Australia’s tobacco management insurance policies have lengthy been hailed as among the many world’s hashest. Via plain packaging, excessive excise taxes, public training campaigns, and strict advertising and marketing rules, the nation had pushed smoking charges down over the previous 20 years. Nevertheless, this success has now introduced Australia to a vital coverage juncture. Consultants have been warning that the nation’s aggressive strategy to tobacco and nicotine management—particularly its near-total ban on retail vape gross sales—is now undoubtedly doing extra hurt than good.
Latest critiques from criminologist Dr. James Martin of Deakin College and epidemiologist Dr. Edward Jegasothy of the College of Sydney, spotlight a rising concern: Australia’s present insurance policies, whereas well-intentioned, are starting to reflect the unintended penalties of failed drug prohibition methods. Printed within the Hurt Discount Journal, their evaluation argues that the mixture of unaffordable authorized cigarettes and tight restrictions on safer nicotine alternate options is fueling a thriving black market—one which brings with it elevated felony exercise, violence, and public well being dangers.
The battle on nicotine fuels the black market
The numbers help this concern. Tobacco excise has greater than tripled over the previous decade, with a single packet of cigarettes now costing round $40—$28 of which is tax. Whereas this pricing construction initially succeeded in deterring smoking, economists now say the technique has reached a breaking level. Illicit tobacco is filling the void left by unaffordable authorized merchandise, with current figures exhibiting that just about 20% of all tobacco consumed in Australia is smuggled or illegally produced.
Australian Border Pressure knowledge paints a troubling image. From 2019–20 to 2022–23, intercepted illicit tobacco surged from 600 million to 2.6 billion cigarettes, coinciding with rising violence linked to black market operations. Regardless of these warnings, the federal authorities continues to pursue a inflexible excise coverage, planning additional will increase by 2026. Income, in the meantime, is plummeting—tobacco excise earnings are forecast to drop to $7.4 billion this 12 months, the bottom in additional than a decade.
Towards this backdrop, Martin and Jegasothy advocate for a pivot to a hurt discount mannequin. They suggest briefly freezing and even lowering tobacco excise, whereas concurrently broadening entry to regulated vaping merchandise—instruments that ship nicotine with out combustion, the first explanation for smoking-related illness. In addition they name for higher public training round these alternate options to empower shoppers with correct, science-based data.
People who smoke are paying the worth for medical misinformation
A part of the inefficacy of Australia’s presciption mannequin, has been boiling right down to the unlucky indisputable fact that many native physicians will not be keen to prescribe the merchandise.
Such a shift is especially pressing given the rising world recognition that nicotine, whereas addictive, shouldn’t be the primary explanation for smoking-related sickness. It’s the act of burning tobacco—and inhaling the ensuing toxins—that causes cancers, coronary heart illness, and persistent lung situations. But surveys of healthcare professionals reveal that many nonetheless mistakenly affiliate nicotine with most cancers, perpetuating worry and confusion round much less dangerous merchandise like e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco.
This misinformation has severe penalties. When docs misunderstand nicotine, they’re much less more likely to advocate reduced-risk merchandise to sufferers who would possibly profit from them. With out correct steerage, people who smoke could keep away from safer alternate options and proceed utilizing flamable tobacco, growing their threat of illness and demise.
Furthermore, within the case of Australia, having misinformed physicians is all of the extra harmful, given the present prescription solely mannequin whereby shoppers can solely buy vapes through a health care provider’s presciption. The truth is, a part of the inefficacy of Australia’s presciption mannequin, has been boiling right down to the unlucky indisputable fact that many native physicians will not be keen to prescribe the merchandise.
Opposition to hurt discount persists. Public well being advocates corresponding to Dr. Becky Freeman argue that deregulating vaping with out strong knowledge is reversing a long time of progress. She helps the present mannequin of limiting vape gross sales to pharmacies and stresses the significance of stopping youth uptake. But even Freeman acknowledges the problem of controlling provide within the face of rising black market exercise.
Rethinking tobacco management with compassion and science
In actuality, Australia now faces a stark coverage alternative: double down on enforcement-heavy, high-tax methods which will gasoline unlawful commerce and public mistrust, or embrace a balanced strategy that differentiates between flamable tobacco and safer nicotine supply programs. Nations just like the UK, Sweden and New Zealand, which permit regulated vape gross sales and have seen corresponding declines in smoking charges, provide compelling examples of the latter.
The controversy over nicotine coverage is not nearly ideology—it’s about public well being outcomes. Differentiating between smoking and vaping, between combustion and hurt discount, is crucial. By embracing a science-informed, compassionate strategy that recognises the position of safer alternate options, Australia might defend its hard-won progress whereas lowering smoking-related harms even additional.
In the long run, selecting hurt discount isn’t a concession. It’s a realistic, humane technique to satisfy individuals the place they’re, scale back well being dangers, and dismantle the black market that thrives on outdated insurance policies. For Australia, the way forward for tobacco management will depend on this shift.
How Australia’s Tobacco and Vape Insurance policies Are Failing the Deprived
