Vapers’ disgust over ban Cigarette return likely
THE owner of a local vape store has said the Federal Government was making a grave mistake by banning vaping from July 1 and has implored it to overturn the decision.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has banned the importation of liquid nicotine for 12 months while the Therapeutic Goods Administration undertake public consultation on regulating nicotine vaping products.
Vape Vault owner Robert Adams said the ban wasn’t right.
“It’s overstepping the mark with legislation. They’re overregulating the industry,” Mr Adams said.
“What Greg Hunt is saying is people must go to their GP and they’ll get a prescription for it.
“So now the GPS have to order the nicotine from overseas but the problem is a lot of them don’t know the process.
“There’s no freedom of choice.”
Mr Adams said there were more than 300,000 vapers in the country and a lot would resort back to cigarettes.
“Financially it’s going to have a big effect on people,” he said. “A packet of cigarettes costs $40-$50 and they might smoke eight boxes a week.
“Vape juice is $20-$25 and lasts a week to a week and a half.”
Mr Adams said Herbert MP Phillip Thompson was also bemused by the decision.
“We had Phil Tompson in here the other day and said he’ll try to take action where he can.
“He could understand that it’s a good thing we do. The worst thing you can do is send people back to cigarettes. doesn’t make sense to him.”
For now Mr Adams’s main concern is his business and the seven staff he employs.
“It’s uncharted territory, time will tell what’s going to happen.
“We’ll have a drop off in customers because they’ll go back to smoking.
“We were looking at opening a third store, but now nine months down the track we might have to let staff go. We can’t blame customers for that, we’ll blame Greg Hunt.
“As an industry we just want the powers that be to regulate us fairly.”
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