Remember: If disposables are banned companies will innovate
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - If disposables are banned companies will find a way to target smokers, don't worry!
The main dilemma with vaping highlighted here in new quant study from @Sarah Jackson and Harry Tattan-Birch, Ph.D. showing increase in vaping in non-smokers.
This is mainly driven by ubiquitous availability and lifestyle marketing targeted directly at this group, but main users are still smokers.
Should we or shouldn't we ban disposables? We dithered but came down on the side of yes, because they are the gateway format which resulted in the explosion in youth vaping in only two years and also on environmental grounds.
In addition, it was also because we saw at the Vape Show that manufacturers are already anticipating the restriction on disposable vapes and are now designing refillable vapes and pods to mimic disposables in size, style and also getting close in price with online bulk buys.
These pods are then actually more addictive than disposables because the refills are tiny, come in packs of 40 online and ensure you always have one to hand and don't have to go to the shops to get another single disposable.
So it seems likely disposables will be replaced by pods (like Juul, recently relaunched in the UK) if all formats are not actively restricted for sale and treated like cigarettes with reduced flavours, standardised packaging and availability behind the counter and a ban on all lifestyle marketing and promotion.
This also remember is a protectionist thing. The cig companies are all for disposable bans because they mainly make refillables and this will mainly hit to iMiracle, the makers of ElfBar and Lost Mary who created the runaway market for disposables in 2020.
Companies will find a way to fill the gap for smokers if you ban disposables, don't worry!
We dithered because of the usage by smokers shown in the study. But also unlike the study authors and ASH we don't think that should be the over-riding factor. We consider that much more help and promo can be done to persuade smokers to use disposables, whilst significantly more effort (ie some effort at all) can be put into preventing children and young adults vaping.
Daily Mail 300,000 Brits who have never smoked use disposables.