Vaping is not harmless and big tobacco is targeting our kids. We had to do this

According to the experts - then - it was a safer way to get a nicotine hit - a safer way to quit smoking.

Big tobacco and vape manufacturers used social media and glamorous influencers to sell these new "cool" accessories.

They even came up with the term "vape" - technically they are e-cigarettes.

They made vapes look like USBs. They added flavouring; caramel, strawberry, peanut butter, and they used bright colours and cartoon characters - they were targeting our kids.

Worryingly, in the last few years, teachers started reporting that they were seeing kids as young as 8 or 9 vaping.

The early sell suggested all you were sucking in was a vapor like air - that it was harmless, but it's not.

The experts will tell you that they think it's less harmful than cigarettes, but this vapor is an aerosol, and it carries toxic chemicals into lungs.

The latest studies suggest that kids who vape are more likely to smoke cigarettes.

People and governments woke up to the harm and 33 countries have now banned the sale of vapes. But for people who without vapes would go back to smoking cigarettes - banning them entirely is a bad idea.

It will just move them underground - and people using vapes will start buying black-market chop-chop.

The government - rightly - wanted to do something about it - and they proposed legislation that would take vapes off the shelves, so kids can't buy them from corner stores and petrol stations. The current legislation proposed by the government means that from July 1, Australians will only be able to access vaping products from a pharmacy with a script from your doctor.

And that's mainly a good thing, except what if you can't get in to see your GP?

In Tasmania it can take weeks to get an appointment. The AMA says that we are facing a shortage of more than 10,600 GPs by 2031.

I started talking to Health Minister Mark Butler, earlier this year, about an amendment that would mean that adult Australians could get their vapes at pharmacies.

They will have to talk to their pharmacist, who can also point them to nicotine patches and nicotine gum. Importantly the vapes won't be on the shelves, they will only be available behind the counter.

You will have to show ID and they won't be available to anyone under the age of 18.

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This will protect our kids and give Australians who still need access to vapes, a way to get them while still staying in touch with a medical professional who can help them manage their vaping with other health conditions.

The Coalition is opposing these changes, they say that enforcement is the way to go - so why didn't they have the courage to do it when they were in power?

Health and lung experts still say that vapes are less harmful than cigarettes but they're not sure how much less harmful.

According to the US Centre for Disease Control, as of 2020 more than 2807 vapers required hospital admission due to EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping use-Associated Lung Injury) 68 of these people died and most of these cases were teens or young adults.

I know these changes will annoy a lot of Australian vapers. It may not be perfect, and law enforcement will need to step up and deal with the illegal vapes, but I believe we must protect our kids.