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.

206 points

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.

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66 points

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

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66 points

Tobacco lobby go brrrr

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15 points

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

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8 points

Priorities

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0 points
Removed by mod
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29 points

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.

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25 points

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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7 points

Well I wasn’t planning on vaping for very long, just enough to stop smoking. However, I finally did get honest with myself and get a refillable not too long ago.

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-6 points

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.

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27 points
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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.

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6 points

Nicotine eCigarettes are still available by prescription

I disagree with the chosen changes , but they come as a result of nicotine being found in the vast majority of “nicotine-free” vapes and juices. So we’re not really coming from a position of “choose what goes into your body”.

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-2 points

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

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-5 points
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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.

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85 points
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bold_move.gif

The thing about shipping internationally is that you generally need a logistics partner to actually physically move the packages for you, and they also have a legal responsibility to ensure that what they are carrying is legal. I don’t know what number of packages you need to have seized by customs before they stop doing business with you, but I’d doubt it’s much more than 1.

As a bonus, there are only a handful of logistics companies in NZ that do international outbound, and they are the major domestic delivery companies as well, so if you fuck around enough you could end up finding out that no one will deliver your packages locally either

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23 points

Pretty sure ceased should be seized.

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6 points

Honk. Yup

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19 points
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Those rules might apply to the sender… but the customer who places the order doesn’t get off so lightly. They can go to jail for five years for importing a drugs without a license.

That’s not even really a vape thing. Nicotine is a drug. Importing cigarettes is also illegal with the exception of travellers in person can bring a few packets with them.

It wouldn’t be hard to catch people - international shipping requires labels declaring the contents. And if the vape seller is lying on those declarations then they’re breaking NZ laws.

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7 points

I can confirm that the rules do apply to the sender. You have to declare on a package what’s inside. For businesses using the normal postal system this is generally done electronically and also printed on the package so they’ll just be intercepted and binned. We ship product to Australia frequently and this is how it’s done. Same with private carriers but slightly different process. It’s still clear what’s inside.

Even if they try to avoid the ban by not putting correct customs information it’ll quickly become apparent to Australian customs which packages to seize who will then work directly with the private carrier if necessary (though it is prohibitively expensive to ship to more remote locations in Australia with private carriers so unlikely they will be used).

In short this is bluster.

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11 points

Darknet markets have no issues shipping millions of packages internationally that contain drugs or steroids. Why should this be any different for these vapes?

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8 points
  • I think you’ll find “millions” is an exaggeration
  • Depends on how happy you are with risking prison
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7 points
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a lot of darknet vendors don’t even bother with australia and their insane import controls, at best it’s a “no refunds” type of situation

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2 points

Top kek

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1 point

Damn it’s been a minute since I’ve seen a kek.

Good ol’ kek

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49 points

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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29 points

Turns out that most places are within walking distance of a school. Did you know HITLER breathed air?

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6 points

That’s it, I’ve taken my last breath!

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26 points

Went to the (rec) dispensary the other day.

There’s a house across the street, and their kids had a table set up, selling Girl Scout cookies.

Honestly nobody cares. And I hate that it’s illegal for me to park at the dispensary and leave my kids (with my wife) in the car. Under 21 not allowed on the property.

But I can bring my kids into a liquor store. I’d rather bring a bull into a China shop, but I can do it. Can’t even have them in the parking lot of the dispensary.

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2 points

Where I live, you have to be 21 to enter a liquor store

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1 point

The three US states I’ve lived in all allowed children in liquor stores if accompanied by a parent or guardian

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1 point

If you try to buy alcohol in Dan Murphys with kids then you’ll get the third degree. If they’re teenage kids then they won’t sell to you. Meanwhile if I order online it gets delivered to my door and my postie just leaves it there.

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20 points
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Unfortunately not bullshit.

Here in Australia, just about every tobacco store was selling them under the counter to kids, often still wearing their school uniforms. Worst still, most of the vapes were dodgy grey market imports with undeclared and often dangerous chemicals in them as well as nicotine. There were more of these stores near schools then there were stores that sell candy.

Common sense dispenery laws for both vapes and recreational cannabis like Canada would make sense here too but our politicians are too beholden to corporate interests and think of the children fear mongering.

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3 points

What “dodgy grey market” people benefit in any way by adding extra bad stuff?

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22 points

Cheaper to get, bulks it out, flavours it more efficiently? Any number of reason.

There was that apple sauce scandal in the US recently where kids were getting chunky doses of lead because waaaaaaaay down the production chain, some dude grinding cinnamon in Ecuador chose to bulk out his milling output with lead chromate (for the red-orange colour pop) amongst other powders which were not cinnamon.

More government testing up and down the production chain could help stop that sort of thing. Hopefully dodgy imports avoiding the tests at one level, would get clamped at another.

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43 points
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Whether or not you think Australia should have such a ban, a company trying to provoke a war with a nations customs service is a true “fuck around, and find out” moment

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27 points

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

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36 points

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.

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6 points

Didn’t they ban it for the younger gen?

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25 points
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That’s NZ, not AU, but the ban got repealed

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

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5 points

I heard cigarette taxes are the preferred form of sin tax because typically smokers pay more in taxes than they use in healthcare etc on the way out. Nicotine addicts die fast and are tax efficient, unlike alcohol or gambling addicts.

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6 points

A good example of a policy that can kind of make a form of “objective” economic sense for the government to do, but is actually totally immoral, cruel, and inefficient. A good example of why governments shouldn’t be run like companies, basically.

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5 points
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Banning vices has rarely (if ever?) gone well. Far better to tax and regulate them to at least reduce the harms by making it less affordable/dangerous and mitigate them with revenues that can be used to repair the damage.

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1 point
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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.

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