Leading health experts urge lawmakers to reform vaping laws

Posted on July 18, 2023 By Colin

FORTY FIVE LEADING TOBACCO TREATMENT, public health and addiction experts from Australia and New Zealand are urging lawmakers to listen to the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ANACAD) ahead of Health Minister Mark Butler’s proposed vaping crackdown.

In a letter sent to all state, territory and federal members of parliament today, Tuesday 18 July 2023, the experts fully endorsed the Council’s concerns about the proposed regulations

The Council's concerns were revealed earlier this month in emails released under the Freedom of Information Act by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The emails can be found here.

None of the experts or Council members have any links with tobacco or e-cigarette companies.

The Advisory Council’s view is that:

Further bans will make the black market worse: “Further restrictions will likely only make the problem worse and we’ll end up criminalising more people.”
Sensible, balanced regulation is the way forward: “Sensibly balancing reduction of access and uptake among children and young people with increasing access for adults who want to stop smoking. Regulation that is too severe risks making smoking more attractive.”
Policy should be driven by evidence: “We should encourage the TGA to ensure an evidence based policy. We want to avoid making policy driven by unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence or selective interpretations of the data.”
Border control won’t work: “Border control efforts with other illicit drugs is hugely costly with, typically, very little impact on the black market and virtually no impact on use.”
All flavours should NOT be banned: “There is evidence that flavours that appeal to smokers encourage uptake of vaping instead of smoking among adults … Again, banning anything tends to increase the black market and possibly even experiments with home mixing of flavours.”
The ‘gateway’ theory of drug and alcohol use is flawed: “There’s no evidence that vaping results in young people who are not at risk of smoking tobacco to take up smoking.”

The startling advice from ANACAD has so far been ignored by the Health Minister. The proposal crackdown will see the importation and sale of all vaping products banned except from pharmacies with a doctor’s prescription.

Without change, the proposal will result in a further surge in the black market, continued access for young people to illicit, unregulated vapes and stagnant smoking rates. Leading tobacco control experts and ANACAD agree on this issue.

In a statement to the media, I said on behalf of the signatories,

“We need to recognise that overly restrictive policies will have counterproductive results. The current prescription-only model has been disastrous proof of this problem. Implementing more severe restrictions on vaping products will only spur the black market and reduce smoking quit rates.

We urge lawmakers to urgently step in and place a stop to the proposed crackdown and listen to the expert advice from tobacco control and addiction experts including ANACAD on this crucial issue.”

For more information about the ANACAD concerns, click here.

Signatories to the letter

Dr Colin Mendelsohn
Founding Chairman, Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, Sydney, Australia

Dr Alex Wodak AM
Emeritus Consultant, Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincents’ Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Professor Ron Borland FASSA
Professor of Psychology - Health Behaviour, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall AM, FAHMS, FASSA
National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

Co-signatories

Professor Amanda Baker
Adjunct Professor, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia

Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole
Chair, Action on Smoking and Health – Action for Smokefree 2025, Ellerslie, New Zealand

Dr Ruth Bonita
Emeritus Professor, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Dr Stephen Bright
Senior Lecturer (Addiction), Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia

Professor Peter Brooks AM
Hon Professor, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Victoria Australia

Professor Chris Bullen
Professor of Public Health, School of Population Health, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Professor David Castle
Consultant Psychiatrist, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Professor Kate Conigrave
Addiction Medicine Specialist, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; Conjoint Professor, Discipline of Addiction Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Dr Karen Counter
Tobacco Treatment Specialist, Port Macquarie, Australia

Professor Nick Crofts AM
Professorial Fellow, Nossal Institute, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia

Professor Ric Day AM
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, University of New South Wales & St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Professor Paul Dietze
Co-Program Director, Disease Elimination, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia

Professor Kate Dolan
Adjunct Professor, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Dr Robert Graham
Service Director and Staff Specialist, Drug Health Services, WSLHD, Sydney, Australia (not the view of employer, NSW Health)

Dr Richard Hallinan
Addiction Medicine Specialist, Sydney, Australia

Dr David Helliwell
Addiction Medicine Specialist, Northern NSW LHD, Lismore NSW, Australia

Dr David Jacka
Addiction Medicine Specialist, Monash Health, Melbourne, Australia

Adjunct Associate Professor Michael Keane
Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University;
Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, Monash University, Melbourne Australia

Dr Joe Kosterich
Chairman, Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, Sydney, Australia

Associate Professor George Laking
Director, Centre for Cancer Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Professor Nicholas Lintzeris
Conjoint Professor, Specialty Addiction Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Dr Annie Madden AO
Executive Director, Harm Reduction Australia, Sydney, Australia

Professor Lisa Maher AM FAHMS FASSA
Professor and Program Head, Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia

Associate Professor Richard Matthews
Former Deputy Director-General, Strategic Development, NSW Health; former CEO NSW Justice Health; Sydney, Australia

Dr Kristen McCarter
Lecturer & Clinical Psychologist, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

Associate Professor Mike McDonough
Addiction Medicine Specialist, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Dr David Outridge
A/Head of Drug and Alcohol Department, Central Coast Local Health District, Lake Haven, Australia

Ms Fiona Patten
Former Victorian MP, Carlton North, Victoria, Australia

Mr Garth Popple
Executive Director, We Help Ourselves (WHOS), Director of WHOS International, Sydney, Australia

Evert Rauwendaal
Alcohol and Other Drug Counsellor, St Vincents’ Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Scientia Professor Alison Ritter AO FASSA
Director Drug Policy Modelling Program, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Dr Craig Rodgers
Senior Staff Specialist, Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincents’ Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Dr Fares Samara
Addiction Medicine Specialist, Port Macquarie, Australia

Dr Catherine Silsbury
Addiction Medicine Specialist, Mid-North Coast Local Health District, NSW, Australia

Dr Penelope Truman
Senior Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Dr Ingrid van Beek AM
Conjoint Professor, the Kirby Institute, UNSW; Addiction Medicine Specialist, Sydney, Australia

Gino Vumbaca OAM
President, Harm Reduction Australia, Australia

Hon Dr Brian Walker MLC
General Practitioner; Parliamentary Leader of Legalise Cannabis WA, Parliament House Perth, Australia

Associate Professor Natalie Walker
Associate Professor in Population Health and Associate Director, Centre for Addiction Research, National Institute for Health Innovation, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Professor Ian Webster AO FRSN
Physician, Emeritus Professor of Community Medicine and Public Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Ben Youdan
Director, Action on Smoking and Health, New Zealand