Minister Butler’s updated vaping regulations have been revealed in a secret government consultation paper released last week. The latest consultation appears to be merely a formality, and history suggests these proposed regulations will likely make their way into law with minor, if any, changes.
The regulations are a recycled version of the failed prescription-only model with further harsh restrictions to make legal vapes less accessible, less appealing, and less effective. This wasa regulatory regime spearheaded by ex-Health Minister Greg Hunt, and one that Butler himself questioned prior to the 2022 election, but has now embraced.
While some aspects of the regulations, like higher safety standards and improved labelling, have merit, they miss the mark on addressing core issues.
The current regulatory model has been rejected by consumers. Less than 10% of vapers have a nicotine prescription and vape legally. A black market controlled by criminal networks has stepped in to fill the void, selling dodgy, unregulated disposable vaping products freely to young people.
Mark Butler plans to step up Border Control to intercept illegal imports, but he is trying to stop a flood with a fishing net. Already, an estimated 90-100 million illegal disposable vapes are imported into Australia each year. Eight million shipping containers arrive annually and only 1-1.5% are scanned. Not surprisingly, less than one percent of illegal vapes are intercepted.
History has shown that the Australian Border Force can only intercept a small portion of illegal drugs sent to Australia. In 2022, according to the National Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), 87% of drug users said it was easy or very easy to access heroin, which has been banned since 1953.
Allocating massive funding and resources to intercept blueberry vapes is unlikely to make a significant dent in the illicit trade. It will also create holes in other areas of enforcement including the trafficking of more dangerous illicit drugs and weapons.
Criminal networks will continue to exploit this regulatory vacuum mercilessly, profiting massively from the underground sale of vapes. Like other drug wars, this will lead to more dangerous crimes, including money laundering, gang wars, firebombing of retail outlets and corruption of officials. Meanwhile, some vapers will relapse to smoking, and more people will die unnecessarily without access to a less harmful alternative to deadly cigarettes.
Mark Butler’s proposed changes are a disaster for public health and the vaping industry and are certain to fail … again. They are likely to result in more smoking-related death and disease, just as the original failed regulations did.
Doubling down on this failed prohibitionist approach to vaping is certain to fail again, even with massive and costly enforcement efforts.
Eventually, regulators will have to admit that their harsh restrictions on vaping have been a resounding failure and Mark Butler and the TGA will ultimately be held accountable for this regulatory trainwreck.
About the Author: Dr Colin Mendelsohn MB BS (Hons)
I am an academic, researcher and clinician working in smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction for over 40 years.
I am a member of the Expert Advisory Group that develops the RACGP Australian national smoking cessation guidelines. I am the Founding Chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, a registered health promotion charity dedicated to raising awareness of low-risk nicotine products as a substitute for smokers who can’t quit.
I was an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales until 2020, and a past Vice President of the Australian Association of Smoking Cessation Professionals, Australia’s peak body for experts in the field of smoking cessation.
I have never received funding from e-cigarette or tobacco companies.
