STATEMENT: National Drug Strategy Household Survey
STATEMENT FROM LEGALISE VAPING AUSTRALIA
Today the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released its National Drug Strategy Household Survey.
It is disappointing that issues such as the 98 per cent increase in cocaine usage amongst young men aged in their 20’s, now arguably a public health epidemic of miserable proportions, have been overlooked at the expense of a continued obsession to demonise Australians, young and old, who just want to get off cigarettes by using vaping.
When it comes to vaping, the survey data clearly demonstrates that, what minuscule decrease there has been in smoking rates in Australia over the last three years can be overwhelming attributed to people switching from dangerous and deadly cigarettes to this less harmful alternative to smoking.
In terms of less harmful vaping uptake, we are seeing what has worked successfully in other countries to reduce smoking rates organically happen here, albeit in the absence of a proper regulation and leadership from those who are elected to lead.
The AIHW data shows that Australia’s smoking reduction rates have largely stagnated from a statistical perspective. The 10 per cent smoking reduction target by 2018 was missed and recent extended to 2025. It will likely also be missed.
It is now abundantly clear that Governments of all political persuasions have no plans for how to get Australia’s 3 million smokers off cigarettes, except to wait for them to die.
It is time to bring vaping in from the cold, acknowledge the important role it is playing in getting people off cigarettes and properly regulate it rather than impose ill-conceived vaping bans which will do nothing but reverse the vaping-attributable smoking rate decreases and force hundreds of thousands of former smokers, now current vapers, back on to cigarettes.
Science no longer questions the effectiveness of less harmful smoke-free products as effective quitting aids. According to Public Health England, smoke-free products are 95 per cent less harmful than cigarettes and ‘smokers should switch to e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking’. Global regulators and health bodies agree, backing these products.
More than 50 countries around the world, as well as every OECD nation with the exception of Australia and Turkey have legalised and proper regulated smoke-free products. Why? Because they work.
“To lower smoking rates and achieve its targets the Australian governments must appropriately regulate smoke-free alternatives now. In the 21st century it should not be harder for an Australian who wants to get off cigarettes to purchase a vaping product than a deadly cigarette.
Millions of Australians continue to smoke without a viable exit plan; their lives literally depend on the legalisation and proper regulation of smoke-free vaping products.
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Legalise Vaping Australia recommends Australia observe and copy policies we see in the UK and New Zealand.
The regulatory models in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, seek to strike the balance between two key principles, specifically:
● Protecting young people from the risks associated with smoking and vaping and preventing initiation of new users.
● Supporting adult smokers to switch to a form of nicotine consumption significantly less harmful than smoking.