The Drill: Vaping
The DRILL is back, looking at the evidence behind topical issues. And since the last DRILL on nuclear small modular reactors (nuclear SMRs), the Liberal National party have made SMRs a centrepiece of their ‘clean’ energy policy. Here’s the link to that article if you want to refresh why the technology is a very bad option for Australia in the short term, and probably just as bad in the longer term.
But this month I’ve been distracted by vapes, 1st devised by the Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik in the early 2000s. By 2019 in the USA, up to 27.5% of high school students were vaping, (Circulation.2023:148:703-728). In Australia, data, from the first quarter of 2023, shows that about one in seven 14- to 17-year-olds and one in five 18- to 24-year-olds are current vapers. New vaping legislation this month may curb that increase, but there is a simultaneous proliferation of ‘Smoking Stations’ and tobacconists in shopping centres and on street corners. It was hard not to notice the ironic juxtaposition of one directly opposite St Vincent’s Hospital and the Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Darlinghurst, Sydney.
‘Tobacco for Less’ opposite St Vincent’s Hospital and the Kinghorn Cancer Centre.
And on a recent central Sydney walk, there were 5 outlets around a single block, open late, brightly lit and with colourfully packaged confectionary at the entrance. With watermelon and ice-cream flavoured vapes under the counter, it takes little to guess the target market.
So, for this edition of the Drill, I wanted to answer the following questions:
- Who owns the tobacconist stores?
- How easy is it to set one up?
- What are outlets legally allowed to sell?
- What is the uptake of vaping amongst younger people, and does it lead to cigarette use?
- Is there evidence that vaping assists quitting cigarettes?
- How does Australian legislation compare internationally?
- What happens when access to vapes is phased out in Australia?
- What about Australian Democrats policy on vaping, cigarettes, and recent Australian legislation?
- Who owns the stores?
TSG has a track record in promoting cigarette consumption. In July 2011 its spokesperson addressed the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing in relation to plain tobacco packaging and stated there was ‘no evidentiary basis to conclude that plain packaging will deter young people from taking up smoking .… Pack design … does not play a role in uptake of smoking or continued smoking’.
That was subsequently shown to be totally wrong.
Of course, there is quite a problem with selling tobacco legally at present. Federal Government taxes are currently about 65% of the purchase price of cigarettes and tobacco, with increases of 5% annually for the next three years. Because the cost of legal tobacco is prohibitive and margins are so low, the head of the peak body for convenience stores said that ‘retailers have been unable to make a profit on legal sales’. On the other hand, if outlets sell ‘under the counter’ tobacco or vaping products brought into the country without paying excise, the businesses can be highly profitable. This has led to ‘more than 1000 illegal outlets in Melbourne’, with involvement of bike gangs and organised crime. The ‘tobacco wars,’ fought over profits from illegal tobacco sales, have resulted in several assassinations: this 2023 ABC YouTube video reports on the 29th attack on Melbourne tobacco outlets and the 3rd in one area in 2 weeks.
Similar arson attacks have been reported in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/25/melbourne-tobacco-shop-fire-firebomb-attacks-record-illicit-illegal-tobacco-seized. And the illegal market is huge. On 8th February 2024, the ABC reported that the previous week, health authorities from the Therapeutic Goods Association and NSW Health seized over 30,000 vapes, 118,000 cigarettes and 45 kilograms of flavoured and loose-leaf tobacco, and 284 containers of nicotine pouches from 60 retailers in south-east Sydney.
- So just how easy is it to set up a store?
To find the answer, I contacted the Sydney City Council.
The guy in charge of planning assessments was very helpful (5 smileys) and provided a number of useful links. To my surprise, they indicated NO rules governing sites for tobacco outlets , and of course no guidelines regarding proximity to schools (or hospitals or cancer centres). For development application, tobacco outlets are assessed as convenience stores, and “if the land use is permissible and the application meets all the relevant controls, then it will be approved”.
That’s not to say that there are no rules associated with selling tobacco products. There are requirements about advertising and sale, but nothing on site or numbers.
That’s the next DRILL.