Heather du Plessis-Allan: The solution to youth vaping is obvious

I'm completely puzzled about something, I'm really stumped by this.

And that is- why two Governments in a row now are pussy-footing around the vaping problem instead of just going hard and properly putting them out of the reach of kids.

The associate Health Minister, Casey Costello, has today announced a so-called crackdown on vaping, which includes banning disposal vapes.

Yes, that does sound familiar. And that would be because Ayesha Verrall already banned them last year. But she stuffed up her definition of a disposable vape, so they're basically still on the market for about $8 bucks.

Go and look at the Vapo sign out front if you don’t believe me.

And mark my words, Casey Costello is about to do exactly the same thing.

Because what's happening is these guys are getting hung up on banning certain types of vapes and whether their batteries are removable or not, thereby defining them as disposable or not.

When the solution to stopping 14 and 15-year-olds getting hooked on vapes is simple, because it's the same solution we used for the ciggies. Force the price up.

The problem with vapes is that they're cheap. As I said, go to Vapo. They're selling a fully compliant vape with a removable battery for $8 right now. That's the kind of thing kids are buying, cause they can afford it.

If you force the price up, the kids won’t be able to. And at some point- like where we're at with the ciggies where a pack costs $45 bucks or whatever, only the hard-core addicts will be left.

We need to take this seriously. This is what I don't understand about these Governments- why aren't they taking this seriously?

As many as 10 percent of our 14 to 15-year-olds vape daily. Nearly 2000 primary and intermediate school students were stood down for vaping or smoking last year.

We don't really know the impact this will have on these kids, or their lungs, but getting hooked on anything at 14 is surely not a good idea.

And I just do not understand why, when the solution is staring consecutive ministers in the face and parents and teachers and principals and health experts are begging them to do something, they dick around with banning this thing or that thing and failing at it instead of just going hard.

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