12 November, 2023
-by Pippa Starr
-review/opinion of an article in Sun Herald Today excerpts from Sun Herald Today written by Sun-Herald reporter @marywardy
12/11/2023:
"Alecia Brooks, chair of Cancer Council NSW’s Tobacco Issues Committee, said it also did not support the introduction of vape detectors to school bathrooms.
“While [the education department] has a role to play in preventing uptake and use of e-cigarettes among young people, the root of the problem lies outside the school gates,” she said.
NSW Advocate for Children and Young People Zoë Robinson also agreed saying: “What the young people have said to us, is that adults should have done better, earlier,” she said."
"Robinson said policies such as suspending students, locking bathrooms or introducing vape detectors, as has already occurred at some private schools, did not deal with the cause of students’ vaping"
Alecia @CCNewSouthWales made another good point:
"vaping must be primarily addressed by reducing supply and access to e-cigarettes.” (to those underage)
Yes, vaping should have black market illicit supply reduced, especially to underage youth, with current enforceable laws, enforced!
But what can you do when you have both state and federal Govt's in lockstep with ridiculously punitive measures preventing reasonable legal access to reduced harm nicotine products like vapes?
The prohibitive measures, such as the prescription requirement has led to today's massive black market outside schools that led to the over supply of vapes in schools! Punitive measures don't work at adult level and youth level!
As Zoe said when responding to the implementation of 40000 vape detectors being installed in schools :
"Responding to this in a punitive way does not address that they are telling us they are using these vapes to soothe, to relieve anxiety,”
If history has taught us anything, youths rebel, and prohibition on any level rarely works, particularly when it comes to vaping, smoking and alcohol.
Misinforming or grossly exaggerating the evidence about vapes isn't any help either, as particularly the youth don't respond well with being treated as imbeciles.
Who's idea is it to plan to install 40000 vape detectors in NSW schools anyway?
NSW Deputy Premier and Education Minister @pruecar!
You see, she's holding a round table meeting on Thursday to hear from the "experts" about how to take an "informed, evidenced-based approach to tackle the scourge of vaping in schools.”
Yet Car declined to comment on this punitive program?
I suspect Car will have another closed round table meeting, where the deals with NGO's have already been done.
Just as her federal counterpart @Mark_Butler_MP
did when he had a round table meet earlier this year, when he closed the doors to key stakeholders in favour of only the NGO's that get paid by Govt.
It's like a pork-barrelling exercise to create optics that meet the Labor Govt's red book narrative on vaping.
The narrative isn't going to help vapes in schools!
The evidence will!
The evidence is that since @AustralianLabor Govt's both federally and at state levels have been in power over the last 2 years, vaping products have become an escalating problem on their watch which now sees an insane 92% of them being supplied by a black market!
Unless vaping is legally regulated sensibly, and consider what one wise teen said, "adults should have done better, earlier!", then you can send taxpayers money up in smoke on detectors, print all the glossy brochures and posters, produce social media commercials based on exaggerating harms of vaping or you can address the root cause of the issue!
The only next turn in this issue is to regulate vaping products sensibly to keep them out of the hands of the black market and hence out of the hands of youths.
Closing round table meetings to only favoured stakeholders is no longer going to help either!
@marywardy if you would like any further information to help you write an even more balanced and/or statistical informative article, DM me. Only to happy to help.
Mary's full article:
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