Vaping is set to be banned in a national crackdown announced today by Federal Health Minister Mark Butler. $234 million will be allocated in the upcoming budget for tougher regulations of e-cigarettes, which is likely to include a complete ban on retail sales, importation of vaping devices — with or without nicotine — and controls on packaging and flavours for those who are using vapes to quit smoking.
There are even reports that ‘vape police’ could be deployed across Australia as Butler takes aim at what he describes as “the number one behavioural issue in high schools”.
“Just like they did with smoking, big tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added flavours to create a new generation of nicotine addicts,” Butler claims. “This must end.”
Medical experts who support the use of vaping as a quit-smoking aid, alongside those who currently use vaping devices are, understandably, not best pleased with the government’s decision and have pushed back on their claims.
“This is better understood as a howl of rage from tobacco control fanatics offended by the impertinence of thousands of smokers sidestepping their controlling, punitive and coercive playbook in favour of something pleasurable,” public health expert Clive Bates has written.
Butler has claimed that the under-25 population is the only group in which smoking rates are rising, owing to vapes acting as a ‘gateway drug’ to tobacco use. This is a key part of his reform agenda, aiming to stop people from becoming hooked on cigarettes.
Dr Colin Mendhelson, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, has pointed out that, in NSW, smoking rates amongst 16-24-year-olds declined by 25% between 2019 and 2021, faster than the 21% by which they declined amongst the general population. This group also has the highest rate of vaping usage, suggesting the behaviour is linked.
On Butler’s other claims, that the tobacco industry is marketing vapes to children, Mendhelson also points out that none of the disposable vapes sold illegally in Australia are produced by tobacco industry bodies. They are manufactured in China and come into the country without oversight, owing to the government’s own lack of regulation.
The Health Minister has also repeated the claim that young people who vape are “three times more likely to take up cigarettes” than those who don’t. Mendelson points to research conducted by himself and others that has previously debunked this claim, suggesting that people who are likely to engage in risky behaviour, i.e., vaping, are also likely to engage in other risky behaviour like smoking. They are not necessarily causally related.
If vaping was indeed a gateway to tobacco use, we would see incidences of cigarette smoking increasing alongside the use of vapes. In fact, the opposite is true, as has been reported in the UK, New Zealand, and the US where e-cigarette use has risen as smoking rates have declined.
The prohibitionist measures of the anti-vape extremists of Australia have collapsed into a chaotic mess. Predictable and predicted.
Their big idea to fix it…? …BAN HARDER!
Why do @Mark_Butler_MP and #auspol still listen to Australia’s #TobaccoControl nuts? https://t.co/XNPWq7RHpk
— Clive Bates (@Clive_Bates) May 1, 2023
The national vaping ‘crackdown’ has been in the works for a long time. This is actually the second time that Australia has attempted to restrict the use of vaping products. The first was in 2021, with the introduction of the prescription model by former Health Minister Greg Hunt which actually made the sale of vapes outside of a prescription illegal.
That model hasn’t worked, as it allowed for the personal importation of vaping products that do not contain nicotine. Disposable vapes currently coming into the country are declared as being nicotine-free upon import, although that is clearly not the case. This has both created and allowed the illegal black market to flourish.
Given vapes with nicotine can’t be sold in Aus and users even with prescriptions must import them from NZ or else where, how does plain packaging work? Wouldn’t regulating the sale to adults only in Aus be more effective? @Mark_Butler_MP #vaping #harmreduction #auspol
— Fiona Patten (@FionaHPatten) May 1, 2023
What the government is now trying to do is close this loophole and further tighten access, doubling down on an issue they themselves created. At the same time, it puts Australia in the bizarre and globally unique position in which access to highly toxic nicotine products — i.e., cigarettes — will be more readily available than what has been determined to be a safer alternative.
Recently, the UK has embarked on a “swap and stop” plan, whereby they will distribute vaping devices to people for free in order to help them quit smoking. Multiple national health bodies have embraced the use of vapes as safer alternatives to smoking and vaping devices are sold in pharmacies as well as corner shops in the country.
However, the UK regulates the commercial sale of vaping devices, putting requisite safety and quality checks in place as well as limits on the amount of nicotine they can contain. It’s this model that advocates are pushing for Australia to adopt, in a similar way to how we regulate and sell alcohol and tobacco, but the government has rejected such ideas.
The science of vaping and its long-term health impacts are not settled but health authorities are having to take action in lieu of clear data owing to the spread of the habit. As best we can tell, vaping is 95% safer than smoking, still one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in this country. Getting this one wrong will have serious health implications for the future.
Related: Why Are So Many Young People Taking Up Vaping? The Answers Are Foggy at Best
Related: Vape Laws in Queensland Could Change Drastically as Government Launches Inquiry
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