The West Indian Tobacco Company (WITCO) is planning to introduce vaping products and is researching cannabis use, reports Trinidad Express.
“The research is clear, [vaping is] 95 percent safer than cigarettes, so the same risk profile does not exist,” said Raoul Glynn, WITCO’s managing director. “That is why you have Public Health in the United Kingdom giving vaping products to 1 million consumers in the U.K. We saw it in T&T for Carnival, where people felt more comfortable vaping than smoking cigarettes.”
“It’s not one or the other because we will continue to have cigarettes for consumers who want to smoke, but we also want to have the vaping products for those consumers as well,” Glynn said.
Glynn said WITCO is actively researching the effects cannabis can have on users. “It has very relaxing elements and then you have some elements that do not have a positive effect on people. So we have to be careful, and WITCO would not bring something to market that would put people at risk. The group has done extensive research and concluded one in the U.K. with consumers. We will take those learnings and see if it is ready to go to market, but at this stage, I think it is a bit far off,” he said.