One of Health Minister Mark Butler’s inner advisers, Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman, may have indirectly leaked the news that the Minister intends to ban refillable and disposable vapes.
Last May Butler announced a crackdown on vaping products, including further harsh restrictions, which as countless smoking cessation experts pointed out, would ultimately just make the products more inaccessible to adult smokers than they currently are.
Forty two tobacco control and addiction experts from Australia and New Zealand, had written a letter to Butler, highlighting that further restrictions would only contribute to the expansion of an already thriving black market, making potentially unsafe products available for minors. While adult smokers using the products as smoking cessation tools, would have a tougher time purchasing the products via legal channels.
Evidently harboring the same concerns, leaked internal emails by the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ANACAD), a top authority which advises the health minister, revealed that they fear that carrying on with the proposed measures would only make a dire situation worse.
However, this was not the end of it. Clearly ignoring the council’s honest opinions as well as recommendations by experts in the field, a blog by Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman, one of the Minister’s inner advisers, has accidentally revealed plans to ban refillable vapes as well as disposables. This means that in Australia only closed pod systems would be legally available from pharmacies via prescription.
More counterproductive measures
Tobacco harm reduction experts are highlighting why this is wrong on so many levels. Firstly it flies in the face of studies indicating the need for a variety of products and devices to suit the needs of different individuals, as well as having these available via both commercial and medical channels.
The second major concern is the fact that further restrictions will only lead to the expansion of an already massive black market of all the desired products. This will not only lead to the availability of unregulated therefore unsafe products, but also to the decimation of the vape industry and further growth of the tobacco one. In a blog on the matter local tobacco treatment specialist Dr. Colin Mendelsohn also mentioned the fact that ultimately this will also contribute to a further increase in local smoking rates.
On asking Dr. Mendelsohn whether he is aware of any conversations had between Butler and the ANACAD following the reports of leaked emails, he told Vaping Post that sadly there is no transparency and therefore no way to know. “We don’t know who he is speaking to exactly or what advice he is being given. We are being drip fed information.”
Different products and ways to obtain them are crucial
Meanwhile in the UK, a nation which is thankfully choosing the exact opposite approach of Australia, a study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) conducted with the aim of testing the effectivity of giving out free vapes to smokers via the NHS confirmed that different approaches work for different smokers.
“Our research shows that people who quit smoking using commercially purchased vapes believe they might have benefitted from the NHS providing e-cigarettes and support if it had been available to them when they were quitting.”
However added the researchers, while some participants were in favour of accessing vapes via the NHS, others prefer having the option of shopping for the devices themselves. Some of the participants reiterated that different products work for different people, hence they would want to look at the different opinions and choose the products, device and flavours of their preference.