Australia yesterday announced a sweeping crackdown on vaping, accusing tobacco companies of hooking the next “generation of nicotine addicts” by deliberately targeting teenagers.
Billed as the country’s largest anti-smoking reforms in a decade, Australia is to ban single-use disposable vapes, halt imports of non-prescription versions and place restrictions on how much nicotine e-cigarettes contain.
Australia has long been at the vanguard of attempts to stamp out smoking. In 2012, it became the first country to introduce “plain packaging” laws for cigarettes — a policy since copied by France, Britain and others.
Photo: AP
However, in the past few years, Australia has struggled to contain the explosion in recreational vaping, particularly among teenagers.
“Vaping has become the No. 1 behavioral issue in high schools. And it’s becoming widespread in primary [elementary] schools,” Australian Minister for Health Mark Butler said.
“Just like they did with smoking, ‘Big Tobacco’ has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added flavors to create a new generation of nicotine addicts,” Butler said.
People will still be allowed to use vapes, with a prescription, as a tool to help them quit cigarettes.
“Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit,” Butler said. “It was not sold as a recreational product — especially not one for our kids.”
Butler also announced that Australia would hike taxes on tobacco sales by 5 percent each year over the next three years.
Heavy taxes on tobacco mean Australia already has some of the most expensive cigarettes in the world, with a pack of 25 selling for about A$50 (US$33).
In theory, it is already illegal to buy nicotine e-cigarettes in Australia without a prescription, but in practice, they are widely available in small convenience stores — a flourishing black market that the government has struggled to contain.
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