Extract from ABC News
The availability of vapes for young people will still be massively curbed when a sales ban begins next week, despite the federal government weakening the proposed laws to win the Greens onside, public health experts say.
The federal government is expected to pass a bill this week that will restrict the sale of vapes to pharmacies, with products limited to regulated, plain-packaged nicotine vapes with menthol or tobacco flavouring.
But it has dropped its original plan to restrict sales only to people with a prescription obtained through a GP, agreeing with the Greens to allow any adult to purchase vapes from pharmacists from October, without the need for a prescription.
Those under 18 will only be able to purchase a vape with a prescription.
And it will spell the end of dedicated vaping retailers that have spread through the suburbs to sell flavoured products particularly popular with young people.
But the deal has prompted fury from the Pharmacists Guild, who say pharmacies should not be the point of sale for an item that is not a health product.
Becky Freeman, a leading authority on smoking, says the weakened legislation is "disappointing", but it will still help prevent youth vaping.
"I'm disappointed that we haven't got the law going ahead that the public health sector was largely supportive of, where we would see that vapes would only be available by prescription in a pharmacy.
"The original bill was based on best evidence that we needed to end the easy access to vaping products, and that was what was really driving the rise in youth vaping.
"I'm really pleased to see now that your average 14-year-old when they're walking down the street to school isn't going to pass six vape shops selling cheap, disposable, flavoured, high-concentration nicotine vapes. That's a positive thing."
The upsurge of vaping among young people has caused alarm among government and public health officials, with a 2023 survey finding one in six high school students had used a vape in the past month and the first increase in teen smoking since the 1990s.
Ban closes 'sales loophole'
In January the federal government banned the import of single-use disposable vapes, and in March banned the import of any non-therapeutic nicotine vapes, but a so-called "sales loophole" has remained.
While people have always required a prescription to legally obtain nicotine vapes, purportedly nicotine-free flavoured vapes have still been allowed for sale — with the only way to determine whether they contain nicotine being through laboratory tests.
"Essentially what all these shops have been doing, why we have seen such a proliferation of vape shops ... is that they just lie. They say they're selling non-nicotine and they're actually selling nicotine-containing devices," Professor Freeman said.
Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson said while the laws would not be as strong as they had hoped, "it's still very, very likely it will achieve the same".
"We really have to congratulate the government and the Greens for being able to negotiate something that respects the health of young Australians but still is able to pass through the parliament," Dr Robson said.
"We think there is [still] sufficient guardrails in place to make this extremely world-leading, extremely valuable legislation. Of course, we'll need to make sure compliance is something that is looked at very carefully."
The Pharmacy Guild however has argued that there is little evidence to show that vapes help people to quit smoking or nicotine dependence, and should not be handed to pharmacies to manage.
Professor Freeman agreed that vapes were not the most effective "first port of call" to help smokers quit.
"The evidence is actually pretty disappointing. So even in our best clinical trials, highly controlled studies where people get lots of support ... only about 13 per cent of people who use vapes to quit smoking are successful," Professor Freeman said.
"It is disappointing that it is now going to be an over-the-counter medicine, but the alternative — as some in the pro-vaping crowd and retailers who were going to benefit have been arguing — that vapes should be sold like tobacco products, obviously this is a much better alternative to that.
"This is still world-first legislation, that is something to be proud of."
A spokesperson for the guild said it was insulting that pharmacies were being made into a "vape retailer" and "vape garbage collector".
"The Senate is about to make a bad decision. We urge the Senate to change course," the peak body said.
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