In Australia in recent months, there has been a surge in calls to regulate vape devices.
There’s just one problem.
In Australia, vape devices are currently banned. And when something is banned, you can’t regulate it.
A lesson from history
Presumably regulators thought that when they banned vaping, the many people who relied on vape products would just stop using them. While some did (with a subset going back to smoking), others have inevitably resorted to the black market.
This is, of course, history repeating itself. We know from countless examples that banning a popular product doesn’t work. The best known example is probably US alcohol prohibition – a ban which had truly disastrous consequences.
First, apart from an initial drop in alcohol sales, prohibition didn’t work. In fact, alcoholism tripled. Perhaps that is because it was often easier to buy alcohol during prohibition than before, when at least some alcohol sales were covered by regulations.
James Dunworth – Ashtray Blog – 2022-05-19.