THE Australian Border Force intercepting some 35 tonnes of vaping products, all suspected to largely contain nicotine, has raised the ire of Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, who said on ABC Radio yesterday that the Govt is prepared to introduce some of the toughest laws in the world.
"I was down there with the Border Force Commissioner; [it was] demonstrated so clearly that these are not packaged and sold for middle-aged, hardened smokers of my age.
"These have pink unicorns on them, they're bubble gum flavoured, they're pink, they're made to look like highlighter pens and USB sticks so kids can hide them in their pencil cases.
"These are so obviously and deliberately targeted at young people to recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction, it's not funny.
"It seriously is not funny, this is the number one behavioural issue in school communities around the country.
"As you say, it's just driving people crazy, it's driving parents crazy."
Butler stressed that the only way to legally get a vape will be through a pharmacy on a prescription from a doctor or a nurse practitioner.
"The vapes won't be able to have flavours, they'll have prescribed levels of nicotine with very clear regulations by the TGA," he added.
"We're going to put in place an import regulation by the end of this year that bans the import of all disposable vapes and all other vapes that don't comply with the standards."
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