Tag: Australia

  • Queensland Cracks Down on Illicit Trade

    The Queensland government is intensifying efforts to combat the illegal trade of tobacco and vapes, which it claims is being exploited by criminal gangs. Health Minister Tim Nicholls revealed that 350-400 stores, including repeat offenders, are under surveillance, with recent raids seizing millions of illicit cigarettes, tons of loose tobacco, and tens of thousands of illegal vapes. Nicholls emphasized the need for stricter financial penalties, arguing that current fines, capped at $3,200 for individuals and $10,000 for corporations, are insufficient to deter the lucrative trade. Discussions are underway with the attorney-general to introduce harsher penalties.

    Meanwhile, the government faces mounting pressure to release the delayed Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Review (MYFER). Labor’s Shannon Fentiman criticized the delay, suggesting the government is buying time to address fiscal mismanagement and accusing the LNP of stalling after their October election victory. Nicholls defended the postponement, citing efforts to uncover past Labor overspending and ensure an accurate portrayal of state finances. He dismissed opposition criticism as desperation, maintaining that the government is prioritizing transparency and accountability in its economic reporting.

  • Australia’s New Vape Rules Take Effect

    Australia’s New Vape Rules Take Effect

    Image: alexlmx

    Australia’s new vape rules take effect today.

    As of Oct. 1, 2024, people aged 18 years and older can buy vapes from participating pharmacies with a nicotine concentration of 20 mg per milliliter or less without a prescription, where states and territory laws allow, according to the website of the Australian government’s Department of Health and Aged Care.

    Prior to purchasing, consumers must speak with a pharmacist, discussing the product and dosage, along with other options to quit smoking and/or manage nicotine dependence. Consumers must also provide proof of age.

    Pharmacies may sell only one month’s supply to a given customer over the course of one month.

    People under 18 years need a prescription to access vapes, where state and territory laws allow, to ensure they get appropriate medical advice and supervision.

    People who need vapes with a higher concentration of nicotine than 20 mg per milliliter also need a prescription, regardless of their age.

    Flavors are restricted to mint, menthol and tobacco, and vapes must adhere to plain pharmaceutical packaging standards. 

    The law targets commercial and criminal supply of vapes. Individuals, including people under 18 years, who have a small amount of vapes/vaping products for personal use will not be targeted under the law.

  • The View From Down Under

    The View From Down Under

    Sometimes it seems that vaping regulations in Australia are more changeable than the weather.
    (Photos: George Gay)

    Impressions from Australia, one of the world’s most hostile countries for the nicotine business.

    By George Gay

    It is my belief that luggage is evolving at a faster rate than the travelers who use it. At least this was the main observation I made while people-watching at the end of May as I waited to complete the formalities necessary before I could board my flights from Britain to Australia via Singapore. Luggage, seemingly to suit every conceivable travel need, was being carried, dragged, rolled and even ridden by travelers, most of whom it was difficult to imagine fulfilling any need. Frankly, these travelers looked devoid of agency as they moved robotically, heads lowered, slavishly submitting to the instructions being delivered by the cell phones they wrongly believed were acting in their service.

    There was a time when it was said that people came weighed down with baggage of one sort or another, but now, it seems, luggage comes lumbered with human baggage. But for how much longer I wonder? Surely it would be more humane to cut out the middleman and woman and let the luggage, suitably AI enchanced, go traveling on its own, relaying its tourist or business experiences back to its owners safely ensconced at home. Given an AI uplift, luggage could certainly negotiate better than humans the automated bag-drop formalities at London airport and the immigration computers in Sydney. After all, it would be interacting with its own kind in a way that humans no longer do.

    Why do people travel to other countries? Is it, as I have sometimes heard, “to broaden the mind?” Perhaps this was once true, but it is looking increasingly threadbare as a reason or excuse. Nowadays, with high-speed travel the norm, flying is more likely to cause jetlag, damaging the brain and draining the mind of memory, and, in any case, all the information you need to know about far-away places is available to you while sitting at the kitchen table with a computer and a cup of coffee.

    But perhaps, as I have also heard, people travel “to get away from it all?” Well, I’ve got news for the people who think that way. Globalization and modern communications have conspired to make it impossible to get away from it all, except for the weather, if that is what you mean by “it all.” These days, people are incapable of getting away and enjoying new vistas because they are trapped within the horizons set by their phones or limited by their mental baggage.

    Once in Australia, I did try to get away from it all by reading various newspapers, but, after a while, I found myself buying each day the same paper, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), whose world view seemed to be aligned with the newspaper I read in the U.K., The Guardian. It was comforting, too, that the letter writers to the SMH seemed to share the same, generally caring attitudes exhibited daily in the pages of The Guardian.

    And soon I realized that not only was I reading a paper with similar views but also that the news itself was little different to what I had thought I had left behind. There were reports of housing shortages, debates about immigration and concerns about energy provision and the climate crisis and about a cost-of-living crisis that meant less money was being donated to charities. Violence against women was in the news as was a lack of care facilities for the elderly, waiting times for medical treatment, a lack of some prescription drugs, increasing cases of whooping cough, a rising need for food banks, infrastructure cost overruns and bird flu. I had left a relatively rich country where child poverty levels were scandalously high and arrived in another relatively rich country to be greeted by an advertisement for The Smith Family’s Winter Appeal in which it was stated that one in six Australian children lived with poverty.

    But it wasn’t all the same. I couldn’t help noticing, for instance, that whereas magpies in the U.K. mostly issue harsh, scolding cries, in Australia, they are more melodious. Perhaps the incidence of passive smoking among magpies is higher in the U.K., a more crowded country than Australia.

    At Singapore airport (left) there are comfortable smoking areas in the terminal, but, at Sydney, smokers and vapers are out in the cold and dark.

    Confused and Conflicted

    Australia and the U.K. have different approaches to tobacco smoking and trying to ensure the safety and health of their citizens more generally, but both approaches, in my opinion, are often confused and conflicted. Australia seems to be trying to take a comprehensive view when warning of the dangers of certain activities, so, for instance, televised public health announcements call on Australians to beat cravings, one at a time. But such announcements, like the adverts they mimic, work only if they create a craving—In this case, a craving to live a healthier lifestyle. Not all cravings are bad—some are essential for life.

    And even if the people responsible for public health announcements don’t feel they are conflicted, some of those hearing the messages might well feel that way. Announcements about the use of cameras to make sure that drivers are wearing their seat belts are no doubt well-meaning but might run into opposition from those on the libertarian wing of society. And I would imagine there will be a long debate over the calls being heard for social media health warnings.

    In Australia, with long stretches of little-used country roads, it was common while I was there to see on television public health announcements warning drivers to be careful when approaching train level crossings. But, at the same time, you can see roadside hoardings advertising beer, and it cannot but cross one’s mind that perhaps if the hoardings were taken down, there would be less need for the railway crossing safety warnings.

    Beer advertisements appear on television during the breaks in broadcasts of football games, where presenters sometimes seem blokeish to the point of caricature. But on the other hand, alcohol in Australia is not sold alongside food in supermarkets as it is in the U.K., and I guess you could argue until the cows came home what it is that normalizes drinking in the minds of the young—its connection with sport and blokeishness or its connection with supermarkets and the everyday.

    Gambling advertisements on television seem to come with their own warnings. At least one advertisement I saw ended with a written suggestion that those watching should imagine what other things money destined for gambling could be spent on. But are such warnings effective? An SMH piece by Charles Livingstone, a gambling researcher and associate professor at Monash University, seemed to suggest not and to show up the conflict of interests that abound when habits are risky to those who partake of them but profitable to those who make them available.

    “But whatever happens, the cozy relationship between gambling, sport, government and broadcasting is as solid and entrenched as it could be,” he wrote. “The damage to the community, especially young people, and to the integrity of sport appears to matter little when everyone’s pockets are full.” Everybody’s pockets but those of most of the gamblers, I presume.

    Do people understand the risks they are taking, active and passive?

    Relative Risks

    One of the visits I made in Australia was to a long-standing friend who many years ago concluded that people were evolving in the direction of becoming more stupid and who seems not to have changed his mind. Is he right, I wonder? In Queensland one day, sitting at a delightful pavement cafe just across from a beautiful beach, the driver of a large utility vehicle parked in front of the cafe, started the vehicle’s engine and then got out of the cab and proceeded to perform a few tasks, including tying down his load. Predictably, the wind off the sea wafted the diesel fumes over the diners, but nobody seemed to mind, and I wondered what level of fuss those people would have made if somebody had started to smoke or vape. Are people stupid? Some certainly don’t seem to understand risk.

    Well, certainly relative risk. But then, can you blame them? A public health broadcast on television showed a youngish man from the 1970s smoking and coughing up blood, followed by a contemporary image of a youngish man vaping and coughing up blood. The message was clear. There was no difference between smoking and vaping. The risks were the same. Are people stupid? Perhaps the question should be: Are they being encouraged to be stupid?

    Australia seems to have had and to have a strange relationship with tobacco and nicotine. The country can claim to be the birthplace of graphic warnings on tobacco products, and I saw very few people smoking or vaping while there, but tobacconists, sometimes sophisticated-looking businesses selling “smokes and vapes,” were highly visible on high streets and in malls, so I guess there is a reasonable demand for their products. These tobacconists seemed not to be overrun with customers when I looked in, however, partly, I take it, because of the significant illegal trade in tobacco and nicotine products, which was the subject of at least one television news report while I was in the country.

    One tobacconist I came across was called a Tobacco Station, and, as I understand it, after I left Australia—and with a nod to the Australian poet and journalist Banjo Paterson, perhaps—there has been movement at the station. From July 1, all nicotine vapes in Australia have been regulated as therapeutic goods, so smokers wanting to buy vapes have had to do so from pharmacies. But, from Oct. 1, those over 18 will no longer have to comply with the government’s much-criticized requirement and find a doctor willing to give them a prescription for vapes—at least those up to a maximum nicotine content of 20 mg per mL. I am sure there will be much debate about how wise such moves are—how smokers and vapers will react.

    Is there a lesson here? Has the nicotine industry helped to bring about this move? Given that it always emphasizes the uniquely therapeutic roll of vaping as providing a safer substitute for smoking, the sale of vapes in pharmacies only has a certain logic. As I have said before, it is long overdue that the industry jettisons this baggage and accepts publicly that vaping is a habit separate from, but similar to, smoking (and drinking)—one that will attract some people who have never smoked. It is a consumer product not a medicine.

    George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.
  • Pharmacy Rules Boosting Illicit Vapes

    Pharmacy Rules Boosting Illicit Vapes

    Photo: Doublelee

    The Australian government’s plan to make pharmacies the gatekeepers of vaping will push more young people onto the black market, according to illicit trade experts, reports Financial Review.

    Nicotine levels found in wastewater in December were among the highest since authorities started recording them in 2016, a trend that the health department attributes to the rise of vaping among young people.

    An Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission report last week found that nicotine consumption had risen from August in capital cities to their second-highest level since 2016. The peak use of nicotine was in December 2022.

    Federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced in May last year that the government would increase tobacco excise by 5 percent a year for three years to deter smoking.

    “Studies have confirmed that the rise in vaping over the last decade has driven more young Australians to nicotine consumption,” a federal health department spokesman said, adding that the nicotine data also captured people using nicotine patches and gum to quit smoking.

    Since July 1, vape sales in Australia require a doctor’s prescription, nicotine levels are regulated, and flavors are limited to tobacco, menthol and mint. Another requirement restricts products to plain packaging.

  • Major Australian Pharmacies Against Vape Sales

    Major Australian Pharmacies Against Vape Sales

    Image: Catrina Haze

    Several major pharmacy chains in Australia have stated that they will not stock vapes once their sale is prohibited outside of pharmacies and a prescription requirement for adults is lifted.

    In communications with their stakeholders, TerryWhite Chemmart, Priceline Pharmacy, National Pharmacies in South Australia and 777 Group in West Australia all voiced strong disagreement with new laws allowing the sale of vapes without prescriptions.

    In a statement, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia said Blooms and thousands of independent pharmacies had also opposed the government’s deal with the Greens to open access for adults from October.

    Chemist Warehouse has told the ABC it is still looking at the implications of the decision and seeking more information on how it will work.

    While those pharmacies have indicated they will not be moving to stock vapes, franchisors under the brands are technically able to make an independent decision to do so.

    Many pharmacies under those brands already supply vapes nationwide or are licensed to do so. The key dispute raised by them is the “down scheduling” of vapes from requiring scripts to being available behind the counter for adults once they have had a conversation with their pharmacist.

    Health Minister Mark Butler said earlier this week that pharmacies would not be forced to stock vapes and the government did not expect that all pharmacies would.

  • Australia Softens Prescription Mandate

    Australia Softens Prescription Mandate

    Photo: Zerophoto | Adobe Stock

    Australia will soften a proposed ban on vaping following opposition from the Greens party, leading the government to agree to revise a bill that would have limited vapes to those with a doctor’s prescription.

    The agreement between the ruling center-left Labor Party and the Greens will lead to the passage of legislation later this week that restricts the sale of vapes to pharmacies and removes them from retail shelves. This move is aimed at curbing the rise in youth vaping.

    However, the bill falls short of the government’s initial ambition to restrict sales only to those with a doctor’s prescription, which would have been a world first. The amended bill will take effect on July 1, reports Reuters.

    Under the compromise deal, vapes will be moved “behind the counter” in October. Customers will need to have a conversation with the pharmacist before making a purchase, and those under 18 years old will need a prescription.

    Health Minister Mark Butler said in a statement that the government “welcomed constructive engagement with the crossbench and secured the support of the Greens for our world-leading vaping laws.”

    The Labor Party does not have a majority in the upper house and must negotiate with other parties and independent senators to pass legislation.

  • Study Debunks Myths About Smokers

    Study Debunks Myths About Smokers

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Contrary to popular perceptions, most smokers in Australia are educated, employed and in good mental health, according to a national study by the Australian National University (ANU).

    Study senior author Emily Banks said the findings will help break down stigma surrounding people who smoke as well as ensure that support is better targeted to the people who need it. 

    “Smoking remains Australia’s leading cause of premature death and disability, so it’s vital that we better understand who smokes and the reasons why they do,” she said in a statement.

    “People who smoke are often stigmatized and stereotyped as uneducated, unemployed and mentally ill.”

    “We analyzed nationally representative data on smoking in Australia to get a better understanding of who smokes in our population,” said lead author, Jessica Aw, a medical student at ANU. “We found that around 2.5 million people smoke daily in Australia; around 60 percent of people who smoke are men, 65 percent live in major cities, and 92 percent are non-Indigenous.

    “In addition, 69 percent have completed year 12, 69 percent of those of working age are in paid employment and 73 percent had good mental health.

    “Although smoking is more common in people who are experiencing structural disadvantage—like people in more remote areas, Indigenous peoples, those with less education and those living in poverty—most people who smoke are educated, employed and in good mental health, similar to the total population of Australia.”

    The findings are published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

  • Australian Gangs Torching Tobacco Shops

    Australian Gangs Torching Tobacco Shops

    Tobacco Reporter Archive

    Police in the Australian state of Victoria have arrested five individuals believed to be connected to the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang and a series of arson attacks on tobacco stores in Victoria.

    The arrests are a police response to the so-called tobacco wars, which have seen criminal gangs fight for control of the “significant source of income” generated by the sale of illicit tobacco.

    Victoria police Det. Insp. Graham Banks acknowledged community concern about the attacks in recent weeks and said the force was “turning the corner” with new intelligence, according to media reports.

    The arrests are related to the torching of four tobacco stores and a cafe between Christmas Day and Friday in Moe, Croydon, Altona, Altona North and Sunshine.

    On each occasion, police allege the offenders broke into the stores before setting them ablaze.

    Police report they found five vehicles believed to have been stolen when arresting the group, along with Molotov cocktails.

    “We believe they were preparing to do further attacks, so this is a substantial series of arrests,” Banks said. “This certainly impacts a syndicate that is driving this.

    “There is still a significant conflict between multiple different groups over control of a significant source of income. It will be an ongoing issue for several months, but we’re certainly turning the corner.”

  • Colin Mendelsohn Announces Retirement

    Colin Mendelsohn Announces Retirement

    Colin Mendelsohn

    After nearly a decade advocating for vaping as a tobacco harm reduction strategy in Australia, Colin Mendelsohn announced his retirement in Filter.

    In his piece, Mendelsohn expressed distress at what he described as Australia’s “descent from its former status as a global leader in tobacco control to the current slow-moving train wreck.”

    “Where vaping is seen by other Western democracies as a huge opportunity for public health, successive Australian governments have framed it as a threat,” he wrote. “The ensuing prohibitive regulations have neutralized the potential benefits and led to troubling and escalating unintended consequences.”

    During his career, Mendelsohn endured heavy criticism from anti-vaping groups.  

    “My evidence-based advocacy and the efforts of others are undermined with smears, insults and harassment,” he wrote. “I have repeatedly faced false accusations of being funded by Big Tobacco, including in national print media and on national radio.”

    Despite his disappointment over Australia’s tobacco-control policy choices and the personal attacks, Mendelsohn, remained optimistic that tobacco harm reduction would eventually prevail.

    “As I retire, my hope, still, is for a balanced, evidence-based approach to vaping in Australia,” he wrote. “It won’t come soon. The latest regulatory crackdown will need to run its course and fail again before much-needed reforms are possible.

    “Then we will need to move beyond the echo chamber of Australia’s tobacco control group-think, if we’re to recognize vaping not as a ‘public health menace’ but as a powerful ally in the fight against tobacco-related harm.”

  • Australia to Mandate Stick Warnings

    Australia to Mandate Stick Warnings

    Image: Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care

    Federal laws passed in Australia will require vapes and individual cigarettes to display warning labels beginning April 2024.

    The labels will include “toxic addiction,” “poisons in ever puff,” “causes 16 cancers” and “What is this costing you?” according to the Daily Mail.

    Proposed new packaging images show cancerous tumors in the mouth and throat and a surgeon removing a voice box. The changes also include incorporating inserts in cigarette packs promoting the benefits of quitting smoking and providing contact information for helpline support to quit.

    According to Health Minister Mark Butler, the measures are necessary because consumers have become desensitized to the warnings and images currently printed on packs.

    “The most concerning thing over the last 10 years is the advice that the government has received is that the smoking rates, which have been declining steadily for 50 years or so, have started to plateau,” said Butler. “We are not currently on track to achieve the targets that are set our in the National Tobacco Strategy.”

    “I am so delighted the Parliament has passed a new generation of laws to take the fight back up to big tobacco and to save more American lives,” Butler said.

    Products will have 12 months to comply with the new packaging requirements. Retailers will have an additional three months to update stock.

    The import of nontherapeutic and disposable single-use vapes will also be banned. 

    “Today marks a new era as Australia returns to the forefront of the global fight against smoking,” Butler said. “We cannot stand by and allow another generation of people to be lured into addiction and suffer the enormous health, economic and social consequences.

    “The laws that passed today will save lives.”

    Current plain packaging laws state that cigarette and other tobacco product packaging must display extreme disease caused by smoking. Point of sale advertising is banned, and cigarettes for retail must be hidden from view at all times. Tobacco is also heavily taxed in Australia, and a pack is set to surpass $50 in 2026. 

    The sale of illegal tobacco and vapes has increased in the country, and smoking and nicotine-based vaping among 14-year-olds to 17-year-olds has increased 15-fold in the past five years. Illegal tobacco is commonly available and widely socially acceptable.

    In August, a requirement for tobacco companies to print warnings on individual cigarettes took effect in Canada.