All vapers should make a submission to the Senate Inquiry. This includes YOU!
Posted on October 9, 2020
ALL VAPERS should make a brief submission to the Senate Inquiry into Tobacco Harm Reduction to ensure that vaping survives in Australia and is readily available for vapers and smokers. Please make a brief submission by 5 November 2020.
You can make your submission through the official portal here. Otherwise, use one of these two sites which have been developed to make your submission as easy and as quick as possible:
Why should you bother?
This is serious! The new regulations require doctor and pharmacy visits, greater costs, reduced product range and the closure of most vape shops
Under the new regulations you will need to:
- Find a doctor who prescribes nicotine. Currently the AMA and many doctors’ groups oppose vaping and there are only 8 doctors who are publicly willing to write prescriptions. If a local doctor can’t help, you could consult a doctor by telehealth, but you will need to pay the full fee, as Medicare rebates will not apply.
- Find a pharmacist that stocks nicotine liquid. This could be challenging as the Pharmacy Guild does not support vaping.
- You will no longer be able to import your own nicotine (a $220,000 penalty applies).
It will be easier to buy a packet of cigarettes than to get vaping products, which are at least 95% safer
Others effects of Greg Hunt’s plan include
- Vaping will cost more. You will save international courier fees, but will need to cover the importer markup, medical costs and pharmacy markup
- The range of products available will be dramatically reduced. Your favourite flavours or prefilled pods may not be available
- There will be no regulation of safety or quality of imported products
- Vape shops will be decimated. If vapers purchase e-liquids from the pharmacy, the vape shop network will be unable to survive and a valuable support and advisory service will be lost.
The Senate Inquiry
The Committee is made up of Senators Hollie Hughes (Chair, Liberal NSW), Tony Sheldon (Deputy Chair, ALP, NSW), Matthew Canavan (Nationals, Qld), Stirling Griff (Centre Alliance, SA), Sarah Henderson (Liberal, Vic) and Anne Urquhart (ALP, Tas).
The Committee will consider the overall health impact of allowing vaping in Australia, the effectiveness of vaping as a quitting aid, concerns about uptake by non-smokers and youth and how to regulate vaping.
The Committee will report to Parliament by 1 December 2020.
How to make a submission
If you vape, please tell the Committee YOUR story. The Committee needs to know that vaping is a genuine lifesaving aid to quit smoking that has worked for hundreds of thousands of Australian smokers. The more submissions received, the greater the impact.
Guidelines for telling your story:
- No more than 1-2 pages
- Who are you? Age, occupation/pension, marital status, children, suburb/state
- Smoking history. Age started smoking, cigarettes per day, daily/annual cost of smoking
- Did you have any smoking-related diseases?
- Attempts to quit. How long did you try to quit for, what methods did you try, why didn’t they work
- Vaping. When did you start, how long after starting vaping did you stop smoking?
- Benefits. How has your health improved since you switched (breathing, cough), have medical conditions improved (eg asthma, emphysema, mental health), how much money have you saved?
- Other comments. Feedback from kids, living longer to enjoy grandchildren, never thought I'd be able to quit, benefits to your family eg passive smoking
- What you want eg nicotine liquid to be a consumer product available from a vape shop, product regulation with safety standards, childproof caps etc
- Why the new regulations will not work for you
- Anything else?
If you have not previously submitted online to an inquiry, you will need to create a My Parliament login. Otherwise just go to log in.
Lodge your submission here
- Select Tobacco Harm Reduction
- Indicate if you are submitting for yourself or an organisation
- Enter your details
- Indicate your privacy preferences
- Upload your submission (pdf, doc, docx, txt files only)
- Submit (once green light displays)
Further information
Senate Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction webpage
Lodge your submission here
Posted by Colin Mendelsohn, colin@athra.org.au
4 Replies to “All vapers should make a submission to the Senate Inquiry. This includes YOU!”
Hello,
my name is Aaron Scarr i started smoking at a young age of 13yo, i continued to smoke 40-50 smokes a day everyday from the age of about 17 till i was 36. i was roughly spending about 200 a week before the price rises currently going on, i tried quiting on everything from mouth sprays, patches, tablets or cold turkey. i was lucky to last a day. i worked a clients home and they introduced me to vaping in 2015, and after i conpleted the job he took me down to the local vape shop and helped me choose a vape. i went to bed excited and when i woke up i picked up my vape and not a smoke, and i havent picked one up since. vaping saved my life
I am 59 year old female who has been vaping for 7 years. Ever since I started vaping I can breathe no coughing have no headaches. Save more money which helps me a lot because I am a pensioner every cent counts, started smoking when I was 17 years old been smoking for 35 years tried doctors to stop and chemist nicotine patches tablets but did not work had very bad mood swings Not mild ones either nearly broke my marriage up until I found nicotine vaping it really save my life so I am begging you please don’t take this way from us or I know I will be back on cigarettes and I do not want too but know I will.
Awesome! Its actually amazing post, I have got much clear idea on the topic of from this post.
PSG Trøje Børn
Thank god for relentless efforts buy Dr Colin Mendelsohn & his colleagues 🙏
Do your bit in the fight to legalise safer nicotine and make it easier for Australian's to give up deadly combustible tobacco 👊