Australia to ban recreational vaping in ‘Big Tobacco’ crackdown
Australia will ban single-use disposable vapes, stop importing non-prescription versions and limit how much nicotine e-cigarettes can contain.
Australia has announced a massive crackdown on vaping, accusing tobacco companies of hooking the next “generation of nicotine addicts” by deliberately targeting teenagers.
Billed as the country’s biggest anti-smoking reform in a decade, Australia announced on Tuesday that it will ban single-use disposable vapes, stop importing non-prescription versions and limit the amount of nicotine in e-cigarettes.
Australia has long been at the forefront of efforts to eradicate smoking. In 2012, it became the first country to introduce plain packaging laws for cigarettes – a policy that has since been adopted by France, the United Kingdom and others.
But in recent years, Australia has struggled to contain the explosion of recreational vaping, especially among teenagers.
“Vaping has become the biggest behavioral problem in high schools. And it is becoming widespread in primary schools,” said Health Secretary Mark Butler.
“Just like they did with smoking, Big Tobacco has taken another addictive product, packaged it in shiny packaging and added flavors to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.”
People are still allowed to use vaping, with a prescription, as a smoking cessation aid.
“Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit,” Butler said. “It wasn’t sold as a recreational product — especially to our kids.”
Butler also announced that Australia will increase taxes on tobacco sales by 5 percent each year for the next three years.
Heavy taxes on tobacco mean Australia already has some of the most expensive cigarettes in the world – with a pack of 25 selling for around 50 Australian dollars ($33).
Black market
Data from last year shows that about 22 per cent of Australians aged 18 to 24 have used an e-cigarette or vaping device at least once.
Sydney office worker Andrew Kohn, 31, said there was a need for stricter rules.
“Now you go by a school during lunch hour and it’s hard to see a kid who isn’t vaping,” he said.
While a prescription is required to buy nicotine vapes in Australia, a thriving illicit market means they are readily available.
College student Ruby Lake, in her early 20s, said she had seen some of her friends become addicted to e-cigarettes.
“They want to quit, and they can’t,” she said.
Some countries have tried to restrict vaping, and some see it as a good way to get smokers to quit smoking.
In April, the UK said up to a million smokers would be encouraged to swap cigarettes for vapes in what was a world first, offering financial incentives to pregnant women and providing e-cigarette starter kits to help.