ANY VAPER WILL TELL YOU HOW THEIR HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE HAVE IMPROVED BEYOND MEASURE Why ban has me fuming
VAPING saves lives, so why the ban?
In Australia, federal “Health” Minister is an oxymoron.
Bear with me and I’ll explain. If you’re a long-time reader of this column you might recall me mentioning my many attempts to shake the dreaded smoking habit.
Suckered in as a teen by Alpine mountains and Marlboro Men, it wasn’t until after decades of denial and deaths that cigarette companies were forced to warn cigarettes were addictive and carcinogenic.
Those trying to escape the stench and the toxic addiction could try cold turkey, or “replacement” products – nicotine-infused gums, inhalers, sprays and patches.
Sold in chemists or in shops alongside cigarette products, this form of nicotine was deemed “OK” by our government, but for those who missed the “exhaling” aspect a return to tobacco always beckoned.
So when Chinese inventor
Hon Lik’s father passed away from lung cancer, he decided to look into a safer alternative to smoking, and in 2003, the e-cigarette was released.
Most people lump vaping and smoking together, but they couldn’t be more different.
Vaping involves a small electronic device through which users inhale E-liquid, comprising a base, flavour and nicotine. Vaping doesn’t produce smoke, but an odourless vapour; with no lung-destroying tar, stinking ash or butts.
Medical studies document vaping as 95 per cent less harmful than smoking, and as an effective pathway to quit deadly cigarettes.
So why are vapers treated like criminals?
Any vaper will tell you how their health and lifestyle have improved beyond measure.
I’m one of them; two years off cigarettes and I’ve never felt better.
So isn’t it strange that Australia’s “Health” Minister, Greg Hunt, is ignoring the medical data and doing everything possible to hinder local vape shops and ensure the diminishing tobacco tax revenue to government coffers isn’t threatened?
Until this week, vapers sourced their E-liquids from legal providers in New Zealand, the UK and the US, but last Friday night a ban was rushed through parliament, directing imports to be seized and customers to face a $220,000 fine from July 1.
It’s a funny way for a health minister to support adults who have followed health advice and quit deadly cigarettes.
But why vape?
Just imagine if it was alcohol. A legal product, you really enjoy it, but after discovering it can cause, say, fatal liver disease, you’d prefer a safer alternative.
You find a “better” alcohol from overseas that tastes great and doesn’t affect your liver. WOW. Happy days.
Then imagine, without warning, the government announcing: “From next week that new alcohol you’ve been enjoying will be illegal. We will confiscate it, fine you $220,000, but you can still get the old, dangerous kind.”
Minister Hunt is also introducing an incomprehensible nicotine permit system for doctors, while deadly cigarettes remain legal, and easily available.
This week LNP senators Matt Canavan and George Christensen offered surprising support after receiving testimonials from lifelong smokers who, thanks to vaping, had quit the gaspers for good.
The pair launched a Facebook petition to overturn their government’s ban, receiving nearly 70,000 signatures in 24 hours.
Your colleagues are listening to medical experts, Health Minister.
So, why on earth aren’t you?