New tobacco laws pass parliament

The Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Amendment Bill introduces a licensing regime for nicotine products, including vapes and e-cigarettes, with new offences and penalties, and stronger enforcement.

“We have been calling for this action for years,” AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton said.

“Last year, Queensland received the Dirty Ashtray Award for the government’s failure to enforce regulations around the sale of vapes.

“Just under a year later, the Queensland government has taken action with these new laws. Hopefully this will ensure we do not receive this award again.

“We are seeing welcome moves at both the state and federal levels to crack down on non-prescription nicotine products to protect young people from nicotine addiction and lung damage.

“The Queensland Chief Health Officer’s most recent report shows e-cigarette use has increased 40 per cent over the past four years, and almost 15 per cent of 18-29-year-olds in Queensland currently vape.

“There is no evidence that these young people are using vapes to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes. Rather, vapes are targeted at non-smokers, with bright packaging and sweet flavourings.

“The new provisions preventing people under the age of 18 from handling or selling tobacco products are welcome, as they will reduce the potential for smoking to be normalised among children.

“We would like to see them in force immediately, not in September next year for large retailers and September 2025 for small businesses.

“However, these laws are a long-overdue step towards tackling the scourge of vaping.”

Read AMA Queensland’s submission on these laws here.

Background

• In 2022, 19.7 per cent of Queensland adults had tried an e-cigarette in their lifetime—5 per cent were currently vaping (any regular or intermittent use of e-cigarettes in the past 12 months) and 1.9 per cent were vaping daily.
• Regular tobacco cigarettes contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic.
• Emerging data suggests links between vaping and chronic lung disease and asthma.
• In 2015, the US Surgeon General reported that e-cigarette use among high school students had increased by 900 per cent, and 40 per cent of young e-cigarette users had never smoked regular tobacco.
• Between 2016 and 2019, the proportion of people who had ever used e-cigarettes rose from 8.8 per cent to 11.3 per cent [Source: 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey].
• Nearly two in three (64 per cent) of current smokers and one in five (20 per cent) of non-smokers aged 18-24 years reported having tried vaping.
• About 2.6 per cent of Australian adults report current vaping – more than double the figure (1.2 per cent) from three years earlier.