When I’m not compiling the Morning Double Shot email, or talking on the radio, my professional role is as a consultant on public policy and politics, including health policy, in which I have years of experience and a little expertise.

One such issue that I have been involved for the better part of a decade is reducing the scourge of tobacco smoking by giving smokers safe and regulated access to far less harmful ways of getting their nicotine fix.

In other words, vaping.

But as of New Year’s Day, when the Albanese government’s heavy suppression of vaping came into effect, I’m over it.

There’s no point in engaging in public debate with those who refuse to listen, and who cancel, bully, and denounce anyone opposing their sanctimonious puritanism.

There’s no point in arguing with my-way-or-the-highway experts who treat consenting adults – most vapers – as ignorant idiots.

There’s no point in trying to persuade federal and state ministers, who treat public health figures as omniscient oracles who can’t be questioned, and then proceed to implement public policy that not only is heavy-handed and condescending, but unenforceable.

In 2021, the Morrison government made nicotine vaping only available on prescription. That was bad enough, as it treated adult vapers as addicts unable to control their urges and doctors were free to refuse to prescribe to prescribe. This week, the Albanese government, enthusiastically backed by the states, went further.

Briefly, from January 1, it will be almost impossible for disposable vapes to be available, whether or not they contain nicotine. From March 1, their importation will be banned altogether, and the vending of vaping devices without a prescription will be outlawed.

The government’s declared intention is to stop young people from taking up a nicotine habit, either by vaping or moving on to tobacco smoking. The likely result is simply to drive the habit further underground, creating a thriving black-market matching that which already flourishes for cigarettes – and feeding the violent greed of organised crime gangs behind it.

That it could also criminalise responsible, otherwise law-abiding adults who, to reduce their health risks, choose to vape to instead of smoke, seemingly doesn’t matter to the policy puritans.

And, as far as the official importation ban goes, good luck with that one. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, former head of the Australian Border Force’s tobacco strike force, Rohan Pike, said, ‘While there is a demand for it, there will be a black market, as there already is now. The unfortunate part about that is it’s so unregulated. People are consuming these things and really leaving their health in the hands of organised criminals’.

Pike is spot on. Where there’s big money to be made, black marketeers and gangsters will be there.

In other words, if the Albanese government thinks their crackdown will crack the illicit vaping nut, they’re dreaming.

Instead, they’re creating an open invitation to young thrill-seekers to pursue illicit vaping as part of their youthful rebellion. It’s crazy, but it’s official policy.

The real solution to the problems around vaping, especially young people experimenting with it, is not to suppress and criminalise the practice, but to make it legal and a carefully-regulated retail product alongside the officially-approved nicotine source, ciggies (known under the federal government’s poisons regulations as ‘tobacco prepared and packed for smoking’). But no, the public health pooh-bahs will have none of that, so you will have none of that. They know best, you see.

After years of getting nowhere, I’m done. What’s the point in arguing with these people? Is it worth the public denunciation? Is it worth the risk to one’s reputation and livelihood? Is it worth more years of banging one’s head against a brick wall? Will any of these puritan pooh-bahs ever open their minds to positive evidence and more enlightened points of view?

No.

The die is cast, and I don’t see anything changing for years, if at all. So, I’m choosing not to stick my head above this particular parapet any longer. There are easier ways to earn a professional living.

The New Puritans have won.