Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall - University of Queensland
- Pippa Starr
- Oct 28, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 15
Wayne Hall is Emeritus Professor at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR) at the University of Queensland (January 2021-). He was a Visiting Professor at the National Addiction Centre, Kings College London (2009-2019), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2010-2021); and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW (since 2001).
Wayne was formerly Professorial Fellow (2017-2020) in and Director of the National Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research (2014-2016), an NHMRC Australia Fellow in addiction neuroethics at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and the Queensland Brain Institute, UQ (2009-2015); Professor of Public Health Policy in the School of Population Health (2005-2010); Director of the Office of Public Policy and Ethics at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (2001-2005) at the University of Queensland; and Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW (1994-2001).
In 2016 Wayne was made a Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Wayne has advised the World Health Organization on: the health effects of cannabis use; the effectiveness of drug substitution treatment; the scientific quality of the Swiss heroin trials; the contribution of illicit drug use to the global burden of disease; and the ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on addiction. More>>
28 October 2024 - Dissects Australia’s vaping failure
EMERITUS PROFESSOR WAYNE HALL, one of Australia's leading researchers in the field of alcohol and drugs has reviewed Australia's policy on vaping and finds it has failed to achieve its goals. In this article in The Mandarin, he suggests a far better alternative.
Australia’s prescription model of vaping needs to be replaced by regulated retail sales
The prescription model and retail sales ban have failed to prevent the uptake of youth vaping. Few adults have used the legal prescription pathway to access vapes
18 July 2023
29 May 2023 - Letter To Mark Butler
3 May 2023 - Australia Bans Non-prescription Vaping - Expert Reaction
"A change to Australia’s prescription only model of regulating vaping products is long overdue. The policy has failed to restrict youth access or to allow smokers to legally access these products to help them quit.
"Most Australian smokers who use vaping products break the law by obtaining them without a prescription because the AMA and medical colleges discourage doctors from prescribing them. And adolescents have ready access to cheap, colourful and flavoured disposable nicotine vapes.
"A ban on sales of disposable vapes is welcomed as a way to deter youth uptake but much more effort will need to be made to ensure that smokers can easily and legally access approved vaping products.
"We sorely need much better data on the prevalence of vaping in Australia. The latest national data are from 2019. The results of 2022 surveys are not likely to be available before 2024, unless the government expedites their release. In the absence of good data, public policy is being set by alarmist tabloid headlines.
"It would be unfortunate if Australia decides to wage a 'war on vaping and vapers' in an effort to make Australia great again in the field of tobacco control."
2 February 2022 - Response to the (TGA) scheduling delegates’ interim decision on nicotine.
6 April 2021 - Study: Australian policymakers can allow the sale of nicotine vaporizers to smokers while minimizing the risks of their uptake among youth.
