AFTER HEALTH MINISTER BUTLER has repeatedly promised that he is “not going after" people who vape, especially young people”, a thirteen-year-old boy was arrested by NSW Police recently. The boy was with his mother in the NSW country town of……
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TODAY I HAD THE PLEASURE OF speaking with one of Australia's leading experts in tobacco control, Dr. Colin Mendelsohn. With over three decades of dedicated service in smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction, Dr. Mendelsohn's expertise is both rare and……
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THE HEALTH MINISTER typically refers to youth vaping as a crisis. You could be forgiven for thinking kids were dying in the streets and the sky was about to fall in. However, the data from the recent 2022/23 National Drug……
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AFTER YEARS OF STAGNATION, the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey has reported an accelerated decline in adult daily smoking, from 11% in 2019 to 8.3% in 2022/23. This 25% decline in smoking (6% per year) is twice as fast……
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ANTI-VAPING ACTIVISTS Becky Freeman and Simon Chapman claim that Australia does not officially ‘ban’ vaping because vapes are available on prescription. However, this semantic argument overlooks the practical realities faced by vapers every day. The essence of a ban is……
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SOURCING YOUR PREFERRED VAPES through pharmacies will be a nightmare under the new rules being introduced on 1 March 2024. Dr Carolyn Beaumont is an Australian GP and vape prescriber and she explains the new rules and the challenges vapers……
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IN THE LAND DOWN UNDER, a burgeoning illicit market for vaping products paints a stark portrait of failed prohibition. Australia’s stringent anti-vape stance has inadvertently but predictably nourished a thriving underground economy, with ramifications echoing the lessons of 20th-century drug……
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DURING A WEEK-LONG VISIT TO AUSTRALIA, Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH) has been engaging with Australian policymakers to develop a best-practice vaping regulatory framework. Smoking and vaping policies were very similar in Australia and New Zealand until 2020 when the……
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AUSTRALIAN GPS HAVE A LIMITED KNOWLEDGE about vaping and nicotine prescribing, are concerned about safety and effectiveness, have a poor understanding of the vaping regulations, and are reluctant to prescribe a product that is not approved by the medicines regulator,……
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NEW ZEALAND'S DECLINE IN SMOKING in the past four years is extraordinary - equivalent to what took two decades to achieve. New Zealand has recently had some of the most dramatic decreases in smoking in the world, including for Māori and……
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