According to the Los Angeles Times, vaping is a craze. When I think of crazes, I think of things that are short lived. I'm sure we can all remember the Rubik's Cube. When I was growing up everyone seemed to have one. As kids we would see who could complete the puzzle the fastest. Most of us couldn't even complete it, but that was part of the fun. They didn't stay in vogue long - at least not for us kids at the time - and we soon moved on to other things to amuse us. 

Vaping, though, does not fall into that category. For me, it is the only way I have been able to give up smoking cigarettes. I'm not criticising those who still smoke - far from it. That is their choice and I would never take it away from them. But for people like me (roughly 2.8 million in the UK alone) who have either given up smoking or have substantially reduced their consumption, they are an ideal way to satisfy our nicotine craving, and according to Public Health England, they are also 95 per cent safer than smoking cigarettes. 

Back to California, where Governor Jerry Brown has prohibited vaping in restaurants, theatres, schools and other public places where smoking is already banned. (In a raft of measures, he also raised the legal age of smoking from 18 to 21 years) What starts in the US (even an authoritarian nanny state like California) often wings its way across the pond to the UK.

This is why Freedom to Vape has been launched. If you want to defend vaping and promote vapers' rights, join our campaign. A number of events are in the planning stage to promote vapers' rights, including events with parliamentarians to educate them about vaping. If we don't, there is a real danger that they will legislate in ignorance. We are going to make sure they do not.

We do not want the UK to turn into another California where ignorance and prejudice about vaping reign supreme.