B.C.’s Health Minister says the government needs to engage with teens to make vaping less attractive.
Adrian Dix says work is happening at government levels to deter young people from vaping – but he says there’s more layers to it.
“We had strong rules about smoking, and we’ve enhanced them over the years. But smoking rates really declined amongst young people when young people took charge of the issues. It became culturally unacceptable to smoke. And I think with vaping, the opposite has happened in some circles. We have to take it seriously and we do.”
Dix says some of the confusion on vaping, is that it can be considered ‘harm reduction’ for someone quitting smoking but it’s still not healthy for anyone.
He says the federal government is in the midst of forming new policies to deter vaping, and he says the province is ready to take the lead if the feds aren’t moving fast enough.
“I don’t think our patience can be endless. We’ve been on this, we’ve been working on this. And I don’t think it just involves what you’d call government regulation as well. I think we have to do a better job engaging with young people.”
– with files from Shane Woodford