Pharmacy Daily | Black market crackdown

IN THE most significant tobacco and vaping control measures in the country in a decade, the Australian govt will ban the import of nonprescription vaping products, including those that do not contain nicotine.

All single-use, disposable vapes will also be banned.

Prescriptions for nicotine vaping products for smokers trying to quit tobacco will be made easier to obtain, with stronger standards around the vaping products that can be bought in pharmacies so people can be assured of the content of the products.

Speaking on ABC's Q&A on Monday night, the Health Minister, Mark Butler, said that the tobacco industry was trying to create a "new generation of nicotine addicts" through vaping and that he was "determined to stamp out this public health menace".

To tackle youth vaping, minimum quality standards for vapes will be introduced including restricting flavours, colours and other ingredients.

Vape products will require pharmaceutical-like packaging, and the allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes will be reduced.

Butler will expand on the reforms in a speech to the National Press Club today, where he is expected to say vaping has become "the biggest loophole in Australian history", and announce that next Tuesday's federal budget will include $234m in funding for tobacco and vaping reforms - the biggest since plain packaging of tobacco products was introduced.

"Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit," an excerpt from Butler's speech said.

"It was not sold as a recreational product, especially not one for our kids.

"But that is what it has become, the biggest loophole in Australian history."

The funding includes $63m for an evidence-based public health information campaign, $30m invested in support programs to help Australians quit, and education and training in smoking and nicotine cessation among health practitioners to be strengthened.

A further $140m will be allocated to the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, which will be extended and also widened to reduce vaping among First Nations people.

The Public Health Association of Australia welcomes the comprehensive action plan on vaping and tobacco with CEO Adj Prof Terry Slevin noting that "the widespread, aggressive marketing of vaping products, particularly to children, is a worldwide scourge.

"For smokers who are legitimately trying to quit using vapes, the prescription model pathway is and should be in place.

"But that should not be at the cost of creating a new generation of nicotine addicts among children and young people."