Parliamentary hearings have prompted the AMA NSW to release a submission on strategies to reduce overall nicotine consumption.
The AMA NSW has unveiled its gameplan to tackle the illegal tobacco trade in NSW with the state branch delivering a batch of strategies to the NSW Legislative Council.
This comes after parliamentary hearings in the state on the illegal tobacco trade raised numerous questions on how this rising issue can be addressed from each angle.
Smoking rates have increased over the past two years, especially amongst young people aged 18-24 with a rise from 10.8% to 11.6% from 2022 to 2024.
The NSW branch of the AMA has reiterated its stance in the submission that it aims to minimise the use of all tobacco or nicotine-based products within NSW.
An increase in calls for a reduction of the tobacco excise has generated the most concern from the body, which argued that the move would undermine effective long-term public policy.
“There’s absolutely no evidence to support the idea that reducing excise will impact illegal tobacco – in fact the evidence says the opposite, with jurisdictions that have reduced the excise seeing a horrible combination of increased smoking rates and no tangible impact on the illegal tobacco trade,” federal AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said in September.
“The arguments being made conveniently ignore the evidence and factors that drive the illegal tobacco trade.
“This is a simplistic and misguided solution to a complex problem that risks undermining decades of successful public policy to reduce rates of smoking.”
As part of the submission, the AMA NSW outlined its recommendations to not only reduce the accessibility to illicit tobacco products but also assist patients in quitting nicotine, and target how tobacco and nicotine-based products are accessed.
Tightening council planning laws in NSW to limit the number of tobacco shopfronts along with repeating South Australia’s reforms on banning novel nicotine and substitute products.
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Current education has been highlighted as a gap in addressing the issue which has prompted calls for greater investment into educational campaigns with a particular focus on minors and other vulnerable groups.
“We do need research to understand what are the best ways to help people cease vaping,” chair of the RACGP Addiction Specific Interest Group Dr Hester Wilson told The Medical Republic.
“There’s a need for education there, for young people to understand who is it that’s trying to sell this to you, how are they benefiting from it, and are they making money out of your use?
“This is a really important thing for us in the age of mis- and disinformation that we live in.
“There is a role for us in general practice to be having conversations with never smokers or never vapers around the reality of this behaviour and the potential risks, because prevention is core to what we do.”
