Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction Department of the Senate PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 [email protected] November 4th, 2020 A Name-Withheld Submission to The Select Committee on Tobacco Harm Reduction Dear Committee Members, I am currently a regular vaper who successfully used vaping to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes about four years ago. I am male, 58 years of age and happily married with three adult children in their early twenties. Like many of my generation, at a youthful 13 years of age, I picked up a tobacco smoking habit that was considered very sophisticated and grown up at the that time. The committee will of course be aware that smoking was still very widespread from the 1950s to the late 1980s until the manufacturer’s outright fraudulent defence and dangers of this product started to attract the attention of Health & Legal Regulators around the world. In 1995 on the birth of my first daughter I stopped drinking alcohol on a whim and felt great. This was instant and easy to do and has certainly contributed to my good health in my late 50s along with sensible diet and light exercise. Shortly after this I made my first attempt at quitting smoking and this was to be a pattern that would be repeated many times from 1995 through to 2016. Throughout this period I used every method from cold turkey, champix, gum, patches and hypnotism. The experience of attempting to quit tobacco was completely different to quitting drinking. The addictive urges were far stronger, the triggers were more powerful and the habitual sensation of a cigarette between the fingers, the drawback and exhale as well as the olfactory appeal of smelling cigarette smoke amazingly held a vice like grip into my brain pleasure centres. As all smokers will confirm it is amazing that we ever start the habit with the initial cough, light headedness and filthy burnt taste of the tobacco. However, as users of many substances will attest (alcohol included), the brain can quickly rewire an unappealing flavour to an attractive sensation to whatever it is that is stimulating pleasure centres- in this case the alertness and some mild dopamine release. It is little surprise that people who suffer depression, anxiety or other psychiatric disorders represent highly in usage statistics. So the long and short of the quitting process was sometimes weeks, months or years but somehow I always found myself picking up this habit again in times of stress or personal loss or sometimes just stupidity at a social gathering thinking “I’ll just have a few tonight.” In 2015 an old friend first made me aware of vaping. He had made the switch and sang its praises for returning his sense of smell and taste, lung function and very importantly he did not stink of tobacco anymore. After some initial research on the products and liquids available it was with some trepidation in 2016 I bought some hardware in Australia and some flavoured e-liquid from New Zealand. My trepidation was due to the fact I was forced to import the nicotine component as it was not available for legal sale in Australia and due to the confusing miasma of conflicting State Government laws on the 1 status of vaping in each Australian State & Territory. I felt like I was breaking some law, but which one, and what the penalty was were very unclear. One thing was quickly very evident. From the moment I charged up my vape pen, filled it with liquid and vaped, I have never picked up a cigarette again. It is different for some people with dual use for a while, but I must have done my research and picked the right tool for me. Within a few days I had thrown out my half packet of cigarettes and have not looked back. I report the same improvements in my lifestyle, respiratory health and wellbeing as others as well as being free from the cocktail of cancer-causing additives from tobacco cigarettes. Unlike cigarettes where the more intense nicotine action causes smokers to have cigarette breaks during the day I found may times I can go all day without vaping and then enjoy a quiet vape in the evening catching up on news or reading. Addressing point c. of the terms of reference “the established evidence on the effectiveness of e- cigarettes as a smoking cessation treatment” I cannot provide figures or studies to support my contention that vaping is the most effective smoking cessation treatment except as anecdotal evidence of my own experience and many, many thousands like me. I hope you hear many more stories like mine. They are scattered in large numbers across close-knit social media communities like Twitter and Facebook. My main fear is that there are many vapers who are disengaged from the political process who do not understand the implications of what is being proposed and how it has great potential to push them back onto very harmful tobacco products until it too late. I have had many discussions with community members who think the change will mean they just obtain a prescription from a doctor and keep importing their e- liquids as they do now. Absolute horror and anger are the general responses when the proposed changes and how unworkable they are when clearly explained. I would also like to address point f. of the terms of reference “access to e-cigarette products under Australia’s current regulatory frameworks”. There is presently reasonable access to vaping hardware and nicotine free e-liquids through the growing number of vaping stores that are starting to service population areas (slowly though because of the regulatory uncertainty). This uncertainty is the death knell for small business, and I believe there is a nascent industry waiting in the wings to create some wonderful e-juices and flavours for the industry. Australia is a world leader in the food and beverage industry with many iconic products and sensible vaping regulations would be all we need to create e-liquid development, lab analysis, manufacturing (bottles and labels), marketing and retail employment. Sensible nicotine regulation would allow our juice industry to grow and sell either free of nicotine or in various strengths and stop the money and jobs from flowing out of Australia into other economies. Please let us bring this back home. Finally, I would like to add one thought. My experience is anecdotal but I believe it is representative. My three daughters aged between 22 and 25 tell me that since their school days until now smoking cigarettes is the cool and rebellious thing to do. Always has been and continues to be so. Their cousins and friends are all the same and they believe that vaping is not a gateway to smoking. Smoking is a gateway to smoking. One of my daughters who has picked up an occasional social habit of smoking when out drinking recently purchased a vape device and some low nicotine juice to explicitly avoid cigarettes as she is starting to see what an addictive slippery slope they can be and an increasing number of her friends are becoming regular cigarette smokers. Finally, I cannot understand why the same controls that apply to the display of products and limiting access to minors for sales of cigarettes, alcohol and gambling products cannot be applied in an identical manner to vaping products. 2 Please do not turn law-abiding, good citizens and family members into potential criminals because we are forced to import these products to break the law to protect our health using the most effective harm minimisation method. I am sure some of the commissioners will enjoy a relaxing alcoholic drink at the end of a busy day whereas I enjoy a stimulating recharge with a vape. If there is a slight penalty to pay in our twilight years for choices we make: eating sugar, fatty food, alcohol, smoking, less harmful vaping and over-exercise (yes, I believe some people are addicted to endorphins and actually damage their bodies through extreme and top end sports) then these are some of life’s pleasures or pathways we should be free to choose. The father of an old friend said at his son’s 21st birthday years ago: “Remember we are here for a good time not a long time!” I could not agree more. Thank you for your time and hope my thoughts and opinions give some background of a mature and sensible person who vapes. Sincerely, Name Withheld Requested. 3 .