Australian Government announces crackdown on illegal black market vapes

The biggest crackdown on e-cigarettes in Australian history is coming as shocking details involving children under 4 are revealed.

Australia is set to ban the importation of most vapes, introduce plain packaging and strip them from convenience store shelves under world-first reforms.

The biggest crackdown on e-cigarettes in Australian history is set to be unveiled in the May budget amid fears vaping has emerged as a serious behavioural crisis in schools across the nation.

Under current laws vapes with nicotine can only be bought with a prescription from a chemist.

But that hasn’t stopped thousands of convenience stores and online providers selling to kids.

Health Minister Mark Butler will unveil the changes on Tuesday under a crackdown that will also involve the states and territories moving to stamp out the growing black market in illegal vaping.

The changes will include tough new laws to:

- Stop the import of non-prescription vapes

- Increase the minimum quality standards for vapes including by restricting flavours, colours, and other ingredients;

- Require pharmaceutical-like packaging;

- Reduce the allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes; and

- Ban all single use, disposable vapes.

Several students from Emmaus College in Rockhampton were suspended after video emerged of them vaping in a toilet block in March.

But the reforms won’t stop there, with the Albanese Government preparing to work with states and territories to close down the sale of vapes in retail settings, ending vape sales in convenience stores and other retail settings.

Vapes causing ‘behavioural issues’ in schools

Health experts fear the rise of vapes poses a public health crisis with children who vape three times as likely to take up smoking.

Experts claim thousands of children can no longer sit still in class because they are addicted to vaping after smoking “bubblegum” flavours that secretly contain nicotine.

Health Minister Mark Butler said it was clear that governments had to act.

“Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit,‘’ he said.

“It was not sold as a recreational product - especially not one for our kids. But that is what it has become: the biggest loophole in Australian history.

“One in six teenagers aged 14-17 has vaped. One in four people aged 18-24 has vaped. By contrast, only one in 70 people my age has vaped.

“And when more than a thousand teenagers aged 15 to 17 were asked where they could get vapes, four out of five of them said they found it easy or somewhat easy to buy them in retail stores.

“This is a product targeted at our kids, sold alongside lollies and chocolate bars.”

Health experts fear the rise of vapes poses a public health crisis with children who vape three times as likely to take up smoking.

Mr Butler said schools were now struggling to deal with the fallout.

“Vaping has become the number one behavioural issue in high schools. And it’s becoming widespread in primary schools,” he said.

“Over the past 12 months, Victoria’s poisons hotline has taken 50 calls about children under 4 becoming sick from ingesting or using a vape.

“Under the age of 4! Vapes contain 200 toxic chemicals that do not belong in the lungs, the same chemicals you’ll find in nail polish remover and weed killer.

“Just like they did with smoking, Big Tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added flavours to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

“Vapers are three times as likely to take up smoking, which explains why under 25s are the only cohort in the community currently recording an increase in smoking rates.

“This must end.”

Vape police

Vape police could be rolled out to monitor the sale of e-cigarettes to children across Australia including on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram under a plan that will ban most imports and introduce plain packaging.

VicHealth CEO Sandro Demaio, a globally-renowned public health expert and medical doctor, told news.com.au that as soon as the Albanese Government introduced new import bans enforcement could be much tougher at a state level.

“In many ways this explosion of vaping has really come out of nowhere over just a couple of years,’’ he said.

“But the reverse is also possible if we ban the advertising of vapes and actually clamp down on the use of social media to promote these products.

“If we make them less alluring, so they don’t they don’t come in Froot Loops flavour and look like a highlighter. They don’t have unicorns on the side. That will make them far less appealing.

“And basically cut off the tap at the border. Those things will absolutely make a huge difference.”

Vape police could be rolled out to monitor the sale of e-cigarettes to children across Australia including on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.

Dr Demaio said that introducing plain packaging was important because that would then allow enforcement to swing into action.

“Obviously, we want to close the access and the huge amount of vapes that have been finding their way into the hands of particularly young people,’’ he said.

“So what needs to happen at the state level is that there needs to be a licensing scheme in every state.

“The licences themselves would create revenue, which can support enforcement officers, so we’re not relying on police to enforce the measures that we currently have.

“In theory, they’re not currently subject to the laws because they don’t contain nicotine. But the vast majority do contain nicotine; they’re just simply not putting in all the packets.

“And really, what needs to be done is to say, ‘Well, if there’s no flavours, no colours and the only pathway through a prescription, and they, they, they have pharmaceutical packaging, it then makes it much easier for the states to actually enforce it.”

The Albanese Government is preparing to work with states and territories to close down the sale of vapes in retail settings.

He warned children were being “viciously” exploited.

“Well, what’s happened over the last few years is that the tobacco industry and the e-cigarette industry, of which there’s huge overlap, has seen an opportunity to, you know, get another entire generation of Australians addicted to nicotine with a new product. That’s flown under the radar,’’ he said.

“This industry has used young people’s social media. These things are all over social media. You can jump on Tik Tok and there are ads for E cigarettes with a ‘Buy Now’ button.

“Social media is under-regulated in this country. They have flooded the market with really cheap imports from overseas that don’t declare that they contain nicotine.

“And it’s been a combination of social media, weaponising their data on social media and flooding the market with really cheap and highly addictive imports.”

Originally published as Australian Government announces crackdown on illegal black market vapes