this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024

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Online vape seller has ‘no intention of stopping’ shipments to Australia, despite nationwide ban — ‘We have no intention of stopping just because of one twat in Canberra.’ (www.vice.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

152 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Online vape seller has ‘no intention of stopping’ shipments to Australia, despite nationwide ban — ‘We have no intention of stopping just because of one twat in Canberra.’::The New Zealand-based seller issued a notice to its Australian customers that shipments will continue regardless of the government's vape reform.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 8 months ago (10 children)

these things have been flooding in and being sold to kids through vape stores – nine out of ten which have been established within walking distance of schools. That’s no accident, they’re doing that because that is their target market.

That's some bullshit. I assume there's already a law banning the sale of vapes to minors.
Schools are built next to residential neighborhoods. Those same neighborhoods with adults living in them are the target market, not kids. Just like cannabis stores are absolutely everywhere now in Canada (including within walking distance of most schools).

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Are cigarettes banned as well or do they get massive taxes from their sale like in the US?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

All but, massive taxing, plain packaging laws and more controls like can smoke in public places, banned in bars banned in restaurants and hotels ect. Its being “phased out” slowly turning the heat up until its gone.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Australia is the most expensive place in the world for cigarettes so... The latter. But they won't ban it because it makes the govt. so much money.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Didn't they ban it for the younger gen?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

That's NZ, not AU, but the ban got repealed

Edit: didn't realize the online seller is based in NZ

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

Repealed because a hard right wing government got in and removed it to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Allow vaping but ban nicotine.

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[–] [email protected] 206 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Leave vaping alone, but ban those single use vapes with rechargable lithium ion batteries in them. It’s absolutely insane to me the amount of waste from throwing out perfectly good rechargeable batteries after one cycle.

[+] [email protected] -7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No, do not leave vaping alone. Just because some asshat companiea found a new way to exploit health damage for profit does not mean it should be allowed because freedumb.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Let me consume nicotine in the least harmful method available. You don’t get to dictate what I do with my body. That includes all drugs.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (4 children)

You mean nicotine gum? Or nicotine patches right? Because those are still legal.

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[+] [email protected] -6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Sure, but can we then tax the product for the actual health risk?

And least damaging? How about gum, or tabs. No popcorn lung involved.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Abortion is bad for the fetus’s health. Perhaps we should tax it 1000%. While we are at it let’s tax Soda and Sugar. Fuck it lets tax cosmetic surgery, I mean it is such a waste and so risky.

If we are going to go down this road of controlling other people’s bodies let’s go all the way then.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Sugar is already being taxed, and this will grow. High fructose should be extra taxed yes. Abortion seems out of place in your rabid "muh freedumbs" response.

There is a responsibility for a government to protect the health of citizens. I can see this (and drugs) being properly regulated. And then people can buy and use as they see fit. But just free sales, no.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I don’t agree with those taxes. People are free to do with their body what they want, provided it’s not harmful to others. This is not the responsibility of the government.

Providing education so people can make informed decisions about the risks of the behaviors they engage in - now that’s a government (and parental) responsibility.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, same as with vaccination. Your decisions influence a lot of others.

Even if the government properly informs people, not everyone is able to make an informed decision.

Private companies abusing the system and hurting many people along the way is not something that should be celebrated as freedom. And this is a perfect example of that. Health, the environment everything can be sacrificed in the name of profit.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (3 children)

As long as I don't have to subsidise their health care

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Well I’m glad you are there to dictate what someone can and can’t do with their body. We only want people to engage in activities if they are state sanctioned.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

As an alternative, government regulates all sorts of things. Alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, firearms.

The government is the counterweight to corporations abusing people that might not be able to resist and the VERY negative societal impacts this has.

The fact you think this is unnecessary makes you very fortunate that you never had to deal with the negative externalities of these companies.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Popcorn lung does not come from vaping any sort of regular vape juice that is on the market anymore. Popcorn lung came from inhaling vape juices that had Diacetyl, or Vitamin E acetate. These were used for flavoring in the early days of vapes before it was found out that they cause popcorn lung. It was also more common in THC vapes than nicotine ones.

I haven't heard of one case of it happening since then, as all of the vape juice manufacturers stopped adding these ingredients years ago. I'm not saying vaping isn't bad for you, it definitely is, but popcorn lung is not something anyone needs to be concerned about anymore. It is definitely not as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes, at least.

You are correct that gum or nicotine pouches are the least damaging way to consume nicotine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Popcorn lung came from inhaling vape juices that had Diacetyl, or Vitamin E acetate.

The nasty cases were Vitamin E acetate, not diacetyl. Diacetyl is butter aroma, same stuff as in actual butter, probably not dangerous at all at sane concentrations, certainly at the amount sensible for vape juice. Cigarette smoke contains more diacetyl than the highest ever measured concentrations in vapes and somehow noone is arguing that cigarettes are causing popcorn lung -- they do nasty shit, but not that particular kind of particularly nasty. The original popcorn lung cases were workers in a factory producing popcorn and handling the stuff pretty much pure, though TBH I'm not entirely convinced it was actually diacetyl and not something else.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The disposable one I'm using has a rechargeable battery and an LCD screen lol. So wasteful. I've been saving my dead ones and will be salvaging the battery and screens for a side project.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Just out of curiosity what's preventing you from getting a refillable setup? You can get refillable, rechargable vapes for about $10 more than a single disposable and it'll probably save you money within the month depending on how much you use it.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 8 months ago (3 children)

They banned it in its entirety in Australia for health reasons and the children.

Smokes are A ok though

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65446352

[–] [email protected] 66 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Tobacco lobby go brrrr

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Sort of, but honestly the vapes have created a new generation of smokers and they should have banned them much sooner (unless you have a prescription and actual plan to use them to quit smoking). They were much easier for new people to get into and we went from smoking dying out to a sizeable number of young smokers.

The tobacco companies have done very well out of vaping

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (4 children)

If the government, 5-10 years ago when it would have been apropos to do so, looked into vaping and drew up specific regulations to have legal vaping, we wouldn’t have the issue we have today. Instead, because of almost a decade of inaction, we now have a new generation of nicotine addicts that they’re hurriedly trying to stop.

We needed regulated, plain-packaged and limited-flavour vapes available to legally buy at a reasonable price to quash out both smoking and prevent kids from getting addicted, but that horse has already bolted.

The cynic in me says they intentionally didn’t regulate vapes because the science wasn’t ready yet, and they didn’t want to accept any blame for legalising something that could end up to be pretty harmful in the long term. So, because they didn’t want to accept that risk then we now have a whole generation of vapers whose health issues we’ll be dealing with for 80+ years to come.