Said Butler, “It was not sold as a recreational product, and in particular, not one for our kids.” Reporting in the Melbourne Herald Sun, Jack Evans writes that Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler “emphasized that vaping was initially marketed globally as a therapeutic aid to assist long‐term smokers in quitting but had transformed into a recreational product.” Policymakers are disturbed because many people vape for pleasure rather than for quitting tobacco. Ironically, unlike policymakers in places like San Francisco and New York State, the Australian government recognizes e‑cigarettes as an excellent harm reduction tool. One innovative video borrows from the film The Wolf of Wall Street, with a gif of Leonardo DiCaprio shouting, “I’m not f***ing leaving!” in response to a caption that states, “When customers ask if we’re gonna stop selling due to the new vape laws…” Some have made creative online videos critical of the impending ban, frequently on Tik Tok. Many have made it clear that they are preparing to take the trade underground. The Australian press reports that wholesale vaping suppliers are urging customers, in social media posts and advertisements, to stock up before the ban goes into effect, warning that prices are likely to increase in response to a surge in demand. The government will also require makers of all legal vaping products to make their packages resemble other prescription products, and it will reduce the colors, flavors, volumes, and nicotine content of prescription e‑cigarettes. The Australian parliament is about to pass a ban on importing all non‐prescription vaping products, including those that don’t contain nicotine. So now the Australian government will double down on its war on vaping. Though e‑cigarettes are now only legal with a prescription in Australia, an essentially illegal and unregulated market has flourished nationwide in tobacco and vape shops.
Perhaps this is due to an irrational, zero‐tolerance stance toward any activity, such as vaping, that resembles tobacco smoking. It makes even less sense when substances of equal or greater addictive potential are legally available without a prescription. It makes no sense to require medical permission slips for consenting adults to ingest nicotine via e‑cigarettes when doing so through combustible tobacco requires no such official nod. Writing in the Australian journal The Quadrant a year and a half ago, I criticized the Australian government’s plan to prohibit residents from purchasing e‑cigarettes without first getting a state‐licensed health care practitioner’s permission slip (aka, a prescription).
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