“Skittles & Red Bull is my favourite flavour”: E-cigarettes, smoking, vaping and the changing landscape of nicotine consumption amongst British teenagers – implications for the normalisation debate

Abstract

Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Aims: From an academic discourse explaining trends in drug-related attitudes and behaviours, 'normalisation' now also encompasses public health policy advocating 'denormalisation' of smoking. This study explored young people's attitudes and behaviours to cigarettes and ecigarettes to ascertain whether a process of 'renormalisation' was underway. Methods: A six-month multi-method study was conducted in NW England. Data collection in AprilJuly 2014 included a convenience sample survey of 233 students; secondary analysis of a 3,500 respondent survey; stakeholder interviews; participant observation sessions; focus groups; and participatory research events with over 100 students. Findings: Young people used e-cigarettes primarily for flavour combinations and to perform 'tricks'; with the public performance of 'vaping' valued as an indicator of experienced use.Smoking cessation and nicotine consumption were less important motivations. When comparing e-cigarettes with eight indicators of normalisation -additionally, legal status and risk perceptionthere were indications of a growing cultural accommodation of 'vaping'. Conclusion:The changing landscape of nicotine and non nicotine products challenges traditional conceptualisations of 'smoking' and 'non-smoking' and problematises the notion of linear processes of normalisation in respect not just of young people's tobacco and nicotine use, but more generally, of delivery systems and the drugs dispensed within them, suggesting marketplacedifferentiated normalisation.

E‐cigarettes, vaping and performativity in the context of tobacco denormalisation

“…As Measham et al . (: 234) note, we are forced to interrogate our existing understanding of what it is that is being disapproved of in smoking and vaping, and ask: ‘to what extent does cultural acceptability or condemnation hinge on being able to see or smell consumption in public places?’. As Fairchild et al (: 295) point out, with reference to first generation ‘cigalikes’: ‘from the glowing tip to the smoke like vapour, e‐cigarettes seek to mimic the personal experience and public performance of smoking.…”

“…Further supporting the idea that e‐cigarettes are a distinct product and vaping a distinct activity from smoking and so not a route for smoking renormalisation, Measham et al . (), used participatory methods with a large sample of UK teenagers, and found that e‐cigarette use was initiated for the desirable flavours and the novelty of the products. Drawing on small groups discussions in the US, Roditis and Halpern‐Felsher (), proposed that lack of knowledge about e‐cigarettes led teenagers to have more positive opinions about the devices.…”

Vapers and vaping: E-cigarettes users views of vaping and smoking

“…Miech at colleagues (Miech, Patrick, O'malley, & Johnston, 2016) have shown that the consumption of non-nicotine containing flavoured e-liquids was actually more common than the use of nicotine containing e-liquids. Similarly, Measham and colleagues (Measham, Obrien, & Turnbull, 2016) have shown that many of the young people in their qualitative research were more interested in the theatricality of being able to create large plumes of exhaled vapour than in meeting their need to consume nicotine (Measham et al, 2016).…”

The normalisation thesis – 20 years later

“…Contributions to the special issue come from the UK, Canada and Australia and explore what stable and declining drug use rates among young people mean for normalisation (Williams, 2016) and whether a denormalisation, or renormalisation, of some substance use has occurred, particularly with respect to tobacco and nicotine (Asbridge, Valleriani, Kwok, & Erickson, 2016;Measham, O'Brien, & Turnbull, 2016). Important criminal justice issues such as the normalisation of the social supply of illicit drugs (Coomber, Moyle, & South, 2016) and the incongruence between cannabis policy and community attitudes to cannabis (Asbridge et al, 2016) are explored.…”

“…Important criminal justice issues such as the normalisation of the social supply of illicit drugs (Coomber, Moyle, & South, 2016) and the incongruence between cannabis policy and community attitudes to cannabis (Asbridge et al, 2016) are explored. Papers also focus on somewhat neglected aspects of normalisation such as gender and ethnicity (Hathaway, Mostaghim, Kolar, Erickson, & Osborne, 2016), socioeconomic status and broader structural factors shaping drug use (O'Gorman, 2016), age and intimate relationships (Green, 2016), the importance of social context (Asbridge et al, 2016;Hathaway et al, 2016) and routes of ingestion (Measham et al, 2016) in understanding processes of normalisation.…”