The Australian federal government is moving towards an effective ban on over-the-counter e-cigarettes through strict import restrictions and packaging measures to discourage vaping, mainly among teenagers.

Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler said Tuesday that vaping has become a leading behavioral issue in the country’s middle and high schools and a growing problem even in primary schools, but acknowledged that the products have therapeutic uses under the right circumstances.

Vaping involves heating a liquid containing nicotine in an electronic cigarette, which is vaporized and inhaled by the user. It is widely regarded as an alternative to cigarette smoking and a product to help smokers quit, but instead teenagers and even children around the world are turning vaping into an addictive habit.

“Vaping has been introduced to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help smokers quit,” Mr. Butler said.

“It wasn’t marketed as an entertainment product – especially for our kids. But this is what it has become – the biggest loophole in Australian history,” he added.

In announcing the new rules, Butler specifically said that over-the-counter vape cigarettes would be banned from importation, while vaping products would have to be packaged like drugs, to be sold only as products to help smokers quit. .

Fashionable e-cigarette packs that appeal to teenagers will be restricted and all disposable vaping products will be banned.

“This product is for our children and is sold along with lollipops and chocolate,” Butler said.

“Like with smoking, let’s be honest, big tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging, and added flavors to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.”

Before the changes were announced on Tuesday, the only legal way to buy nicotine vapor in Australia was by prescription from a doctor at a pharmacy, but the products were still widely sold across the country.

A “black market” of convenience stores and gas stations selling nicotine vapor without any labeling or warning to minors is thriving due to a lack of regulations and measures, Mr. Butler said.

“No more chewing gum flavors. No more pink unicorns. No more vaping deliberately disguised as children’s hands to hide in pencil cases,” the Australian health minister promised.

Source: CNN