Brussels bureaucrats threaten Rugby e-cigarette business

BRUSSELS bureaucrats are threatening to send a burgeoning Rugby business up in smoke.

So says the owner of town store Smoke No Smoke, Jim Lacey, who fears the devastating impact a proposed EU directive

to ban all but the weakest electronic cigarettes from sale could have on his so far successful company.

E-cigarettes are designed to help smokers kick the habit. The gadgets give users a nicotine hit but contain no harmful tobacco - satisfying cravings without damaging health.

But Brussels is considering a ban on e-cigarettes with more than 4mg of nicotine from general sale amid claims anything stronger could be dangerous.

If passed it would spell disaster for Mr Lacey, who early last year launched his first Smoke No Smoke store on Regent Street and has gone on to launch others in Coventry, across the UK and even in Germany.

Mr Lacey said his was the first store to start selling them and says the plans would be catastrophic for his business if passed.

"4mg is such a low amount of nicotine and isn't enough to cure anyone's cravings. We have five strengths which people move through to wean themselves off it, and even the lowest isn't that low," he said.

"You only need to look at the facts. Six million people die each year from smoking, but since e-cigarettes came in there hasn't been a single death from one.

"There are no harmful ingredients in them. There could be a debate over nicotine, but while it is addictive it isn't at all harmful like tobacco."

Mr Lacey said such had been the success of his business in helping people quit smoking that hospitals and doctors had been referring smokers struggling to kick the habit to him.

"I get such a feel-good factor from helping people stop smoking. They often come back to me to say thanks as quitting is so important to them," he added.

"It's difficult enough to start a business, grow it and make it successful, so this is the last thing I need. If this were to come in it would close us down."

Rugby's MP Mark Pawsey has taken up Mr Lacey's cause and raised the matter in the House of Commons.

He said: "The directive could bring the business to an end and affect many people who are trying to stop smoking.

"Although I am not proclaiming e-cigarettes are a positively healthy alternative to conventional smoking, I believe the removal of hazardous tar from cigarettes, while still providing the nicotine smokers look for, means the product should be studied closely and be saved from the forthcoming EU directive."

Support for Mr Lacey's business and outrage at the EU's plans have been voiced on Facebook by smokers who have stopped thanks to the gadget.

One post, left by Sam Fairgrieves, said she and her husband Ian had gone from smoking heavily for over 20 years to stopping completely with the help of Smoke No Smoke.

She said: "Since the day we started using electronic cigarettes we haven’t touched a real cigarette and haven’t wanted to either.

"Having the ability to start on the high nicotine liquids and gently wean yourself onto lower doses is why, in our opinion, this is so successful. You can do it at your own pace, without any of the bad side effects from nicotine withdrawal, until eventually you have dropped right down to zero nicotine.

"If the EU get their own way, then they are going to force people back into smoking, plain and simple."

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