Restrict vape prescribing to doctors
Children as young as 10 are vaping in school bathrooms, showing the urgent need for action to stop vapes from being sold without a doctor's prescription, AMA Queensland Vice President Dr Nick Yim has told ABC Wide Bay. "We do not want our next generation of kids addicted to nicotine."
Transcript: AMA Queensland Vice President, Dr Nick Yim, ABC Wide Bay, Mornings with David Dowsett, Thursday 26 October 2023
Subject: Vaping crisis
DAVID DOWSETT: The Australian Medical Association is calling for tougher regulation for prescribing liquid nicotine products for vaping, as schools are bending under the weight of the overwhelming flood of nicotine products in the hands of children. Is this just what's needed? Let's catch up with Dr Nick Yim, GP from the Fraser Coast and Vice President of the Australian Medical Association Queensland. Nick, good morning.
DR NICK YIM: Good morning David.
DAVID DOWSETT: Nick, what's really prompted the AMA to take a stand against vaping?
DR NICK YIM: It's something where vaping, as you just said, we do have a bit of a crisis, not just in the Wide Bay but across the whole country. When I visit schools, school principals, teachers, parents, a lot of children, our children, sometimes as young as 10 or 11, they're vaping, backing up school bathrooms. And I think this is a big reason why from a health perspective, we need to stop that because we do not want our next generation of kids addicted to nicotine, which is concerning, which is a big issue.
DAVID DOWSETT: So what are you calling for?
DR NICK YIM: We definitely welcome the additional funding that’s been put aside from the Queensland Government to have that Commonwealth joint taskforce. But currently there is no vaping product that's actually approved to use as a quit smoking aid in Australia. So liquid nicotine should not be the first quit choice for any smoker. And I guess the key thing is if GPs or medical practitioners want to support that person to quit smoking, they should be a prescriber. So we need to remove those conflict of interest of that prescribing and handing out of that nicotine.
DAVID DOWSETT: So you want it to only be available by prescription from doctors?
DR NICK YIM: Correct.
DAVID DOWSETT: Pharmacies have actually come under fire for recently accepting offers from a tobacco giant to really push vaping products. As someone who was trained as a pharmacist, what are your thoughts about that?
DR NICK YIM: This is pretty disgraceful from Philip Morris International. This is a clear cut sign of conflict of interest. This is something where we do not need incentives for stocking these products. The community does not need this. Your local pharmacist, they are trusted. They have great health advice. But the key thing is, we want the prescriber and the person who supplies it separated so that a patient or the individual in the community can make those choices.
DAVID DOWSETT: As you said before, you've been doing some work in schools around vaping and you're seeing some big problems here. How are they tackling it in schools? How are they coping?
DR NICK YIM: There are challenges involved and they're using multifaceted approaches. Obviously number one is education. When I go to schools, I try to educate the students, but at the same time, education for the school teachers, the principals and also parents to show the harms of vaping and also some strategies of how to quit vaping. The second element is more education provided by schools. I know some schools are providing internal video, internal education pieces, which is a great positive step for our community.
DAVID DOWSETT: What about the feedback when you're in the schools? What sort of feedback do you get from the children themselves? Do they how do they feel about it? They think it's cool to vape or what's their thoughts?
DR NICK YIM: The students that I speak to are very positive. They realise that vaping is not a wise choice. They realise that a lot of the vaping comes down to peer pressure, and the packaging of vaping products, they're quite fancy, they're quite shiny and they're actively targeted at our younger generation. But there's also the elements where there are fears because a lot of students are vaping in the school bathrooms. So some students are choosing not to go to the toilet at school because they do not want to be associated with the vaping products.
DAVID DOWSETT: Right. So, Nick, what's the dangers if we don't act?
DR NICK YIM: Number one, the big danger is we will see another generation who is addicted to nicotine via the vaping products because these products are directly targeted at younger people and these people have never picked up a cigarette before. So we're just converting to a vaping addiction, which is not good for our community. The other big issue is obviously if people do become addicted to vapes, there will be increased lung injuries and long term chronic illness. Those are the big issues and we need to stop it now.
DAVID DOWSETT: So you're calling for tougher regulation. What do you think the chances are of your call being answered?
DR NICK YIM: I'm optimistic. Both the state and Commonwealth governments are seeing the problems with vaping in our younger generations and it's great to see some additional funding to tackle vaping.
DAVID DOWSETT: Nick, I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much. Dr Nick Yim, a GP from the Fraser Coast and Vice President of the Australian Medical Association Queensland on ABC Wide Bay.
