100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

Jane Stephens: none of us can breathe easy with new watered-down laws

Do you have a news tip? Click here to send to our news team.

Tax relief for workers and pain for investors in budget

Young people entering the housing market face such significant difficulties that the government needs to break a major election promise on controversial tax changes, More

Large site on town’s main street sold

A prominent site in the heart of a Sunshine Coast town has changed hands. The mixed-use property at 3 Station Street in Pomona sold to More

Unique ‘home on wheels’ put on market

A unique retro campervan that has turned heads across the Sunshine Coast – and the country – is up for grabs with its owner More

Nurse coach honoured with top health award

A renal clinical nurse coach who has spent years empowering nurses behind the scenes has claimed a major Sunshine Coast Health award. Recognised for her More

Disability peer-support network moves office

A peer-support network for Queensland families of children with disabilities is moving from Woombye to Nambour mid-May. The official opening ceremony of Parent to Parent More

Council dog fine backlash erupts

Frustrated Sunshine Coast residents have flooded community forums after dog owners were hit with $333 fines for overdue registrations, sparking accusations their local council’s More

Cinnamon and apple, choco-vanilla, icy watermelon with a minty twist.

Name your flavour and it is sure to be available.

Watch the kids breathe it in, then get hooked.

No one saw the enormity of vaping’s addiction wave.

It was seen as inoffensive at first, with even doctors embracing it as a way to ease people off smoking.

But to a generation that had not been subjected to the shock ads and public health campaign about the perils of smoking, breathing in tasty water vapour was quickly embraced as fun, social and intoxicating.

No one predicted that vaping would become so widespread. Picture: Shutterstock

Then the science rolled in about how terrible it was for lungs, the stats stacked up about how much of it was coming from offshore, and the government panicked.

A world-first ban on the vessels of poison was announced – the very possession of them without a prescription to be an illegal act.

Then another switch and an eleventh-hour back-pedal.

Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb.

From the start of this month, vapers might still need a prescription and can only get the devices from chemist shops.

But from October, vapes can be bought without a prescription.

Crazy stuff.

The possession of vapes will remain decriminalised, even for the very young, which means the local pharmacy is going to be the place to hang out for young puffers.

Vapes will be like ciggies, except you get them from pharmacies instead of shops: plain packaging, behind the counter, ID required, limited to boring flavours.

Maybe the softening was because the federal government is not making the money it used to on nicotine.

It had projected getting about $15 billion last financial year in excise on tobacco, but only got $10.5 billion.

Fewer people were buying legal smokes (they are about $60 a pack these days, so little wonder), but they sure were getting their nicotine hits from places unregulated and untaxed.

Vapes will still be relatively accessible. Picture: Shutterstock.

So, instead of banning vaping, the government (and the Opposition) will keep it, regulate it to collect their cut and go hard on illegal imports.

Making money out of people’s unhealthy habits has long been the practice of our governments, with booze, the pokies and cigarettes some of the income streams they rely on.

But they had the chance to do better: to show the public good was bigger than their addiction to our sins.

And now they have blown it.

What a crying shame.

Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer.

Subscribe to SCN’s free daily news email

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
This field is hidden when viewing the form
[scn_go_back_button] Return Home
Share