1y ago

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.’

www.vice.com

Vape Seller Has ‘No Intention of Stopping’ Shipments To Australia, Despite Ban

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.

151 comments

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.
- 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
  
  Tobacco lobby go brrrr
  
  Priorities
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
  
  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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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
- Pretty sure ceased should be seized.
  
  Honk. Yup
- 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.
  
  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.
- Darknet markets have no issues shipping millions of packages internationally that contain drugs or steroids. Why should this be any different for these vapes?
  
  I think you'll find "millions" is an exaggeration
  Depends on how happy you are with risking prison
  
  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
  
  Top kek
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).
- Turns out that most places are within walking distance of a school. Did you know HITLER breathed air?
  
  That's it, I've taken my last breath!
- 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.
  
  Where I live, you have to be 21 to enter a liquor store
  
  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.
- 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.
  
  What "dodgy grey market" people benefit in any way by adding extra bad stuff?
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
Are cigarettes banned as well or do they get massive taxes from their sale like in the US?
- 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.
  
  Didn't they ban it for the younger gen?
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
I believe they will have to start smuggling their product the old-fashioned way, I mean like the cartels do with illegal drugs.
- Inb4 my mate, Paul, smuggled a gallon of nicotine up his arse...
The real question here is, are there (mostly) harmless?
- They fill landfills with descartable batteries, causing a lot of contamination. This is not the reason they're being banned, but it should be.
  
  Ironically a lot of US states have banned reusable vapes but allow disposable ones making the problem worse
  
  Except this ban bans non-disposable vapes. The disposable ones were already banned and were just sold under the counter without any regulation, like they'll continue to be.
  
  That's only true for disposable vapes tho and I think a Pfand system, like we have for plastic bottles in Germany, would be a way better idea. People are already illegaly shipping them in from China, banning them won't stop that.
  
  Good point, I haven't thought of that.
  
  They also cause popcorn lung, at least the flavoured variety.
- They are an excellent and well understood harm reduction measure compared with smoking.
  
  In a true dichotomy they are the far better option. Unfortunately they were/are attracting new smokers. The rate of teenage smoking had been plummeting for decades and was only at a couple of percent - until vapes became popular and reversed about two decades of progress.
  
  There's an even better harm reduction measure: not smoking at all.
I was just wondering in my pea sized brain how making things illegal in the past has worked out.. hrrmmm
- Sometimes it works out great (banning guns in Australia for most people), other times it's terrible (banning alcohol in America).
  But in general, vapes are shit and should be banned. No issues there. This producer will soon be blocked pretty easily.
  
  Notice my next comment clarifying that I am talking about mind altering substances. You may think vapes are shit but they wouldn't be around if people didn't like them plus no major second hand or terrible smell like traditional cigarettes homie.
  
  Also cigarettes in Australia. They're not banned, obviously, they're just taxed so high that hardly anyone smokes them anymore. I'm probably a bit sheltered, but I'm genuinely surprised when I see someone smoking an actual cigarette now.
- Your brain is pea sized indeed, because any nominal amount of wondering should make you realize it has to be taken on a case by case basis. Otherwise we should just make everything legal, no?
  
  This is going to blow your mind but I believe all mind altering substances should be legal and available to purchase if you are 21 years of age. This takes money away from the black market organizations and can help fund rehabilitation facilities/drug education/college scholarships.
I’m willing to go to war against this vape seller.
This seems familiar. Perhaps the British did this before?
Given what a pack of absolute shit cunts Australia has been towards NZ in recent years, I fully support any company that wants to make life difficult for the Australian authorities.
- What, he’s right. We’ve been shit to NZ
  
  Sure, but this is a fucking vape company. It is not like they are providing a valuable service to society.
Allow vaping but ban nicotine.
- In Japan they basically do this. It's not illegal to import the liquid nicotine so that's what people do and mix their own (or vape shops also do that in a less-than-legal fashion (allegedly))
Australia going full retard again.
- Still better than people who smoke (which does include "vaping")
  
  I have to draw this line because it's actually really important.
  Smoking is when someone inhales smoke.
  Vaping is when someone inhales vapour.
  These are different in more ways than they are similar, but perhaps the most important is the difference in negative health outcomes. Smoking is about twenty times more harmful than vaping.
  Vaping is a very effective path away from smoking for those with a nicotine dependency, and it's counterproductive to attach the same stigma to both, let alone to consider them equivalent.

151 comments