Tag: Australia

Australia: Increase in Vapor Taxes Boost Black Market

Credit: Yehuda
When Australia’s government opted to increase taxes on tobacco to curb smoking, Deakin University senior criminology lecturer James Martin predicted it would trigger a mammoth black market.
In 2013, tobacco taxes increased by 12.5 percent and continued to increase each year, according to ABC News.
“The purpose behind that was there’s good evidence from around the world that increasing tobacco prices is a really good way to get people to quit,” Martin said.
“It’s been quite effective in that. But we’re starting to encounter problems with this policy.”
Martin said that increased tobacco taxes had fast-tracked the uptake of vaping in Australia while the black market tobacco industry had boomed.
Black market vendors could sell tobacco for about half the price of regulated markets and had begun to include nicotine vapes in their offerings.
Martin said this was a consequence of supply and demand.
“If you’re a smoker who has been priced out of having access to legal cigarettes, you still want to consume that nicotine,” he said.
“You can either steal cigarettes, or you can access the black market to cigarettes, or you can access the black market for vaping.”
April 24, 2023
Temple CBD Maker Under Investigation in Australia
Credit : Ethically Enhanced
A company accused of advertising brightly packaged, Hubba Bubba-flavoured cannabis vape products to Australians through sponsored TikTok posts and selling them without checking for ID or requiring a prescription is being investigated by the country’s drugs regulator.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) confirmed it is investigating the content and owners of the Ethically Enhanced website, which sells vapes containing cannabidiol (CBD) under the name Temple CBD Australia. A TGA spokesperson said the regulator will now “determine the most appropriate regulatory action,” reports The Guardian.
The confectionery giant Mars, which makes Hubba Bubba chewing gum, confirmed it was also “considering legal action” against the company.
Temple CBD’s targeted “sponsored posts” were active on TikTok for at least a week, despite Australia not allowing medicinal cannabis products to be advertised to the public.
After being contacted about the advertisements, TikTok banned the account for breaching its policies, but said it was the “responsibility of the advertiser to ensure that all ads posted on TikTok are legally compliant, in accordance with our advertising policy and appropriate for our community.”
April 16, 2023
Queensland Lawmakers to Inquire About Vape Safety
Credit: FellowNeko
The Queensland Parliament will hold an inquiry into the health risks, use, and prevalence of e-cigarettes, amid concerns that some vaping products marketed as “nicotine free” contain the addictive chemical.
Queensland laws allow the sale of nicotine-free vaping devices in tobacco shops. E-cigarettes containing nicotine are only available with a prescription, according to The Guardian.
But the state health minister, Yvette D’Ath, said on Sunday that “we know” that some products sold off the shelf in Queensland contain nicotine and other chemicals like nail polish remover.
She offered no evidence of or support for the claim.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the inquiry would examine measures to discourage children from vaping.
“Critically, we need to have greater knowledge about what vaping devices contain,” Palaszczuk said.
The parliament’s Health and Environment Committee will carry out the inquiry.
March 13, 2023
Australia Legalizes Medical Psilocybin and MDMA

Credit: 24K Production
The Australian government has rescheduled the psychedelics psilocybin and MDMA to provide access to people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treat-resistant depression.
The substances aren’t being legalized for broad use, but by placing them in Schedule 8 for therapeutic use under the country’s drug code, psychiatrists who meet the required standards will be able to prescribe the psychedelics. The drugs will remain in the stricter Schedule 9 for unauthorized use.
“The decision acknowledges the current lack of options for patients with specific treatment-resistant mental illnesses,” Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said in a notice on Friday, reports Marijuana Moment.
The new rules mean that psilocybin and MDMA can be used therapeutically in a controlled medical setting starting on July 1, according to TGA. However, patients may be vulnerable during psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, requiring controls to protect these patients.
The decision follows applications made to the TGA to reclassify the substances in the Poisons Standard, extensive public consultation, a report from an expert panel, and advice received from the Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling.
There are currently no approved products containing psilocybin or MDMA that the TGA has evaluated for quality, safety and efficacy. However, this amendment will allow authorized psychiatrists to access and legally supply a specified “unapproved medicine containing these substances to patients under their care for these specific uses.”
February 6, 2023
Australia to Weigh Tougher Shipping, Packaging Rules
Credit: Ymgerman
Australia’s government says it will consider key changes including tightening importation rules and toughing up labelling laws for e-cigarettes in an effort to prevent youth use.
Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), will begin public consultation in four areas:
changes to importation and border control laws required to stop illegal products entering Australia;
pre-market assessments of vapes to create a regulated source of products for pharmacists and doctors to prescribe;
labelling, advertising and flavoring of vapes that make them attractive to children;
and stronger identification and regulation of nicotine-containing products.
Additionally, Health Minister Mark Butler announced menthol cigarettes will be banned, along with other cigarette flavors and additives, according to media reports.
The public consultation on vaping reforms will be open until Jan. 16. Butler will meet that same month with state and territory health ministers to discuss how a response to vaping can be coordinated nationally.
New graphic warnings for tobacco will be created, Butler said, and for the first time the government will look at requiring warnings like “smoking kills” on every individual cigarette, and changing the colors of cigarettes to be more unappealing.
He said the appealing names of products will also be tackled, health promotion inserts will be put into every cigarette packet and advertising regulations will be updated to include vaping products.
Tobacco control expert and member of the Australian Council On Smoking and Health, Maurice Swanson, said Butler had contributed to a “major step forward for public health and tobacco control in Australia”. But on vaping, he said Butler must “urgently” make the importation of all e-cigarettes prohibited, regardless of whether they contained nicotine.
“This regulation will empower Border Force to seize all e-cigs unless they are accompanied by a doctor’s prescription required by the TGA regulations,” he said.
November 30, 2022
Calls for Australia to Adopt Plain Package for Vapes

Credit: Von ifeelstock
Anti-vape advocates are calling for e-cigarette packaging to be under the same rules as tobacco packing, including warnings that include the dangers involved with using the product.
In December 2012, Australia became the first country to require tobacco companies to sell their products in drab olive-brown boxes stripped of branding but featuring large pictures of smoking-related diseases.
Tobacco companies challenged the move in various courts, saying it not only breached trademark laws and intellectual property rights but would also boost black market sales. Libertarians characterized plain packaging as a “nanny state” measure.
Now, 20 countries, including the U.K., Turkey, France, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine, have brought in their own versions of plain packaging legislation.
Mal Washer, told 6PR Mornings that what worked best in the past was by making smoking anti-social.
“You looked like a half wit if you smoked, and that did more than any medical advice as people tend to ignore that but vaping has now become a big problem,”
“The biggest thing in my opinion is making vaping anti-social and to make people realize this product is dangerous.”
November 21, 2022
Video: TGA Boss Admits Issues With Australian Rule
The head of the Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has acknowledged shortcomings in the country’s vaping regulations, according to tobacco harm reduction activist Colin Mendelsohn.
Writing on his website, Mendelsohn says TGA boss John Skerrit “has finally admitted the disastrous and predictable failure of Australia’s vaping regulations,” which among other things require vapers to obtain a doctor’s prescription to buy nicotine-containing e-cigarettes
During questioning in Australia’s Senate, Skerrit acknowledged not only that there has been a dramatic increase in youth vaping, but also that large numbers of low-quality products are entering the country and are being sold on the black market, according to Mendelsohn.
In addition, Skerrit noted that only 1,353 out of 130,000 registered doctors have applied to be authorized e-cigarette prescribers and less than 10 percent of adult vapers have a prescription for nicotine.
According to Mendelsohn, Skerritt had previously promised a review of the regulations, which were introduced on Oct. 1, 2021, at three, six and 12 months. Instead, he wrote, the TGA and government had a secret meeting of unnamed vaping experts.
Mendelsohn said it is likely that further restrictions and enforcement will be recommended by “the experts” to double down on their de facto prohibition. “This will only lead to greatly reduced legal vaping and more deaths from smoking,” he wrote.
November 18, 2022
Mendelsohn: Prescription-Only Vaping Policy Has Failed

Photo: makistock
Australia’s prescription-only model for nicotine vaping has failed, according to Colin Mendelsohn, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association. Writing in Filter, he urges the country to adopt a more realistic regulatory model for nicotine products.
In October 2021, the Australian government introduced a policy that requires nicotine vapers get a doctor’s prescription and purchase supplies exclusively from pharmacies or international online vendors.
The regulations were intended to prevent youth vaping and to allow access for adults as a smoking-cessation aid. One year on, the policy has achieved neither of those goals, according to a report prepared by Mendelsohn.
Instead, the rules have created a thriving illicit market for unregulated vaping products that do not comply with Australian standards. Meanwhile, vaping by adolescents has reportedly increased in Australia. With no age controls in an unregulated market, vaping products are easily accessible by teens from stores and through social media.

Nicotine liquid should be an adult consumer product, sold from licensed retail outlets such as vape shops, convenience stores, tobacconists and general stores as it is in other countries.
Colin Mendelsohn, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association
While the prescription model has made it harder for adults legally access nicotine vapes, combustible cigarettes remain widely available.
According to two recent surveys, between 88 to 97 percent of vapers do not have a prescription and only 2 percent of purchases are made from a pharmacy. Exposed to frequent negative messaging by Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, general practitioners have been reluctant to prescribe nicotine.
The only way forward, according to Mendelsohn, is to replace the prescription-only model with a legal and regulated retail market. “Nicotine liquid should be an adult consumer product, sold from licensed retail outlets such as vape shops, convenience stores, tobacconists and general stores as it is in other countries,” he writes. “There should be strict age verification and penalties up to loss of license for underage sales.”
October 3, 2022
PMI Ends Controversial Cash-for-Vapes Program

Photo: PMI
Philip Morris International has paused a program that would have paid Australian pharmacists AUD275 ($190.24) when ordering Veev vapes, according toThe Guardian.
The scheme, first reported by News Corp, would have seen pharmacists receive AUD5 every time they dispense a new VEEV script, AUD10 for educating a new patient about the device, and AUD5 for referring patients to a doctor to obtain a prescription. Pharmacists would also receive a AUD275 payment for placing an initial stock order.
Nicotine-containing vapor products are available only with a doctor’s prescription in Australia.
The cash-for-vapes program caused an uproar among public health advocates.
Emily Banks, a professor at Australian National University National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, said the tobacco industry wanted to piggyback off the trust Australians place in the healthcare system.
“Big tobacco wants a piece of that—they want some of the trust to rub off. It’s beyond appalling.”
“Big tobacco’s attempt at financial kickbacks shows absolute contempt for pharmacists,” said a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. “Multinational tobacco companies have no place in health care.”
In a statement, PMI defended the program, saying since 2021 nicotine vaping products had been available in Australian pharmacies as a prescription-only medicine for smoking cessation.
“Several manufacturers, including PMI, have been providing nicotine vaping products to Australian pharmacies via the stringent regulatory regime. Industry data indicates that across multiple manufacturers products are now available in over 2,000 pharmacies nationwide,” the statement said.
August 6, 2022
Activists Outraged Over Australian Vaping Policy

Photo: pixarno
Tobacco harm reduction activists are outraged over a new Australian government document on vaping.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recently published its 2022 CEO Statement on Electronic Cigarettes, which provides guidance to public health policymakers.
According to the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), the document falsely claims that vaping is not an effective quit-smoking tool, but a gateway to smoking with most vapers becoming dual users. Vaping, the document states, also increases the risk of smoking relapse. The NHMRC exaggerates the health impacts, poisoning and explosion risks of e-cigarettes, according to CAPHRA, while references to toxins and potential harms are made without a fair comparison to smoking.
“This latest government document on vaping makes outrageously false claims and will only cost more Australian smokers their lives,” says Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of CAPHRA.
“Ridiculously, Australia’s chief medical officer considers vaping the next biggest health issue after COVID-19. Has he ever heard of smoking which kills over 20,000 Australians every year? This 18-page document is a complete joke. It is full of statements that can be easily debunked by international science and human evidence the world over,” says Loucas.

This egregious document is not worth the paper it’s written on, yet it’s now the bible for public health guidance in and around Australia.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA
CAPHRA says Australia’s hardline anti-vaping approach is increasingly out of step with other Asia Pacific countries, with the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand set to lift their vaping bans. What’s more, New Zealand, across the Tasman, is already operating under a regulatory framework that has seen smoking rates decline.
“This egregious document is not worth the paper it’s written on, yet it’s now the bible for public health guidance in and around Australia,” says Loucas.
It is illegal to sell, supply or possess nicotine vaping products, with Australia the only Western democracy that requires a nicotine prescription to vape. Alarmingly, 2.3 million Australians continue to smoke cigarettes.
Last year Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration expanded its prescription-only model with customs clamping down at the border on the likes of personal imports of nicotine vaping liquids from overseas websites.
July 1, 2022