Disposable vapes to be banned from January, with one in four young Australians addicted

The government has announced Australia will ban the import of disposable vapes from January, with one in four young Australians now already hooked.

Labor has announced Australia will ban the import of disposable vapes from January, with Health Minister Mark Butler warning one in four Australians aged 18 to 24 were already hooked.

Health Minister Mark Butler says vapes are used to “recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction” and must be regulated accordingly.

Labor has announced Australia will ban the import of disposable vapes from January, with Mr Butler warning one in four Australians aged 18 to 24 were already hooked.

“Vapes... are flavoured in a way to deliberately attract young people,” he said.

“Schools have... nominated vapes and vaping as the number on behavioural issue in not only high schools but primary schools as well.”

Mr Butler said health ministers and police ministers across the country had met last week to discuss how to stamp out “this public health menace”.

“Next month, the government will be presenting to the Governor General, a regulation for his signature to prohibit the import of all disposable vapes from the first of January next year,” he said.

“These are the vapes deliberately sold to our kids.”

Mr Butler said prescribing rights would be expanded for doctors to give people vapes in order to wean them off cigarettes.

China staging ‘a reverse opium war’

The move comes just days after a leading Australian vape advocate has called for an urgent overhaul of regulations, claiming the current approach is leading to China staging a “reverse opium war”.

Health authorities have routinely called for better regulation of the growing crisis, with NSW Health this month linking a fatal overdose to black market vape juice refills.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has proposed some of the harshest laws in the world to crack down on unregulated vaping products – handing sweeping powers to states to ban the import of e-cigarette or vape products from next year.

But Legalise Vaping Australia director Brian Marlow claims Mr Butler’s actions have “single-handedly” created “the largest black market in the history of Australia”.

He claimed more than 100 million illegal unregulated vape products with no ingredient standards had been smuggled into the country from China and sold on the black market.

“For the Albanese government to think they can fix this crisis with a recreational vaping ban on adults and doubling down on the failed prescription-only prohibition model is completely out of touch with reality and community expectations,” Mr Marlow said.

“China is preying on Mark Butler’s weakness by using tactics that can only be described as a reverse opium war.”

Last week, NSW Health issued an urgent warning after confirming the presence of potent opioids known as nitazenes in a vape juice refill.

The opioids have since been linked to three overdoses in NSW alone – one of which was fatal.

In one overdose case, the person used a vape refill liquid thought to contain a synthetic cannabinoid similar to tetrahydrocannabinol.

Because it contained nitazenes, overdose occurred “within a matter of minutes”.

“Nitazenes can be stronger and last longer than fentanyl,” NSW Health said in a statement.

- with NCA NewsWire