Government must act to get booming
WE have been inundated recently by reports about the rise of vaping among young people. Alarming stories about schools installing vape detectors in toilet blocks and brightly-coloured disposable vapes being sold to children appear in our papers nearly every day.
There is a reason for this. The vaping black-market is clearly out of control. Millions of illegal devices are being imported freely into Australia each month and sold freely to all comers for an indecent profit.
This problem was created by the government’s own regulations. Now a kneejerk reaction will only make things worse.
Australia is the only country in the world which requires adult smokers to get a doctor’s prescription before purchasing liquid nicotine to help them quit. However, very few doctors are willing to prescribe liquid nicotine, and even fewer pharmacies are willing to sell them.
As a result, many adult smokers have been forced onto the black-market to access an alternative to deadly cigarettes. The black-market has exploded, selling highly profitable, substandard products, without any consumer protections.
This includes the widespread and apparently unrestricted sale to young people.
Reporting of youth vaping has reached a fever pitch and misinformation is common. According to my research, the evidence suggests that vaping is diverting young people away from deadly smoking and reducing smoking rates.
To date, I can find no evidence that vaping causes serious lung disease. The outbreak of the lung disease in
Nicotine vapes are not risk-free but I believe they’re less harmful than smoking, and their sales need to be properly regulated so that adults can access products safely, writes Dr Colin Mendelsohn
North America in 2019 – a disease which became known as EVALI – was caused by black-market cannabis vapes which were adulterated with vitamin E Acetate.
The risk from the hysteria around youth vaping is a kneejerk reaction from governments to restrict adult vaping further.
This would be a public health catastrophe. Vaping is a lifesaving tool for adult smokers who can’t quit. It is the most popular and most effective quitting aid globally.
Vaping is not risk-free, but the research I have undertaken shows it is about 95 per cent safer than smoking. Smokers who switch to vaping have dramatically reduced exposure to toxins, substantial health improvements, feel and smell much better and have more money in their pockets.
The reality is most smokers try many times and fail to quit using other first-line treatments. Nicotine vaping is an approved solution for these smokers and should be at least as readily available for them as cigarettes.
This isn’t a novel idea. In every other western democracy, vaping products are available as consumer goods for smoking cessation, including the UK and New Zealand. In fact, since its legalisation in 2020, New Zealand has enjoyed record declines in smoking rates, while effectively restricting access by young people.
Unfortunately, the Australian government isn’t listening to the science or looking at the public health success in New Zealand. Instead, they are proposing an outright ban on vaping. This will be disastrous for public health.
Prohibition simply doesn’t work and never has. It just sends the problem underground. The way to deal with this market is to regulate it properly, like any other adult product.
That way, these products can be sold with proper age verification in licensed outlets, taxed and chemical additives can be limited to those which are safe.
If adult smokers can access nicotine vaping to help them quit smoking, the blackmarket will simply no longer be profitable, and will dissolve and sales to kids will dry up.
Without urgent change, instances of use and misuse by young people will only grow, and 21,000 Australian smokers will continue to die every year without accessible alternatives which could help them live longer and healthier lives.
Dr Colin Mendelsohn is a member of the Smoking Cessation Guideline Expert Advisory Group and chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association. He is also author of the book, Stop Smoking Start Vaping, and says he has never received funding from ecigarette or tobacco companies.