Inquiry into vaping recommends subsidising treatment, joining forces to end black market

Queensland should join forces with the Commonwealth to end the e-cigarette black market or risk creating a “generation of nicotine-addicted adults” a major inquiry has found.

Medicines to help Queenslanders get off vapes should be subsidised and the state should join forces with the Commonwealth to end the e-cigarette black market or risk creating a “generation of nicotine-addicted adults” a major inquiry has found.

A parliamentary inquiry tasked with investigating the vaping scourge in Queensland found there was “no doubt” it was having a “very concerning health impact on young people in the state.

And there was an “absolute responsibility to address the issue now” according to committee chair Aaron Harper, with extensive community consultations ending with a total of 14 recommendations.

There is a push for medicine to help people quit vapes to be subsidised.

It includes calls for the state government to look into subsidising or making free “nicotine replacement therapy” medicines for those dependent on e-cigarettes or conventional cigarettes to help them quit.

The state government should also “investigate establishing a joint task force involving Queensland and Commonwealth agencies” in a bid to end the illegal retail supply of e-cigarettes.

Many of the recommendations called for increased funding for ongoing research and better guidelines and materials to prevent young people taking up vaping alongside supporting those who have developed a dependency.

“A concerted joint effort between the Commonwealth and state is required to shut down the illegal selling of vapes that are impacting our young people, who perhaps cannot see the ongoing health risks as this trend continues,” Mr Harper said.

“I echo the view of Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard – now is the time to act – if not we will face a generation of nicotine-addicted adults in the years to come. We have an absolute responsibility to address this issue now.”

Vaping is more common in school bathrooms than actually going to the toilet.

Research commissioned as part of the inquiry found vaping rates among high school students is “incredibly high” and has become “normalised behaviour”.

And school bathrooms or a mate’s house was where teens were likely to have their first try of e-cigarettes.

“It has got to the point now where there is a running joke, don’t **** in the ‘vape room’. More people, I am not even joking, using the bathrooms to vape than to go to the toilet,” a boy in Year 11 said.

The committee’s views weren’t shared by all members, with deputy chair and LNP MP Rob Molhoek lodging a “statement of reservation” based on values of individual liberty, limiting government intervention and practical realities

“If e-cigarette import bans cannot be effectively implemented and illicit sales cannot be controlled then logically the alternate approach may be to consider a regulated framework similarly to tobacco products,” he said.

“Not only does this respect the autonomy of our adult citizenry, but it also offers more controlled, transparent, and safer avenues for consumption.”

The former federal government’s crackdown on importing vapes coincided with a black market boom.