The regulator has acknowledged ‘emerging evidence’ that last year’s restrictions have not stemmed the tide of youth vaping.
Public consultation is now open on new vaping regulations, as the TGA attempts to get a handle on the nicotine e-cigarette black market.
The TGA envisions that a steady supply of regulated products will encourage doctors to prescribe, pharmacies to supply and consumers to purchase products legally.
Health Minister Mark Butler announced the review of Australia’s regulatory framework today, claiming that the previous government was “asleep at the wheel”.
He also announced a suite of regular cigarette reforms, which will include requiring manufacturers to print warnings on every individual cigarette and banning the use of additives like menthol.
“We will seek to limit the use of appealing names on products that, frankly, falsely imply that these products are less harmful things like organic or light,” Mr Butler said.
“There is nothing light about lung cancer.”
The vaping review will look at the regulations introduced as recently as October last year, which effectively made nicotine vapes a prescription medicine.
On a more technical level, the laws made it illegal to import disposable vapes and nicotine-containing e-liquids for personal use and introduced an authorised prescriber program for people who wanted to buy vaping products from an Australian pharmacy.
People who wanted to import their own devices or liquid had to have a prescription for it and could only import a three-month supply.
Carrying or using a disposable e-cigarette or e-liquid device without a prescription has never been legal in any state or territory besides South Australia.
Doctors criticised the laws at the time for not going far enough, and targeting a demographic who were already interested in obtaining products legally.
The TGA appears to have come around to this point of view, citing “emerging evidence” that more action is needed.
“Children are continuing to access nicotine vaping products in higher numbers, and many adults are accessing them on the black market, rather than lawfully with a prescription from an Australian registered doctor,” the regulator said.
According to The Guardian, e-cigarette suppliers have been able to skirt around Australia’s laws by simply removing the word “nicotine” from the ingredients lists, even if the products do contain it.
The TGA is now calling for public comment on four main areas: border control; pre-market TGA assessment; widening the definition of nicotine vaping to ensure that all products are captured by the regulatory framework; and working toward plain packaging.
The proposals to introduce pre-market assessment and packaging to make vapes less attractive to children and adolescents both rely on strengthening the product standard and creating a regulated source of products.
This, the TGA said, would act as a catalyst for doctors to feel more comfortable with prescribing.
In turn, this would encourage pharmacies to stock legal vaping products and patients would turn to these, rather than unregulated illegal vapes.
Public consultation will be open until 16 January 2023.
