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It’s unbelievable that Australia thought its tobacco policy would work - it’s more unbelievable that it won’t change it

Having read most of the submissions to the inquiry, one thing stands out the usual suspects are still pushing the same tired playbook. More enforcement, higher taxes, tighter controls. No reflection, no accountability, no sign that anything has been learned from what’s already gone wrong. It’s the same ideas that helped create the current mess, now being presented as the solution to it.

If a vape company claimed that their #vapes improves oral health (which in the case of smokers would actually be TRUE), that company would be fined into bankruptcy. So why is the Government allowed to spread blatant bullshit like this?

@SenTomCotton You DO realize you are doing big tobacco's bidding, right? THEY want you to go after what you call "illegal Chinese vapes" because those products undermine deadly cigarette sales.

For years we've watched in shock as officials & "experts" campaigned to (mis)teach the public that e-cigs ware as bad or worse than smoking. We first wrote about CDC mis-portraying e-cigs in 2015. Anyone who thinks gov mis-info is a right vs left issue is not paying attention.

@Vapingit @JMacNYC @jkelovuori @DrMakaryFDA @SecKennedy I have worked in global health for 30 years now. Most of that time focused on HIV, TB, malaria and child health. I have never seen anything like the level of #JunkScience and deliberate health misinformation that spews out of many (thankfully fewer) tobacco control "experts."

@amspectator Public health's animosity toward #SaferNicotine alternatives is baffling in the face of 490,000 smoking-related deaths every year. Just FYI: Here is what RFK Jr. actually thinks... Like a stopped clock, even he can be right from time to time. x.com/i/status/19500…

There’s a fundamental problem with the submission from Michelle Jongenelis: it acknowledges the symptoms of Australia’s nicotine policy failure, but refuses to confront the cause. We’re told the illicit tobacco market now makes up around 55% of the total market. That’s not a side issue. That’s not a “blip”. That is systemic collapse. When more than half the market is illegal, enforcement isn’t just struggling, it’s already lost. And yet the response offered is more of the same: stricter enforcement, more regulation, fewer retailers, and continued reliance on high prices to “motivate” quitting. That logic simply doesn’t hold up anymore. The submission leans heavily on the idea that high prices drive people to quit. But in the real world, what’s happening is much simpler: high prices are driving people to the black market. Smokers aren’t quitting en masse, they’re just switching suppliers. The policy hasn’t reduced demand, it’s just handed supply over to organised crime. Even more telling is what’s missing. There is no serious engagement with safer nicotine alternatives. No acknowledgement that products like vaping or other non-combustible nicotine options exist as substitutes. Instead, they’re dismissed as “industry narratives” or ignored entirely, as if the only acceptable outcome is complete nicotine abstinence. That’s not public health. That’s ideology. Because the reality is this: People smoke for nicotine, but they die from combustion If you remove combustion, you dramatically reduce harm If you make safer alternatives accessible and affordable, people switch This isn’t theoretical. It’s already happened in multiple countries. Instead, this submission doubles down on a model that is visibly failing in Australia. It even argues that reducing excise won’t fix the illicit market, which may be partly true, but completely sidesteps the obvious question: what will? The answer cannot just be “more enforcement” when the market is already dominated by illegal supply. There’s also a contradiction at the heart of the argument. On one hand, the submission says smokers are being “denied the opportunity to quit” because of cheap illicit tobacco. On the other, it resists making any safer alternatives widely accessible or affordable. So smokers are stuck between expensive legal cigarettes and cheap illegal ones, with very little in between. That’s not a pathway to quitting. That’s a trap. And then there’s the broader framing. The submission paints illicit tobacco primarily as a criminal justice issue and a moral failing, something that “normalises criminal behaviour.” But it avoids acknowledging that policy settings created the conditions for that market to thrive in the first place. You can’t price a legal product out of reach, restrict access, remove viable alternatives, and then act surprised when an illegal market fills the gap. That’s not an unintended consequence. That’s predictable. What this submission ultimately reveals is a system that is unwilling to adapt. Even when faced with clear evidence of failure, it falls back on the same tools, the same assumptions, and the same blind spots. If the goal is genuinely to reduce smoking, then the conversation needs to shift from punishment and restriction to substitution and harm reduction. That means making safer nicotine products cheaper, accessible, and acceptable as alternatives to smoking. Until that happens, Australia will continue to see exactly what this submission describes: a thriving illicit market, stalled quit rates, and a policy framework that looks increasingly disconnected from reality.

Prohibition always fails. Always. A disastrous Dutch flavour ban has instantly created a booming black market, with nearly 90% of vapers now using illegal products. When will politicians learn that bans don't work? clearingtheair.eu/post/9-10-dutc…

Without a paywall here archive.is/XSoKi

@jamomartin @drjoesDIYhealth @caphraorg @MarewaGlover @Anne_Ruston What stands out from the submissions isn’t diversity of thinking, it’s uniformity. Across law enforcement bodies, health organisations, councils, and advocacy groups, the same prescription keeps getting repeated: more policing, tougher rules, higher pressure. It doesn’t seem to matter that these are the very approaches that have already led to exploding illicit markets, loss of control, and worsening outcomes. There’s almost no sense of reflection. No serious engagement with what’s actually happening on the ground. Just a doubling down on enforcement, as if repeating the same strategy louder will somehow produce a different result. What’s more concerning is how broad this alignment is. When groups with very different roles all converge on the same narrow solution, it stops looking like independent analysis and starts looking like groupthink. And that’s the real problem. Because when everyone is focused on tightening control, no one is asking whether the approach itself is flawed. No one is seriously considering alternatives that might actually reduce harm rather than just attempt to suppress behaviour. The result is a policy environment that feels less like it’s responding to reality, and more like it’s trying to force reality to comply with a predetermined view. • Northern Territory Police Association • Austrac • Illicit Tobacco and e-Cigarette Commission • Royal Australian College of General Practitioners • City of Stonnington • Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission • Cignall • Simon Chapman • Cancer Council (Queensland, WA, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Australia) • Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman • Freight and Trade Alliance • Aboriginal Health Organisation • Bega Valley Shire Council • Lung Foundation Australia • Australian Taxation Office • Michelle Jongenelis • Tobacco Free • Shopping Centre Council • Master Grocers Australia • National Heart Foundation • Australian Medical Association • The Matilda Centre • Australian Council on Smoking and Health

A short message from our former Chair, @grannylouisa about the proposal to ban vaping in public places. Check out our campaign website for information on how to contact your MP and submit your response to the government consultation. 👇 savevaping.org

@jgitchell @mikepesko @DearPandemic @drjenndowd @unbiasedscipod For years we've watched in shock as officials & "experts" campaigned to (mis)teach the public that e-cigs ware as bad or worse than smoking. We first wrote about CDC mis-portraying e-cigs in 2015. Anyone who thinks gov mis-info is a right vs left issue is not paying attention.

“Nicotine is not a health product, but as [with] other cultural drugs, such as caffeine and alcohol, it’s difficult to ban or extinguish all use,” Fagerström said. “Therefore, we have to reduce the risks as much as possible.”

he Tobacco Control Bullies are Back! 5.8% of Youth Vape in Canada. 😳cigarettes are available on every corner
😳safer alternatives locked behind barriers. 😳Black Market thriving Their answer: bully @MarjoriePLC with Canadian Tax 💶 👀 cpac.ca

Sigh. Let's go over this again: 2020: @US_FDA bans 'flavored' pod-based nicotine vapes 2020-2025: - Sales of 'flavored' disposable vapes quadruples - Adult nicotine vaping increases 110% - Teen nicotine vaping drops 61% Can we stop calling these "kid-friendly" yet?

Falso. Vapear no causa "pulmón de palomitas". El alarmismo y la desinformación solo generan prejuicios y daño directo hacia el consumidor adulto y en el sector. Debemos escuchar a la ciencia. #vapeo #vaper #vapeador #desinformacion consalud.es/influcare/rede…

Youth smoking, vaping, and overall nicotine use is at all time lows... IN LARGE PART DUE TO VAPING, and a little bit nicotine pouches!!!#NonCombustibleNicotine #VapingSavesLives #AdultsLikeFlavors #VapingIsNotSmoking #TobaccoHarmReduction

Once you make the switch, Everything becomes easier, No ash, No tar & No stinky smoke smell

5.2 million adults have quit smoking by vaping in Great Britain. Over 10 million in the USA. …And the WHO continues to claim “no conclusive evidence” they help people quit.