There is a curious relationship with substances and their public persona, or rather, the persona given to them.
In a previous post, I mentioned that I was withdrawing from a prescription drug called Elvanse. This drug is amphetamine. Amphetamine has the nickname of Speed. However, it is legal to prescribe this form of drug. Alcohol is another potentially addictive substance that is legal to consume. In 2023, 10,473 deaths from alcohol-specific causes were registered in the UK, the highest number on record.
Let’s look at smoking tobacco products. 57,200 to 57,600 cases of cancer in the UK in 2023 were caused by smoking, equating to around 160 cases per day. Like alcohol, tobacco products are freely available in Britain.
Alcohol duty receipts in the UK reached £12.6 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, according to HMRC data, up from £12.4 billion the previous year. Tobacco duty receipts for the financial year ending March 2025 were £7.926 billion, a decrease of £878 million (10%) compared to the previous year, driven by declines in both cigarette and hand-rolling tobacco sales. These figures represent direct tax revenues collected by HMRC—the British government.
Aren’t you even a little bit curious as to why there is such a push to ban vaping because of the idea that it is addictive, given the fact that there have been no confirmed deaths in the UK directly proven to be caused by vaping, using nicotine-containing products?
Nicotine has a similar effect on ADHD symptoms as amphetamine in that it stimulates dopamine production in the brain. My experience of it is that there is no crash in between taking it and not taking it, and it doesn’t stop working after a while of using it, unlike ADHD medication. Now I’m not saying that nicotine has no addictive properties, but we have a love affair with coffee, we have coffee shops everywhere, and we joke about coffee withdrawal as though it were a cool thing. As we do with alcohol hangovers. So why is vaping the bad guy? Could it be because tobacco sales have dropped? Or could it be because if you’re vaping, you might be less inclined to take pharmaceutical products for ADHD? “On the 4th December 2025, in the second quarter (Q2) of 2025/2026, 297,000 patients were prescribed drugs for ADHD”.
As always, make up your own mind, but remember the truth is always based on irrefutable facts.