Last year, Australia’s Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced new vaping regulations on the importation of vape liquid containing nicotine. A number of public health experts, tobacco harm reduction advocates, and MPs had spoken up against this measure, resulting in it being put on hold.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration said that the changes strike a balance between the need to prevent adolescents and young adults from taking up nicotine vaping products while allowing current smokers to access these products for smoking cessation with appropriate medical advice.
And that there is evidence that nicotine vaping products act as a ‘gateway’ to smoking in youth and exposure to nicotine in adolescents may have long-term consequences for brain development. So organizations like Legalise Vaping Australia started storming in.
However, perhaps in response to a number of public submissions against the ban, by January, the Australian Government decided to momentarily set the ban aside. It established a Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction, with the aim of launching an inquiry into vaping and coming up with clear e-cigarette laws.
Meanwhile, the NRA Committee will continue to lobby the government against the illogical policy that allows vapers to freely purchase vaping products online from overseas retailers, but not locally.
While retailers in neighboring New Zealand and most other countries can responsibly sell nicotine products over the counter, as of October 2021, vapers in Australia will only be able to purchase the products from pharmacies via prescription.
Former CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores appointed advisor for the National Retail Association, Jeff Rogut, the former CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores has been appointed as advisor and spokesperson for the committee, said that local policymakers are failing to understand the impact of the measures they have been setting in place.
He said that Vaping is one of those things that has grown in popularity and there are an estimated half a million consumers of vaping products in Australia. The issue is that nicotine is an illegal product and cannot be sold by retailers and that they’ve recently seen the shortsightedness of the government in not allowing convenience stores, tobacconists, or anybody else to sell it.
They are looking at restricting that to pharmacies, which we are lobbying quite fiercely against. They’re making all of this legislation and regulations without fully understanding the full impact of their decisions.
He added the TGA’s ruling goes against tobacco harm reduction. As they have seen with tobacco, the harder you make it and the more expensive you make it, you drive the products underground.
The danger for the government is that consumers will move to buy these products from the criminal elements and the black market importers, as we have seen happen with tobacco products, and they won’t know what the product is or what it contains.
There are no TGA-approved nicotine vape Australia products in the Register of Therapeutic Goods, but doctors can prescribe them for dispensing at an Australian pharmacy through the Special Access Scheme for a single patient or by becoming an Authorised Prescriber.
The federal government has created new telehealth smoking cessation Medicare Benefits Schedule items, which can include the provision of a script for nicotine vaping products.
Doctors can also write a script for a patient to import the juice in Australia themselves for up to 3 months through the Personal Importation Scheme.
However, the RACGP has strongly cautioned against this pathway as products imported from overseas are less likely to meet Australian requirements, including child-resistant packaging and restrictions against known toxins.
They also recommend that if vaping devices are to be used, unflavoured, vapour liquid or closed systems should be preferred, as there is limited evidence about the long-term safety of inhaled flavorings.
Yes, it might be cheaper and easier to get but from a health point of view it might do more harm than good, and that is the shortsighted thing that the government appears to have overlooked. So the laws are definitely not going to work this time, or ever.
Also, the NRA has opened an option for retailers and vapers to join their emerging business committee, so their voices are heard.