Australia to impose stringent restrictions on vaping

September 10, 2021

Par: National Committee Against Smoking

Dernière mise à jour: September 10, 2021

Temps de lecture: 5 minutes

At 1^er From October 2021, it will become illegal to buy, possess or import e-cigarettes and e-liquids in Australia without a prescription, limiting vaping to as an aid to quitting smoking.

Australia is one of 32 countries to follow the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendation on e-cigarettes to ban them completely in recreational form.[1]. From 1^er October 2021, the sale of vaping equipment and products is only permitted in Australia to smokers wishing to quit smoking and with a prescription. The possession and use of an e-cigarette is itself prohibited in all Australian states, with the exception of South Australia.

During the process of adopting the law, in preparation since the end of 2019, the question of imports of e-cigarettes and e-liquids or refills had however remained unresolved; a significant loophole that would have allowed the regulations to be circumvented. An article published on the news website The Conversation describes the political journey of this additional measure and how it was adopted[2].

A bill difficult to validate

In addition to the proposed ban on their sale and possession, a first presentation of the proposed ban on the import of e-cigarettes and e-liquids without a medical prescription was first presented by the Minister of Health at the end of the first half of 2020. This project provided, among other things, for parcel checks by customs officers. It was criticized by several parliamentarians, which had the effect of weakening the Federal Prime Minister's support for the comprehensive bill on e-cigarettes.

An impact assessment was then entrusted to the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR), a body affiliated to the Prime Minister's office and responsible for evaluating public policies. The opinions of this body are made public and are only favourable to a minority of draft laws submitted to it. However, the OBPR confirmed the options proposed by the initial draft law of the Minister of Health and concluded that it was not possible to leave loopholes in the initial ban on e-cigarettes; it thus validated the ban on the importation of e-cigarettes and e-liquids to people without a prescription.[3].

Avoiding legislative loopholes

This legislative episode refers to the need to provide legislative and regulatory mechanisms that can prevent any kind of circumvention, as is often the case with tobacco and nicotine products. Each gap in the regulatory network is indeed likely to be exploited by the tobacco industry. Filling these loopholes can sometimes require time and significant effort to complete the regulations and make them effective. It is also a source of risks that can weaken the law initially adopted. An example is provided in France with the adoption of the decree of November 2006 modifying the application of the smoking ban in all public and collective use places. This new decree replaced an initial regulation that failed to implement the smoking ban provided for in the Evin law.

By restricting the use of e-cigarettes to smokers who want to quit, Australia is deploying all available tools to limit as much as possible the access of young people and minors to products containing nicotine, and to avoid reproducing the vaping epidemic affecting young people in the United States.[4]. At the same time, in response to the tobacco industry's strategy of launching new tobacco and nicotine products, the Australian Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) decided in August 2020, even before their introduction on the local market, to ban the sale, possession and importation of heated tobacco devices. It also ruled out the possibility of selling or importing non-smoked oral tobacco products, such as snus, tobacco pastes and powders, or chewing/chewing tobacco.

Keywords: electronic cigarettes, Australia, import, regulation, new products.

M.F.