Australian expert: Strict regulation of the adult consumer market is the only way to eliminate the black market in e-cigarettes
The black market is everywhere, and low-quality disposable e-cigarettes are openly sold to young people nationwide.
Dr. Colin Mendelssohn, a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Australian Smoking cessation Guidelines and founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, analyzed the possibility that Australia can still solve the current e-cigarette crisis.
The following is the full text:
Take a step back and think about it.
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Two years ago, electronic cigarettes were on the edge of our collective consciousness - a less harmful product used to help smokers quit smoking.
In just 24 months, we have reached a point where headlines about the abuse of e-cigarettes appear on the front page of our newspaper every day.
Electronic cigarettes have been regarded as a curse to society.
Electronic cigarettes are no longer discussed as the potential to save lives for smokers, but rather as a product that attracts a new generation of nicotine.
What changes have occurred?
As early as 2020, the previous government announced new restrictions on e-cigarettes. Smokers now need to obtain a nicotine prescription from a doctor to legally switch to e-cigarettes.
These changes occurred during Australia's largest health crisis and a severe shortage of doctors.
Few doctors are willing to prescribe nicotine, few pharmacists are willing to dispense medication, and consumers and overwhelmed medical insurance bear unnecessary additional costs.
At that time, I said that these changes were very dangerous and would seriously hinder adult smokers' attempts to quit smoking, forming a predatory black market.
Now, we have seen the result of one of the biggest public health policy failures of the past decade.
The black market is everywhere, and low-quality disposable e-cigarettes are openly sold to young people nationwide.
Electronic cigarettes are rampant in our school. And the people who need to quit smoking the most are left behind by the government that should have supported them.
The new government in 2022 saw a great opportunity to ultimately implement a gradual tobacco reduction policy and support nearly 3 million smokers and 2 million adult e-cigarette users.
Unfortunately, the federal government has become a victim of sensational misinformation and ruled out incremental changes that can solve the problems currently prevalent in our country.
In the days that are about to pass in 2022, they announced negotiations with the Treatment Products Administration (TGA) and proposed misguided reforms that they said would solve the black market problem and provide convenience for smokers who want to quit smoking.
On the contrary, as more and more adult smokers and quitters are forced into a dangerous black market, stimulating the power of the black market and putting more young people at risk, the reforms proposed by the TGA will cause further harm to public health.
Without disclosing its recommendations, TGA is currently collaborating with the federal government to provide recommendations for these potential reforms.
It should be clarified that a strictly regulated adult consumer market is the only way to eliminate the black market.
Any other regulatory method will fail.
Despite TGA's recommendations, effective nicotine e-cigarette policies have made positive progress at both the federal and state levels.
The National Party is placing its power behind a wise consumer model.
This is an important step and a firm commitment to evidence-based reforms that will work.
In New South Wales, the Green Party announced an election promise to regulate nicotine e-cigarettes as consumer goods.
The Tasmanian Green Party also expressed support. The progressive harm reduction philosophy of the New South Wales Labour Party is expected to lead to equally effective reforms.
We are also undergoing an investigation into electronic cigarette regulations by the Queensland and Northern Territory Councils.
In areas where TGA negotiations have failed, it is hoped that Queensland and Northern Territory can introduce evidence-based reforms.
At present, the issue of how to regulate these products has become an emotional one.
Emotions and policies will never go hand in hand.
Public policy should be based on evidence.
In fact, we know that the harm of electronic cigarettes is 95% lower than that of smoking.
We know that in fact, it is the most effective and popular smoking cessation help. We know that prohibition policies always lead to dangerous black markets.
With the correct regulations, adult smokers and quitters will obtain these products from safe and regulated markets and take strict protective measures to prevent teenagers from entering.
We are at a turning point.
The TGA and the federal health department stubbornly pursue policy goals, but these goals will only fail.
But there is still hope. Some of our legislators have finally begun to push for effective reforms.
The decisions they are making now will either cause an increasingly serious public health disaster, or turn the current electronic cigarette regulations into a gradually disappearing black spot in China's history.
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