULLIN THE SUBJECT OF HEAT-NOT-BURN HAS PROVED HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL BOTH IN PRINT AND ONLINE IN RECENT MONTHS. HERE, UK E-CIGARETTE REVIEWER VICTOR MULLIN FROM YOUTUBE CHANNEL ‘VAPING WITH VIC’ ARGUES WHY HEATED TOBACCO PRODUCTS SHOULD HAVE NO PLACE IN VAPE STORES. Since the end of last year, a range of devices have been appearing which have caused huge shockwaves in the industry. Heat-Not-Burn (HnB) is a device which essentially toasts tobacco instead of burning it. It is classed under UK law as a tobacco product, it is taxed as a tobacco product and it is a tobacco product. The backstory of HnB is simple, get rid of the burning of tobacco and switch to toasting the tobacco instead to release the “vapour” and more importantly, the nicotine. A choice which for all intents and purposes is in the grand scheme of things a classic harm reduction choice for smokers wanting to move on to something else. I have been reviewing in the e-cigarette industry for more than four years now. I can still remember when the HnB device known as IQOS tried to make its first inroads into UK vape shops. It was at the beginning of 2016 and the IQOS reps must have visited at least 300 to 400 independent vape shops in Scotland and England alone. Back then, they never made any inroads, which was good for the early appearance of the large advocacy groups of the time. Fast forward to 2018 and things have changed. With an estimated 500 to 550 vape shops up and down the country now selling the IQOS (numbers from the IQOS stand at the Vaper Expo in May), HnB has now got a massive foothold in the industry at the high street level, with shops displaying the IQOS front and centre on 40 | VM17 their windows as part of the advertising and an “incentive package” that IQOS give them. Yes, vape shops are being paid quite a lot of cash to stock the item, a large incentive to sell the item and an even bigger incentive to advertise on window real estate. What we are looking at here is the single biggest mistake to even happen in the UK e-cigarette scene since the introduction of the original TPD. As more and more vape shops are stocking HnB devices, they are leading the high street sector of the industry into a cul-de-sac which will be impossible to U-turn out of, if things get a little scary in the future.