Irish Examiner view: Swift action needed to regulate the sale of vapes

Wed, 15 Nov, 2023 - 02:00

News that children in a Cork school fell ill last week after vaping gave many readers pause, and the background details offered by the HSE’s national clinical lead for addiction services, Professor Eamon Keenan, were even more disquieting.

Prof Keenan stressed that the Cork incident was far from an isolated occurrence, with over 20 such cases being recorded in schools and other locations this year alone, saying: “It is happening and it is leading to problems. Cannabis is being marketed in new and appealing ways to young people — the edibles, the vapes — it’s a concern.”

These incidents show the combination of a number of factors, resulting in a perfect storm of problems.

Young people are being cynically targeted as customers by the vaping industry, a sector that is being regulated loosely and with little urgency.

Suggestions that vaping is a harmless activity are clearly incorrect, and are further complicated by the introduction of synthetic cannabinoids into the mix.

Vocal campaigners for the legalisation of cannabis would do well to pay attention to Prof Keenan’s comments on the deleterious effect of using synthetic cannabinoids in vapes: “They can cause anxiety, depression, and in some cases, psychosis.

“And the under 25s would be those that you’re concerned about because their brains are still maturing, and they’re more likely to have difficulties.”

Furthermore, the synthetic cannabinoid now available in vapes is being monitored as a new psychoactive substance by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

This is still an area where swifter legislative action is needed. There have been plenty of complaints about the proliferation of vape shops around the country, but perhaps the focus should be on what is on sale in those outlets rather than the unappealing aesthetics of the shop fronts.

It has been a grim couple of weeks when it comes to illegal substances, given the overdoses in Dublin because of nitazenes in heroin, as well as the constant threatening shadow of fentanyl. The vape problem may not be as serious as that, but it still should be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Pressure on for a better RTÉ

As revealed here yesterday, RTÉ’s plans for institutional change look significant in scope.

Those plans include calls for a 20% reduction in staff — around 380 people — while the station also aims to cut its costs by €10m in 2024 and to leave part of the Donnybrook site, which would be sold or rented. There are also plans to increase production in Cork, Limerick, and Galway.

Dramatic as they sound, these plans are necessary. The collapse of RTÉ’s revenue because people are not paying the licence fee means significant changes are clearly necessary, and Government bailouts cannot be a plan for the future, as articulated by the Taoiseach.

Leo Varadkar said the Government would not allow RTÉ to cease operating, but raised two valid points.

One is the amount of money RTÉ needs to operate, with the Government agreeing to interim funding of €56m yesterday, while the other is the wider question of what RTÉ will look like in the future — and how it will be funded then.

On the basis of the proposed plans, RTÉ would certainly look leaner if those are implemented, but there may be significant obstacles in the way. For instance, unions in the national broadcaster are already unhappy with the way elements of the cost-cutting plan were leaked before staff were informed, and they have added that the plan for redundancies may suggest an element of blame attaches to their members for the various travails RTÉ has endured recently.

When the Taoiseach says on the record that the Government will not allow RTÉ to cease operating, that is a fair indication of the sheer seriousness of the organisation’s problems.

If it’s accepted that RTÉ will be a very different institution going forward, then the pressure is on Bakhurst and his colleagues to ensure it is also a better institution.

The end of an era

The Wolfe Tones are to retire from the music business next year, with their shows in the SSE Arena in Belfast and at Dublin’s 3Arena next October set to be their final concerts.

The group has been on the road for an astonishing 60 years, and as singer Tommy Byrne said this week: “I never thought that we would go on so long. It’s been absolutely amazing, but I’m 80 next year and I think that would be a good time to stop.”

They are certainly going out on a high. The Wolfe Tones released 16 albums and enjoyed huge success at home and abroad with their repertoire of rebel songs and ballads. As recently as this September, of course, they played to a massive crowd at the Electric Picnic festival.

That performance led to one of their songs being used almost as a referendum on people’s views of the conflict in Northern Ireland — thousands of festivalgoers sang along with the Wolfe Tones’ ‘Celtic Symphony’, sparking a thousand debates.

Was the youthful festival crowd even aware of the IRA’s history? What did the song’s popularity mean for modern Ireland? Was it acceptable to sing it in the first place?

Whatever one’s views on the Wolfe Tones’ music, few bands have had such an impact on the national conversation.

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