Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / CDU Psychology Lecturer Dr Tim Piatkowski says it’s now illegal for individuals in the Territory to import nicotine vapes and products without a prescription

Transcript

CDU Psychology Lecturer Dr Tim Piatkowski says it’s now illegal for individuals in the Territory to import nicotine vapes and products without a prescription · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Charles Darwin
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: University lecturer in psychology, doctor Tim pitt Kofski. Good morning
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to you, Tim.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: How are you.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Let me try that again? Good morning to you Tim?
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: How are you hey? Good? Thanks?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Good mate? Sorry, just having some tech issues there that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: are always operate an error on my behalf. Now, we
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: know that the Northern Territory Parliament's got a lot on
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the agenda in the final sittings of the year. Already
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: they've passed the anti discrimination amendments and changes to make
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: it easier to access life saving medications. But a middle
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: of those changes, there were also some changes pasts that
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: are going to impact territory vapors. Tim talk us through
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: what those changes were.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so just specifically, that new bill passed yesterday just
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: add some clarity. So it makes it clear that common
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  Speaker 2: law applies to persons as well, not just businesses in
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the NT. So in twenty nineteen there was an amendment
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: made and basically vaping products were treated the same as
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: tobacco products essentially, so nicotine vaping products has been illegal
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to supply except under a doctor's prescription since October twenty
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: twenty one. But obviously people import and export things as individuals.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: This makes it super clear just around all of those things.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: How do you reckon it's going to impact people who
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: do vape?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, you know, originally vaping products were introduced early
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: two thousand to help people quit, right, so all reduce consumption,
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  Speaker 2: and so e cigarettes were initially the safer alternatives to
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: smoking tobacco due to you know, lower toxicity and things
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  Speaker 2: like that. But there's just a lack of evidence about
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: what harms could arise, you know, in I think the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: starts from the National Health Survey found one in ten
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Australians vape, yeah, and two point two percent of current
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: US somewhere around that. So we've got some evidence to suggest,
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  Speaker 2: you know, short term health effects of vaping aren't super
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: you know, increased respiratory complications, cardiovascular risks. We don't know
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  Speaker 2: what the long term effects are, and so I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, this is this is one of those sort
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  Speaker 2: of moves to protect people's health given that we just
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  Speaker 2: we don't know.
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  Speaker 1: Butry like, that's the frightening part, isn't it That we
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  Speaker 1: don't know? And there seems to be unfortunately quite a
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  Speaker 1: lot of young people vaping.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And so because of that access, right, because
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people and I've got a master's student
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  Speaker 2: working in this area at the moment looking at behavior
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: change around bathing because we've got a lot of you know,
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  Speaker 2: people potentially importing they liquid from China with nicotine in it.
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  Speaker 2: There's just you know, there there has been a lot
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  Speaker 2: of anecdotal reports of large uptake among young people and
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  Speaker 2: then this gateway sort of hypothesis that you know, vaping
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: leads to other substance use.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Now tell me do you think, like with
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: this move that the Northern Territory government's made, do you
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: think it's going to force vapors to switch to the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: likes of cigarettes.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Oh that's a tough one to tell, isn't it. Who knows?
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  Speaker 2: I think really realistically, look, there's still a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people that don't necessarily have nicotine in the you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: they just like the flavor and they'll just have the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: vape irrespective of the content. It will be very interesting
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: to see how it plays out, and I'll be encouraging
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  Speaker 2: my student to monitor that situation carefully.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll be really interested to hear how it sort
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of goes as well. You know a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: listening this morning, you're going to be thinking they don't
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  Speaker 1: know a huge amount about vaping, and you know, wondering
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  Speaker 1: like is it safe.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Look so, in terms of the vaping itself, there is
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: some evidence to suggest that heating that vapor and what's
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: happening there can in fact cause some lung toxicity, can
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: cause cardiovascular toxicity just in and of itself. Also, there's
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: this issue that vapes aren't really regulated, and so some
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  Speaker 2: of these products are made in unregulated factories in China,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: for example, and therefore when the metal gets heated, it
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: can release you know, other types of toxins and so,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you know, it's tough to say, but there could be
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  Speaker 2: issues that arise from that. Not to mention obviously, once
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: you start adding katine or other things, and there's other
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  Speaker 2: issues that arise from that. So it's really like a
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  Speaker 2: two prong sort of effect. And you know, a bit
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  Speaker 2: more regulation in the industry, like in terms of regulating
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  Speaker 2: the quality of debate, regulating the quality of the liquid,
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  Speaker 2: things like that could definitely assist in reducing those times.
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  Speaker 2: But at the moment it's been a bit of a
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  Speaker 2: free for all four while.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Well, and that was going to be my next question, Tim,
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  Speaker 1: you know whether you do feel as though, like in
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  Speaker 1: your opinion, are there enough regulations in place right now?
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  Speaker 2: Look, this is this is one attempt to I guess,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: constrain users options a little bit more. It would be
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  Speaker 2: good to see more stakeholder engagement, so more you know,
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  Speaker 2: discussions with all the people involved to see what they think,
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  Speaker 2: the barriers and the facilitators are, to see what they think,
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  Speaker 2: invaders themselves, to see what they think should be done.
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  Speaker 2: I always think, you know, a strong public health approach
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  Speaker 2: is driven by the consumers or the clients for one
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  Speaker 2: of a better word, and so really easy to see
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  Speaker 2: what those people think because perhaps they have some good ideas.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And again though I suppose the tough thing at
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the moment, or it seems to be the tough thing,
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  Speaker 1: is the fact that that young people seem to sort
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  Speaker 1: of be vaping, and it like right across the board.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I feel as though it's a concern even within school,
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  Speaker 1: the school and everywhere at the moment where you know,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: young people don't seem to see it as being as
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: dangerous is what we sort of know that smoking is.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I'll throw a statistic at you, so
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  Speaker 2: between about twenty fifteen and twenty twenty, we saw e
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  Speaker 2: cigarette just rise by young people by about ninety percent.
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  Speaker 2: I think it was so pretty high. Whether I think
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  Speaker 2: whether there's nicotine in there or not is going to
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  Speaker 2: make a little bit of a difference, But then you know,
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  Speaker 2: the behavior itself could be linked to then go on
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  Speaker 2: to do other similar things eg. You know, smoke, tobacco, EG, smoke,
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  Speaker 2: cannabis EG, so on and so forth. And I think
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  Speaker 2: that's why we're having such a knee jack effect around it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: You know, everybody cares about what the younger generation is
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  Speaker 2: going to go on and do, and so you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: if they're all smoking, they're all vaping, then I think
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  Speaker 2: we just we don't know enough about the health consequences
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  Speaker 2: and we don't know what what gateway that opens to
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  Speaker 2: other substances and behaviors.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, Tim, a really fascinating discussion this morning. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on and telling us a little bit
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: more about those legislative changes, but also speaking a bit
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: more generally about that about vaping.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Cool. Thank you, Thanks for having me.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you