One Nation’s Sarah Game calls for nicotine vape legalisation in SA

You can buy cigarettes over the counter in SA but not vapes containing nicotine. Now an MP wants to change the law to destroy the black market trade. Have your say.

South Australian adults would be able to legally buy nicotine “vapes”, under sweeping proposed new laws to help smash a growing black market.

State law currently bans the sale of so-called electronic cigarettes with any traces of nicotine without a doctor’s prescription, with fines of up to $222,000 and even jail for breaches.

But One Nation Upper House MP Sarah Game will on Wednesday table new legislation to legalise e-cigarettes or “vapes”, to change “nonsensical” laws she believes are “flawed and costing lives”.

She said her proposed Controlled Substances Act overhaul would change “unfair” laws that allow adults to buy cigarettes but not electronic products that could help them quit smoking.

Calling for action in a different public health emergency, she said children and teenagers would still be banned from buying the product.

One Nation MLC Sarah Game wants South Australia to reform its nicotine vaping regulations.

She said Australia was the “only western country with such severe restrictions on buying vapes”, which was helping fuel a growing black market.

She criticised a year of failure that has resulted in more youth using vapes, a tiny minority buying vaping legally, and just 13 GPs in SA being authorised prescribers.

Yet the black market was thriving, potentially diverting up to $200 million in lost tax revenue from government coffers.

She said “blind Freddie can see that our governments’ vaping laws have failed us”.

“Our youth are afflicted not only by the thriving black market of vape products with unknown chemical make up and misleading nicotine labelling,” she said.

“They are losing loved ones to smoking related deaths. The government continues to make it much harder to buy regulated, safe vape products than cigarettes. It’s criminal.”

Vaping is legal but products with nicotine need a prescription. Picture: iStock

She added: “South Australia needs urgent reform to our Controlled Substances regulations for nicotine vaping. This is a public health matter. It is time to put science before ideology.

“I want regulated nicotine vapes to be able to be legally sold from licenced retail premises for adults, especially those wishing to quit smoking.

“I want strict age identification required and loss of license for those that sell to minors, as is consistent with smoking and alcohol regulations.

“The way to reduce the illicit market is to replace it with a legal, regulated market. I want adults looking to quit smoking to have access to safer, regulated vaping products when they go to a licensed retail outlet.”

Latest SA Health data shows there are more than 200,000 smokers across the state.

Health Minister Chris Picton while vaping was legal, nicotine requires a prescription nationwide, which was not a protection the government was seeking to change.

“We want to do what we can at a state level to reduce the harms caused by e-cigarettes, particularly given the growing issue of students vaping in schools,” he said.

“We are working with the Commonwealth Government to explore stronger steps we can take to protect our kids.”

Opposition spokesman Tim Whetstone said he would consult with the peak bodies dealing with smoking and nicotine addiction to help the Liberal decisions.