In July 2017, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) had announced that smoking and tobacco sales would be banned in Scottish prisons by the end of 2018. As expected, this decision was not well received by inmates since they rely on cigarettes more heavily than the general population. In fact, several prison reform organizations had come forward voicing concerns about how such a ban could lead to violence and contraband trade activities.
In response, the SPS had pointed out that the second-hand smoke that staff, visitors and even the prisoners themselves were exposed to, was unacceptable. The organization had added that prisoners would be offered smoking cessation support before the ban would be implemented.
Scotland’s inmates were offered vape kits to help them quit smoking
To this effect, Scotland’s inmates were offered e-cigarettes and vape kits in order to help them quit or at least substitute cigarettes for a safer alternative. In English and Welsh prisons, introducing e-cigarettes was a ‘game-changer’, with a reportedly 33,000 prisoners using the devices, amounting to approximately £65,000 in weekly sales. However, recent data from Scottish prisons has shown that this has brought on its own set of consequences.
Guards have been reporting being exposed to drugs as inmates weaned off tobacco are using devices to consume drugs to get their “hit”. “There has been a lot of instances of vapes being improvised,” said one guard. “Prisoners know they can put paper in, soaked in NPS (novel psychoactive substances), and that’s now their hit.”
“They enter a cell to speak to someone and by the time they’ve left, they’ve started to feel it [second-hand exposure to NPS],” reported another. “They suffer headaches and high blood pressure. Their heart rate zooms up and they become shaky and unsteady. Staff have been really, really poorly with it.”
Attention must be paid as to how vapes can be abused, highlighted the Scottish Prison Service. “Prisoners use a variety of ways to take them [drugs] including, we believe, e-cigarettes.”
The Role of E-Cigarettes in Achieving Scotland’s 2034 Smoke-Free Target
