Quarter of C+D poll respondents say yes to e-cigarettes for under-18s
Twenty-four per cent of 168 readers said young people should be able to use e-cigarettes as an alternative to smoking but the remainder thought the products were unsuitable for under-18s
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EXCLUSIVE A quarter of pharmacists think under-18s should be able to purchase e-cigarettes, a C+D poll has suggested. Twenty-four per cent of 168 readers said young people should be able to use the products as an alternative to smoking in a C+D web poll, conducted between July 7 and 14. The remaining 76 per cent thought e-cigarettes were unsuitable for this age group. The results come a week after pharmacy bodies were "shocked" by a report that showed some pharmacists were selling e-cigarettes to young people, despite the majority of products being labelled as unsuitable for under-18s. Volunteers aged 13 to 17 were able to purchase e-cigarettes in 46 per cent of the 37 branches of national pharmacy chains they visited and in 74 per cent of 19 independent pharmacies, according to the report, published by the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) on July 2. But C+D readers argued that the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s was a "grey area". Responding to the story online, community pharmacist Stephen Eggleston branded on-packet warnings "useless" as long as selling e-cigarettes to young people was legal. "Either make [selling to young people] a fitness-to-practise issue or support it, but stop all this useless dithering. Clarity and decisiveness is what is required - give us guidance we can actually use," he argued. Magdalena Bogdan, pharmacist at Day Lewis in Ledbury, deemed it a "difficult" issue. Although there was "no proof" e-cigarettes worked and pharmacists "really shouldn't" sell them, she acknowledged they could potentially help young people give up smoking. The thoughts were echoed by Trishul Patel, pharmacist at MedicX in Blackpool. He said he would not consider selling e-cigarettes to anyone until they became licensed. But Mr Patel argued there could be a case for selling the products to under-18s if they were fully licensed and proven to work. In March, four in 10 C+D readers said they would continue to stock e-cigarettes despite the RPS advising the profession to shun the products until they are licensed in 2016.
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