"Encourage people to switch. Perhaps one day the Australian smoking rate will drop below 5%. Wouldn't that be a massive win for health." - Vaping Consumer
- Kim
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
I am currently 55 years old. I started smoking in my teens and continued to do so for around 30 years. I quit around year 2000 but soon discovered I had a bowel disease called Ulcerative Colitis, (apparently it's common to appear after quitting smoking as nicotine helps keep the symptoms at bay. Studies have proven this link). I returned to smoking a year later after being unable to control my UC. Over the following years I tried many times to quit to only have my UC flareup within days.
Eventually I gave up giving up, deciding I would prefer quality of life over length of life. Though I did add a clause that if I found a replacement one day I would pursue it. In 2015 I came across vaping. On the 13th of March 2015 all my orders had arrived. I filled my tank with nicotine e-liquid and took my first vape. At this exact moment I put down my cigarettes and never touched them again. To this day I have not had another cigarette, but I do still vape. Given my health issues I plan to continue vaping for the rest of my life.
All I want to be able to do is continue what I have been doing now for 9 years. I can't quit Nicotine, nor can I afford cigarettes or pharmacy vapes. You have my support in getting vapes out of kids hands, absolutely. But stopping adults accessing vaping to better their health is insane. The laws will not affect the black market who coincidentally don't follow laws. It will only affect people like me who have till now been following the law. Instead it appears that I will now be considered a criminal for continuing to vape.
I have stocked up to last a few years, but I'm really concerned about what happens later. Personally I'd just prefer a regulated market for adults where I can access vapes just like how I can access alcohol, if I choose to, and in any flavour I prefer. Adults like flavours as well and not just tobacco or mint; custard flavour is what got me off smoking.
Implement new laws to encourage vaping as an alternative to smoking.
Make vaping easier to access.
Encourage people to switch.
Perhaps one day the Australian smoking rate will drop below 5%.
Wouldn't that be a massive win for health.
Submission To Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024 Inquiry
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