Australia's watered-down but nevertheless world-first vaping laws have come into force today. But the ban has been met with skeptism from some experts. Pharmacists tasked with administering prescribed vapes say legal and supply issues haven't been resolved.
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00:00They're the little devices packing an addictive nicotine punch.
00:05It's a tool from Big Tobacco deliberately designed to recruit a new generation to nicotine
00:11addiction.
00:13Even luring the children of the Home Affairs Minister.
00:15There is a vape store just down the street from their school and I have watched my kids
00:18stand in front of that store and pick at which vape they like the look of.
00:22That is how deliberately these products are targeted at children.
00:26The free sale of nicotine vapes has been illegal for years.
00:30Regardless, the black markets thrived.
00:33That's angered now outlawed vape retailers who argue they've been doing the right thing
00:38and could have helped.
00:40Because they've never been legal to sell, you've never had shops like us actually selling
00:44them to people and educating them on the way to use them properly.
00:48Instead, there's a new sheriff of sorts.
00:50My message to organised crime is we are targeting you.
00:54The newly announced illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner will help coordinate enforcement
00:59across jurisdictions and wants the public's help.
01:03We need your support through education, through dobbing in where the cigarettes or illicit
01:10cigarettes and substances are sold.
01:13Vapes are only legally available through pharmacies to people with a prescription.
01:17Sweet flavours are gone under the government's direction that only therapeutic vapes are
01:22legal.
01:23There are absolutely no products that we know of that are registered as a therapeutic product
01:27with the TGA.
01:28But the TGA says there are other avenues.
01:31There are a number of instances in which doctors and patients are able to access what we call
01:36unapproved goods through our special access or authorised prescriber schemes.
01:40The changes have been welcomed by quit advocates who say they'll lead to better health outcomes.