Dear Senators Of Australia,

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We write to you on behalf of a rising movement known as “A.L.I.V.E.”

The acronym stands for “Australia, Let’s Improve Vaping Education”.

We are the vaping consumers of Australia and their supporters who feel we have been ignored by this Government.

We are adult former smokers who have found a pathway off smoking via vaping.

We have no ties to big tobacco or vaping companies.

We have been subjected to our real stories being dismissed by many who also refer to us as being “industry stooges” and worse.

 

In a lot of instances, we had submissions ignored and not published for the recent

“Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024”

committee hearing.

Many submissions that made the cut were published during or well after the inquiry.

Public submissions to Senate Inquiry: 236 of 281 opposed the bill including 19 professors, 11 doctors and 12 other experts.

Only one consumer was heard during the inquiry out of over 1.5 million vapers!

We understand that many other submissions from international experts were also ignored and not published.

 

On March 6 we signed a petition with 28679 signatures asking the health minister to repeal and review the terms of the proposed legislative changes to better focus on harm reduction and adopt new evidence-based, proportionate measures in response to youth-uptake of vaping.

We still await a response.

https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5905

 

 

 

 

The flavourless prescription model does not help us to remain smoke free.

It is flawed on many levels.

The greater percentage of former smoking vapers require various flavours to remain smoke free. Vaping is not something that can be “cookie cut” into a limited amount of vapes in limited flavours via a chemist. Vaping requires customisation for the end user with the assistance of a specialist vape store (not a black market vape store).

The cost of devices and liquids via prescription is exorbitant and many formerly legal vapers have now reluctantly gone on to using black market vape products, or worse, returned to smoking.

In many instances vapers have been unable to obtain a prescription, let alone find a chemist that will meet the requirements of a prescription.

 

Australians now fear for their lives in our homes and businesses as the very public black market vape/tobacco turf wars have caused a gateway for youth crime that includes 80 fire bombings and many executions over the last year or so.

This is the result of prohibition that has many similarities to the grand ol days of Al Capone.

Is this the Australia you wished for?

I can tell you that the vapers of Australia don’t wish for this!

 

We wish for sensible risk proportionate regulations of vaping products that discourage a black market selling to our youths.

Just as licenced alcohol is, vaping is a consumer product for adults and should be regulated and licensed appropriately before further carnage and destruction to youths is caused by the unintended consequences of the current prohibitive regulations.

 

 

Other important points to consider:

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1. Vaping was developed as a consumer product alternative to tobacco - not a therapeutic device. Vaping is designed to deliver nicotine and/or flavour as a harm-reduced replacement for tobacco. While it is probably easier to stop using a vape than a cigarette, there is no predetermined            “end-game” for cessation, as vaping is not considered by the majority of health departments around the world to have any major detrimental effects.

In other words, while 2 out 3 smokers will develop serious illness from smoking over the course, there is no same determination for people who exclusively vape. After 20 years of research, one must consider that science is not in the dark unlike 50 years earlier when it was looking at tobacco harm. The peer-reviewed data is conclusive - Vape devices can share biomarkers with tobacco, but at vastly reduced levels making the potential harm from them negligible especially when compared with combustible tobacco products.

 

 

2. Many legal vape businesses have been operating within the scope of the law for over 10 years.

This bill along with the previous amendment to the legislation by the TGA will force their closure, with no provision for compensation which could be considered unlawful.

Meanwhile, black market supply will continue to meet the demand largely unnoticed by law enforcement.  

 

3. The Personal Importation Scheme must be reinstated in the very least. As only adults were able to make use of this program, it is disingenuous to believe that ending it will somehow curb youth uptake. By ending it completely there will be increased demand on GPs and pharmacies to meet consumer needs, and without an easy to navigate pathway, most adult users will simply turn to black market sources for supply, as 90% of all vapers in Australia already are.

 

4. Prohibition will always ultimately fail. The Vaping Reforms Bill attempts to address the issue of supply, but does very little to consider demand, which of course is straight out of the prohibitionists’ playbook. Some health advisors have commented that the Bill is not a form of prohibition, due to the inclusion of scripts for “patients”, but we may remind you that under the most famous prohibition of all, the National Prohibition Act or Volstead Act in the United States from 1920-1930s, scripts for brandy or whiskey were also available via a physician. Despite this, gang warfare was waged on the streets and some of the most iconic and infamous “gangsters” are embedded in popular culture today directly because of this.

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5. Clearly, the Vaping Reforms Bill is incomplete. There are many questions surrounding particular details which you will have noticed were asked but not effectively answered during the Senate Enquiry. The most pressing questions include:

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a) What constitutes a non-commercial quantity of vaping products, and how will authorities determine whether said quantity carried or owned by an individual is for personal use, or something else?

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b) What rate of vape cessation by young Australians should be considered a measurement of success? This question was asked of the TGA delegates but none were able to provide a definitive answer.

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c) Why would the uptake of tobacco smoking not be considered a measurement of policy failure, if the purpose of the bill is to reduce exposure to nicotine? Especially considering that cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products are readily available to adults at all major supermarkets and petrol stations.

 

6. If the purpose of the Vaping Reforms Bill is to prevent the uptake of nicotine dependence among children, then we need to be reminded that it is already illegal to sell vaping and other products that may contain nicotine to minors in the country, with the exception of Nicotine Replacement Therapy products. Given that 100% of minors acquire vape and other products that may contain nicotine illegally already, then this Bill appears to only affect adult users and legal businesses trying to operate within the scope of the law. There may be the opinion that increased penalties will help to deter organized crime, but we know from history that this is rarely the case.

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We shouldn’t be criminalised or stigmatised for simply wanting another day with a loved one.

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The current prohibitionist regime is causing all sorts of unintended consequences not only effecting physical detriment to those who have returned to smoking but also for many who suffer mental health conditions.

One vaper in Melbourne who suffers from PTSD has already attempted to take his own life on the back of this poorly thought out policy position.

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We remind you again, we are the adult vaping consumers of Australia.

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We are not funded by a career of working in anti smoking campaigns etc..

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We are at grass roots, we are the consumers that have been silenced and not heard.

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On or around June 24 you will be asked to vote on an extremely important bill.

“Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024”

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All we ask for is due consideration when voting on this bill.

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This is a bi partisan issue, it’s an issue that can and will change either for the betterment or worsening of over a million Australian former smokers!

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Decide what side of history you wish to be on, rather than what side of the political divide you prefer, because as healthier Australians who have quit smoking with vaping, we know what side of history we prefer to be on!

 

Kindest regards

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Vaping Consumers Of Australia