The Australian government is expected to announce a crackdown on illegal vaping as early as next week, as concerns rise over the increasing uptake among teenagers.
The health minister, Mark Butler, will announce long-mooted changes to vaping regulation, including introducing plain packaging and a ban on certain flavours, ahead of the federal budget on 9 May.
News.com.au first reported on Friday that Butler had promised “substantial action”, saying the government planned to move on “non-pharmaceutical” vapes, and indicating a focus on importation from overseas.
He told the publication there had been enforcement issues – because vapes are imported in small boxes, making them hard to intercept at the border, and a reluctance for state and territories to divert resources to policing the black market.
“So we’ve got to take action on the border,” Butler said. “States have to take some action around policing and retail arrangements. I think there’s the appetite to do that.”
Butler’s office declined to comment on the news.com.au report. However, Guardian Australia understands the minister will discuss a vaping crackdown in his speech to the National Press Club on 2 May, a week before the federal budget.
The health minister has long foreshadowed a federal crackdown on vapes, especially those containing nicotine.
Vaping products popular among young adults often come in fruit or candy flavours, with brightly coloured packaging. Butler flagged the government is interested in pursuing a plain packaging model.
Last month a review by the Therapeutic Goods Administration called for the government to ban vape flavours, adopt plain packaging and include warnings of the health dangers.
It received about 4,000 submissions from medical bodies, with overwhelming support to beef up regulation on the importation of vape, with a requirement of importers to a hold permit.
Vapes that have nicotine in them are legally only meant to be prescribed by a doctor as a cessation tool but there is a thriving black market, with convenience stores selling the products to minors.
A recent study of 1,006 people aged between 15 and 30 from the George Institute for Global Health showed 14% were current vape users and 33% had vaped in the past.
“The current use prevalence of 14% found in this sample is substantially larger than the 4.5% of 15- to 24-year-olds and 4.8% of 25- to 29-year-olds who reported current e-cigarette use in the 2019 National Drug Study Household Survey,” the study found.
