Overwhelming Vaper Opinion In Oz
Vapers and advocates share an overwhelming opinion that the prescription model for vaping in 2021 is deeply flawed
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by Dave Cross
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The anti-vape Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) might make it “legal” to buy and use vaping products, but the truth is that most won’t bother to go through the laborious process – which is probably what the government wanted all along.
Instead of nicotine-contained juices being legal to import like in the UK, it is going to be available as a “prescription-only medicine” and will be classified as a “dangerous poison”.
The TGA said: “'The interim decision clarifies that nicotine for all human use is a prescription-only medicine and that possession without a script is not permitted. The delegate considered restricting access in accordance with a prescription is necessary to address the recent increase in uptake of use of e-cigarettes containing nicotine by young adults.”
The push is all thanks to wonderful people like Professor Emily Banks. She told the Guardian: “In some places smoking is common and in Australia, it is much more uncommon, and we are now at the point where 97% of teenagers have never smoked. We don’t want to jeopardise that incredibly strong position Australia is in by introducing something that might increase the probability that they might smoke, and pick up a very deadly habit.” [link]
It comes on the back of a highly selective study that surprisingly proved exactly what the ideologues wanted to show, that vaping is somehow a gateway to smoking for teens – at odds with everything we see in the United Kingdom.
The new rules will require a vaper or smoker hoping to quit to:
- Book a GP appointment
- Visit a GP to fill in an online form seeking approval from the TGA for Special Access Scheme B
- Wait for the GP to send form off
- Wait for approval from the TGA
- Book another GP appointment
- Visit the GP for a second time to obtain the approved form
- Take the form to a pharmacy
- The pharmacy Places an order for nicotine from a wholesaler
- Wait
- Second visit to a pharmacy to collect the nicotine
Meanwhile, someone can walk into any store and buy a packet of cigarettes.
Paul Grogan and Emily Banks are fooling themselves when they write in their latest paper: “Tobacco control in Australia is a great success story but it is far from over.” [link]
Advocacy group Legalise Vaping Australia has conducted a study that finds the stark reality of this madness: “42% will go back to the smokes if the 1 January 2020 vaping ban goes ahead.”
The largest ever survey of Australian vapers covered 6,733 nicotine users. These people aren’t “ill”, they do not need “medicine” on prescription.
Worryingly, 37% said they would source their vapers from the black market where there are no regulations over quality or safety of ingredients. The finding that just under 7% of vapers support the proposed prescription model will leave a number of jaws on the floor.
Legalise Vaping Australia Campaign Director Brian Marlow said the survey results were the clearest indication yet that vaping needed to be legalised in Australia with appropriate standards.
“Ex-smokers should not need to choose between vaping and going back to the smokes, we need to legalise vaping to ensure vapers can access regulated products in Australia when they need it,” he said.
“Vapers now form a powerful voting block, it is simply not good enough to send them back to the smokes should the vaping ban go ahead. MPs need to listen and do the right thing when it comes to reducing tobacco-related harm, by the legalisation vaping.”
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Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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