This week saw MHKs bounce the Nicotine Products Bill through in one sitting of the House of Keys.
In doing so, there was a fair bit of evident back patting.
While members did not go the whole hog just yet and ban smoking etc from everyone born after January 1 2009 like the UK has, they instead rushed through a ban on nicotine pouches being sold to u18s.
I have absolutely no doubt that this was done for the right reasons, but I can’t help but think that they should and could have acted much earlier, if only ministers had listened to Dr Michelle Haywood two years ago.
2024
Turn back the clock with me for just a second to July 1 2024 when the House of Keys sat on a Monday and Dr Haywood tried to introduce a private members bill that would bring in an age based ban on nicotine products.
In that sitting, Dr Haywood listed nicotine pouches as something that fell through current legislation and told members the pouches come “in a little tin like the travel sweets used to when we were children”.
She added: “They are not currently subject to any age restrictions but in my opinion they should be.”
However, despite this members, led by CoMin, kicked the issue of a generational smoking ban into the long grass and forced it into a committee which produced a report that went to Keys in June, two years later.
The government said the move, which in of itself followed then PM’s Rishi Sunak’s move to ban children from ever smoking, needed “more investigation”.
Tim Crookall said: “There may be unintended consequences of such an enactment, and we do not want the island to become an outlier jurisdiction.”
Chief Minister Alf Cannan added that while Dr Haywood “brought forward a number of serious and valid points”, there was concern that “being an outlier could have unintended consequences”.
There was also pleas for members to consider UK customs arrangements, issues about a black market and waiting for the adjacent isle to move.
Rushed Through
That brings us to this past Tuesday where members did not go as far as Dr Haywood had originally suggested, but instead chose just to add nicotine pouches to the list of products you have to be 18 to buy.
In listening to the debate, I and a fellow journalist were quick to point out to each other that we were only surprised that members seemed to be surprised.
In moving the Bill, Cabinet Office Minister David Ashford said: ” I do not lightly seek the permission and goodwill of this house to suspend standing orders to enable the bill to progress today.
“However, there are times when it is in the public interest to do so, and when we have identified something that can make an immediate difference and that we need to act at the appropriate time.”
He later said parents he had spoken to were “absolutely astounded that this isn’t already illegal”.
Fellow minister Clare Barber added that she had spoken to other parents who were equally as shocked and said about another product popping up, similarly to how vaping and pouches have, “as a collective group we need to be really alert”.
While it may seem a tad unfair to pick on these two ministers, they were unfortunately the ones that spoke and, since it proves so helpful to CoMin, let us follow that line and say, they’re collectively responsible.
No Need
Many members spoken about being against legislation being done quickly, it has its moments, but not always.
Instead what this said to me was that parents (read voters) have been bringing this up and our MHKs didn’t want to be admit or be seen to have dropped the ball two years ago when they could have moved then.
Long-standing political journalist (I would say esteemed but don’t want to be too nice) Paul Speller labelled a similar move on Manx Care (Amendment) Bill as drive-thru democracy.
This, like that, had no need to be done in one day, it could and should have been done sooner, instead we got the usual end of administration, end of parliament rush to bring out the dead and paint it up all nice and shiny.
The Legislative Council will sit next week to consider this bill, it could make amendments and force another Keys sitting, or it could end up booting it off into the grass for the next house to consider.
In the meantime, those adverts you see in shop windows for nicotine pouches will still be there, children will still be able to buy them and it is only because our politicians failed to act when they should have.
When that debate happened this week, Dr Haywood was quite magnanimous and only mentioned that she had “raised this matter before”.
She added: “I think it’s quite clear to the house that you know I absolutely support this bill moving forward.
“I accept the minister’s assessment of it as being a bit rough and ready and that this is a forerunner of things to come, but I welcome that we’re moving in the right direction and that this house is sending an important signal that says that we won’t allow the cynical moves by tobacco companies to keep exploiting young people and to keep dragging them into this addiction.”
In doing so, she has been proven right that something should’ve been done about this loophole two years ago, but resisted what must have been a great temptation to say: “I told you so.”