Tar Wars: A False Hope

“I think I’ll have apple and pear. No, make that strawberry and banana. No, I know, spearmint and liquorice.”

No, I am not waiting for someone to order the latest cocktail, nor am I behind someone mixing their ice cream flavours, neither am I stuck fuming while some kids decide on their sugar confection, although I may as well be for all the dithering that goes on. It did not strike me until recently, but vaping seems to have become a thing, a cool thing, and one to be seen doing. What is wrong with this picture?

When smoking was banned from public areas was it not to help prevent passive smoking and also, in the long term, aid in being an incentive to give up the cancer stick for good?

I mistakenly thought that tobacco companies came up with the e-cigarette to help keep revenues up but apparently it was devised by a Chinese inventor. He was a heavy smoker and wanted a way to give up before it killed him like it did his father, but nicotine patches were not working for him. Ergo, vaping was invented as a step towards quitting completely. Not as bad for one as smoking cigarettes but certainly still harmful and still nicotine addictive.

It was never going to be hip was it? Having to carry around a device to puff, it would be like pipe smoking. Yet judging by the amount of younger people buying the various artistically devised flavours, they are clearly taking it up from scratch. Instead of helping people to quit it is now just another addiction. And the thing is, some people do not see it as smoking. I saw a dating profile recently where the lady was down as a non-smoker but then in her profile mentioned vaping. It bodes ill for the future.

A few years from now, in a galaxy not that far away …

Wheezy, distorted breathing, heralds the approach. A dark figure appears at the doorway, a long thin instrument in his hand. (No, not the Dark Lord of the Sith – he’s dead, did you not see The Return of the Jedi?) This is something far deadlier. Death Vaper. He approaches the youth who is puffing away, enjoying his rhubarb and custard.

“Luke. I killed your father.”

“No! No! That’s not true! That’s impossible!

“And I will kill you too if you do not stop vaping.”

Screening soon – Tar Wars 2: The Cancer Strikes Back.