Australia has a vaping problem.
Almost everyone I know... it's easier to count the people who don't vape you know what I mean?
So if you go in to town, probably like 90% of people.
Like 98% of our school vapes I reckon.
It's like seeing a smoke machine all along the floor with all the people vaping.
The second you step outside there's just a waft of deliciously scented air.
It's not like you're smoking a durry and you're getting like that bad like ciggy breath you
know what I mean?
Oh I can quit any time until I realised that I couldn't.
People buy them and then sell them to other students at school and stuff.
It's so easy to get anything.
Everyone knows some person you know, it's the same with anything as soon as you know
one person they can get you get anything.
And it's just so easily to access from teens.
Talking of!
[off mic, inaudible] [laughing]
My point has just been further proven it's so easy to access
and anyone at any age can get one.
While it can be hard to find exact numbers, it's estimated around two and a half million
Aussies have vaped at least once in their life.
More than half of those are aged under 30 and a study released last year estimates almost:
...and this number is going up.
I can probably walk up to half of my friends and they will have a vape easily available
for me.
Cigarettes or on the out vapes are in.
Everyone's been brought up with the attitude that like smoking cigarettes, nicotine, that's
all really bad for you.
So I think we're in the generation where that's not so much cool.
When they first came out they painted a picture that it was like a better almost alternative,
like a less addictive alternative to cigarettes, and I think that's why so many kids got hooked
onto it.
Now, the government is cracking down.
In one of the biggest health reforms in the decades...
Australia is set to ban all single-use disposable vapes.
The Government has the scourge of vaping in its sights.
The biggest loophole I think in Australian healthcare history.
This has to end.
This must end.
Last week, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced vapes
or e-cigarettes will be strictly controlled.
The import of non-prescription vapes will be banned
and will no longer be sold in retail stores.
Vapes will now only be sold in pharmacies and in pharmaceutical-like packaging with
certain flavours colours and other ingredientsbanned.
These are supposed to be pharmaceutical products so they will have to present that way.
No more bubblegum flavours.
No more pink unicorns.
No more vapes deliberately disguised as highlighter pens for kids to be able to hide them in their
pencil cases.
These are some of the biggest health reforms in more than a decade.
But will they work?
Ummmmmmm....
It's hard to tell and I think that, you know, we've got to always be careful as scientists
not to, you know, look into a crystal ball and look too far in the future without data....
[Reporter] Associate Professor Ryan Courtney is head of a research group at the National Drug and
Alcohol Research Centre, and he says the Aussie Government has done a lot of work to minimise
smoking numbers over the last few decades.
It's been a whole suit of tobacco, what we call tobacco control initiatives that have
led us to one of the world leaders in the world when it comes to smoking rates.
During the 80s and 90s, around 40% of Aussie men and 30% of women were regular smokers,
until the government made some changes.
Packets were put out of sight in stores, government increased tax on cigarettes, all logos and
branding were banned and packets became this olivey-green colour and massive health warnings
were put on them.
Really what it was about was about reducing the appeal of tobacco products, making sure
there was more health warnings on the pack as well and removing any misleading information
that could be put on there by tobacco companies as well.
All of this worked, and now the government wants to do a similar thing with vapes.
A whole new generation of Australians will need support to quit their new nicotine dependency.
So yes, I do think that there will definitely be a decrease in the ease of access, do I
think they're going to disappear completely?
No, there will still be a market, a black market, they'll still be sold under the counter
from a lot of retailers.
It depends how tough it's cracked down on.
So you gotta get a prescription for them, which will definitely stop like the ease of
getting him which is I guess the biggest part of why they're so popular.
The more you tell them not to do it, the more they're gonna do it, especially if they're
already addicted.
There's always a way around it and I feel like if they're banning it, then just more
people are gonna find more ways and the prices are gonna go up.
You know, it's kind of like when there's a will, there's a way.
People will find loopholes, ways around it.
The harder it is to get and like the more it costs like that's going to incentivise
so many people to give it up.
The only hope is really that people will be too lazy to go and find those loopholes.
Realistically, who's gonna like chase after a teenager to take the vape out their mouth.