Conservative MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham Dr Caroline Johnson yesterday (January 23) called for amendments to the tobacco and vapes bill – introduced in October – to protect pharmacists when promoting vaping as a smoking cessation tool during a debate of the bill.
“I am keen to ensure the minister clarifies that a doctor...or other healthcare professional such as a pharmacist...will not find him or herself on the wrong side of the law for promoting vaping to individuals who smoke,” she said.
Read more: Pharmacies to supply vape ‘starter kit’ vouchers under stop-smoking pilot
According to the Department of Health and Social Care (DH), the tobacco and vapes bill “will ban the advertising and sponsorship of all vapes and other nicotine products, mirroring impactful restrictions on tobacco”.
But Johnson, who is also a shadow health minister, raised concerns that it could become harder for pharmacists to “provide and openly discuss vaping products...as a quit aid” if this were to become law.
“Fall foul of the law”
“It is important to consider how pharmacists and other health professionals will be able to have discussions with their patients or clients in which they may wish to say, ‘vaping is better for you’, and in so doing promote the process,” she said.
“I want the minister to assure the committee that he has considered the position of pharmacists and people who will legally be selling these products as a stop smoking device...and made sure they will be not criminalised,” she told MPs.
Read more: ‘Absolutely not!’: Strong opposition to offering vapes in pharmacies, shows poll
While pharmacists “may not want to fall foul of the law”, opposition assistant whip Gregory Stafford added, they may want “to advertise vapes as a smoking cessation tool”.
But Labour MP for North Somerset and pharmacist Sadik Al-Hassan said that Johnson’s suggested amendments are “not needed”.
Advertising “loophole”
“Current medicine regulations do not allow products to be advertised, but do not get in the way of smoking cessation clinics that currently take place at GP surgeries or pharmacies,” he said.
“In fact...[the amendments] could be used as a loophole for advertising by an industry that has been shown to be very successful at finding ways around legislation to increase market share and the numbers of smokers and vapers,” he added.
Read more: Stop smoking: 10% rise in people seeking to quit in pharmacies
It comes as Community Pharmacy England (CPE) announced in November that pilot pharmacies were set to offer patients vouchers for a vape “starter kit” and “up to four weeks’ worth of vape liquid” in a bid to help them stop smoking.
And according to NHS data from April, community pharmacies have seen a 10% rise in the number of people using them to start quitting smoking.
But a C+D snapshot poll from the end of 2023 showed that almost three-quarters of respondents did not think vapes should be offered in community pharmacies.
