Australian Health Minister Proposes Nicotine E-Liquid Import Ban, Postpones Ban For Six Months

In late June, Australia’s Minister of Health, Greg Hunt, formally announced that a proposal to ban nicotine e-liquid imports effective July 1, 2020. This gave Australian vapers and the companies that serve them less than two weeks to prepare, which obviously isn’t a lot of time. Shortly after news of the proposed ban broke, vapers across Australia, pro-vaping organizations, and even government MPs announced their opposition to the ban. Then, with just days to go, Minister Hunt backed down and postponed the ban for six months.

As of now, the ban is set to begin on January 1, 2021. At which point, Australian vapers who import nicotine e-liquid without a prescription will be subject to a fine of $220,000.

The Deal With Vaping In Australia

Vaping is easy in lots of places, but Australia isn’t one of them. It’s not that it’s hard, so to say, it’s that the nicotine laws make life difficult for vapers. While Australians who are of legal smoking age can buy cigarettes just about everywhere, which obviously contain nicotine (and tar), they can’t buy nicotine e-liquid anywhere in the country, not legally anyways. This has left one option for Aussie vape users who prefer to have nicotine in their e-juice: the internet.

Through the internet, Australians can import nicotine vape juice for their e-cigs and have it shipped to them for personal use. On a federal level, this is perfectly legal. As a result, many vapers in Australia have been doing exactly this, importing their nicotine vaping supplies from online retailers who are based outside of Australia.

How The Ban Is Supposed To Work

According to the Australia’s federal government, the ban on e-liquid imports that contain nicotine will still allow vapers who are using vaping to quit smoking to get the nicotine vaping supplies that they need. The idea is that vapers will consult a licensed physician to discuss their needs and the physician will, if they see fit, write a prescription for nicotine e-liquid that the vaper can then use to obtain their supplies. So in essence, those who need it should still be able to access it legally with a doctor’s recommendation.

The MPs Who Pushed Back

Hunt’s decision to ban nicotine vaping liquid on July 1 was met with almost immediate opposition from Liberal and National backbenchers. LNP Senator for Queensland Matthew Canavan and LNP Member for Dawson George Christensen launched a petition in support of vaping that called on those who support vaping to sign the petition and have their voices heard.

The petition calls for the Australian Government to regulate vaping, not ban it. By their account, the fed should regulate it, “ensuring that it is sold safely, kept out of the hands of children and taxed in Australia.”

“Instead of outright banning vaping, we believe the Federal Government should regulate it – ensuring that it is sold safely, kept out of the hands of children and taxed in Australia.”

The petition had over 74,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Smoking & Vaping In Australia

Smoking kills over 15,000 Australians every year, but it also generates billions of dollars in tax revenue for the government. So while it outright claims the lives of many Australians, it’s also a significant source of revenue for the government. And while vaping is being cracked down on by government officials, cigarettes and other tobacco products remain easily accessible to Australians. Currently, cigarettes can be purchased at local stores across Australia.

Meanwhile, vaping products containing nicotine are not for sale inside of Australia due to current regulations prohibiting their sale. Subsequently, vapers who want to use nicotine with their e-cigarettes must import their nicotine from overseas in a practice that is currently scheduled to be banned at the start of next year.

Does this sound right to you?