The Govt's Vaping Policy Could Be Killing Thousands of Australians

16 April 2025

by Pippa Starr & ALIVE Advocates

Mark Butler's vaping policy could be killing Australians by turning them back to smoking!

The annual death toll has now grown to 24000 Australians dying from smoking-related diseases every year.

Australia is now facing an escalation of smoking-related deaths in what can only be described as a public health catastrophe!

Advocates from the ALIVE consumer movement, represented by their spokesperson Pippa Starr, said, "our movement exists to help smokers quit by advocating for safer, evidence-based alternatives to smoking, such as nicotine vaping, but sadly we are seeing too many Australian adults return to smoking because they can't access the products they need to become or remain smoke free!"

Out of the 96% of vapers who are or were adult safer nicotine vaping consumers,

around 1 in 3 are now heading back towards cheaper and deadlier cigarettes made available across Australia via a rampant black market!

Not because that is their preference; it's been the stifling of legal supply to adult vapers that has diverted them back to deadly smoking.

The federal government’s prohibitionist approach to vaping, spearheaded by Minister Mark Butler, is reversing decades of tobacco harm reduction progress and could be condemning thousands of Australians to debilitating diseases and preventable premature deaths as many return to smoking.

Just 1 in 4 chemists stock vapes that are, more often than not, unsuitable for vapers or helpful for smokers to quit.

Last year Mark Butler bullied pharmacists to stock and sell vaping products when they didn't

want to stock them, which has allowed the black-market tobacco shops to supply and sell

illicit products that dwarf the small variety of vapes smokers can access in a small number of

participating pharmacies!

Mark Butler recently told ABC radio that vaping rates among adults over 30 were down about 30 perecnt, but he didn't tell the real story that most of the nicotine consumers have most likely returned to deadly smoking!

This situation was pre-empted by 40 of Australia's most experienced experts in harm

reduction and health, including physicians and addiction specialists, as well as

criminologists, vapers, and vaping advocates as far back as July 2023, but their voices have

been ignored or censored!

The UK and New Zealand endorse vaping as a far less harmful and effective smoking

cessation tool.

Every Australian has the human right to access safer alternatives to smoking. The

government’s prohibitionist vaping policy has resulted in the removal of personal health

autonomy and disabled legal access to life-saving interventions like nicotine vaping.

What can we learn?

Prohibitionist vaping policy doesn't protect the lives of adult smokers or vapers,

it ends them prematurely!

The black market is booming, with violent consequences.

Australia’s misguided vaping bans have emboldened organised crime, resulting in a series of firebombings, murders, illegal imports, and illicit tobacco and vape sales to

Australians, including young people that the legislation sought to protect.

The elimination of legal vape shops has not reduced smoking among teens or adults; it has

made it more dangerous via a deadly black market for illicit vaping and smoking products.

If the Govt doesn't change course, more lives will be lost.

Australia must align with evidence-based harm reduction models like New Zealand.

We must:

✅ Regulate vapes as adult consumer products

✅ Enforce strict age restrictions with third party verification in 18+ retail outlets

✅ Dismantle the black market by replacing it with a legal, controlled market

✅ Respect Australians’ right to make informed health decisions

✅ Enable smokers and vapers to live longer, healthier lives with their families and children