As Australia moves towards a prescription-model for nicotine vaping products following a report issued by the Senate Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction examining vaping that concluded a prescription-model is what’s best for the country, not all politicians in the country agree with the committee’s findings. One such politician, Michael Johnsen, the New South Wales state MP for the Upper Hunter, believes that nicotine vaping products should be more accessible to Australia’s smokers, not less.
Mr. Johnsen, who quit smoking after struggling for many years thanks to vaping, shared his vaping success story with the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA), which you can see below.
Johnsen, after using vaping to quit smoking, believes that the NSW Government should recognize the “overwhelming evidence that vaping is a proven method for smoking cessation” and that it is a “far safer alternative to smoking cigarettes.”
He also believes that the NSW Poisons and Therapeutic Goods (Poisons List) Proclamation 2016 should exclude nicotine from the Poisons List when it is used in the preparation of vaping and e-cigarette products.
In addition, he believes that the NSW Government should direct revenue generated by the legalisation and subsequent taxation of vaping to a new regional health fund, and support a domestic vaping manufacturing industry in New South Wales in order to ensure that vaping products are manufactured and sold at the highest possible safety standards.
Johnsen has launched a campaign called Vape The State that calls on the NSW Government to do all of the aforementioned. The campaign can be found online at www.vapethestate.com.au.
At this time, Australia is one of only two developed countries that have not yet legalized vaping. The other country is Turkey.
Currently, there are over three million smokers in Australia — over 21,000 of which die each year as a result of smoking-related illness.
Public Health England’s latest e-cigarette evidence review has found that smoking continues to be the leading cause of preventable death and disease, as well as health inequalities.
The review also found vaping to be around 95% less harmful than smoking.
The Ministry of Health of New Zealand has launched a “Vaping Facts” website that plainly states that vaping can help smokers quit and that it is less harmful than smoking.
Australian Senator Hollie Hughes, the Senate Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction chair who led the inquiry into vaping, has herself used vaping to quit smoking. She now believes that nicotine vaping products such as e-cigarettes should be regulated as consumer products and made as accessible as cigarettes are in Australia.
After quitting smoking with the help of vaping, Senator Hughes noted that she managed to save over AU$2,500 in just 97 days by vaping instead of smoking.
Hughes has gone on the record to state that she believes vaping to be “an incredibly powerful cessation tool” that is part of the discussion on reducing smoking rates in the country.
Last year, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt proposed a ban on personal imports of vaping products containing nicotine. It is through the personal importation scheme that Australians have been able to legally purchase vaping supplies that contain nicotine. Hunt’s proposal would have stripped this access, however, he quickly postponed the proposal before more recently scrapping it entirely in light of the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) final decision was issued requiring a prescription for nicotine vaping products beginning October 1, 2021.
At this time, Australians are able to continue importing their nicotine vaping supplies for personal use, which many continue to do.
Before the October start date of the new prescription-model, there is still a possibility that the Australian Government may once again reverse course or move in a new direction, such as choosing instead to regulate nicotine vaping products as consumer products and allowing them to be sold at local stores without a prescription in the same way that cigarettes are sold in the country.
Both Senator Hughes and National Senator Matt Canavan have warned that the prescription-model is impractical, citing a lack of general practitioners prescribing e-cigarettes. Of the 30,000 eligible GPs, only 14 are known to prescribe e-cigs.
Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson, who backed the prescription-model, has suggested that the TGA consider reviewing liquid nicotine’s classification and enabling it to be sold without a prescription in Australian pharmacies.
If one thing is clear at this time, it is that vaping’s future in Australia remains uncertain.
