Smoking rates have surged among young Australians over the last five years, with more than a quarter now smoking or vaping and almost one in 10 admitting to using illegal tobacco.
A new report from Roy Morgan shows a substantial rise in those aged 18 to 24 who are engaged in some form of smoking or vaping. The data shows a major jump in this age group’s total use of nicotine products, growing from 16.9% in 2020 to 27.8% in June this year.
The report shows this is primarily due to an explosion in the use of vapes and illicit tobacco, with the proportion of young Australians who vape rising from 6.4% in 2020 to 20.5% currently, while the percentage who consume illicit tobacco has risen almost tenfold from 1.5% in 2020 to 9.1% now.
Consumption of factory-made cigarettes also grew over the period, rising from 8.3% in 2020 to 11.2% at present, with roll-your-own cigarettes the only form of nicotine use to decline, slipping from 8.7% to 7.4%.
The increase in nicotine use among young Australians comes after a successful drop in smoking rates period prior.
Between 2014 and 2020 total tobacco use in the youngest age bracket fell from 20.7% to 16.9%, with the consumption of factory-made cigarettes declining more than half from 16.7% in 2014 to 8.3% in 2020.
But the rise in smoking rates among the young is not mirrored in the rest of the population.
Over the last decade, the use of some type of nicotine among Australians aged 18 and above has remained largely stable, dropping from 17.7% in 2014 to 17.4% at present, with declines in the use of factory-made and roll-your-own cigarettes offset by increases in vaping and illicit tobacco.
The recent increase in vaping comes despite the introduction of legislation attempting to curb its consumption. On July 1 last year laws came into effect banning the use of non-therapeutic vapes and restricting the sale of vapes to pharmacies “for the purpose of helping people quit smoking or manage nicotine dependence”.
The reforms do not appear to have been successful, and Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine told the Daily Mail: “The data clearly shows that [the law] has failed to reduce the overall incidence of smoking and vaping.”
“In fact, rates are now higher than they were during the latter half of last year, and the raw number of Australians who smoke or vape has increased.”
The surge in smoking and vaping had been accompanied by a rise in illegal tobacco shops run by immigrants and ethnic minorities, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, with the resulting Middle Eastern gang-dominated “tobacco wars” resulting in hundreds of firebombings in the Victorian capital alone.
Much of the increase in vaping and illegal tobacco has been attributed to the exorbitant cost of legal cigarettes, driven largely by the government’s financial dependence on the tobacco excise.
Former Australian Federal Police and Border Force officer Rohan Pike, told ABC News earlier this year: “The number one driver of illegal cheap cigarettes was the price of [legal] tobacco.”
Mr Pike further noted that there are now “at least 2,000 stores in Victoria, probably the same in New South Wales that are selling chop-chop [loose tobacco sold on the black market].”
The rise in smoking rates in young Australians has also come during record levels of mass immigration following the end of the Covid pandemic, and an accompanying increase in road deaths.
Header image: Left, a shipping container full of illicit tobacco seized this month (ABF). Right, criminals firebomb a tobacconist in Glenroy last year (Victoria Police).
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