{"id":615989,"date":"2026-04-18T23:31:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615989\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T23:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:31:21","slug":"young-people-taking-initiative-to-quit-at-canberras-first-dedicated-vaping-support-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615989\/","title":{"rendered":"Young people taking initiative to quit at Canberra’s first dedicated vaping support program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cameron Owens-Gale first picked up vaping almost 10 years ago in California, before they became popular in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He’d kept up the habit irregularly over the decade, until a cough and sharp chest pains started to persist, and the now-28-year-old knew it was time to quit for good.<\/p>\n

“You can feel it. I can feel it in my lungs. I can feel it when I breathe. It’s not great,” Mr Owens-Gale said.<\/p>\n

He said his addiction was made worse by how accessible vapes are compared to cigarettes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cameron Owens-Gale says his nicotine addiction was made worse by how convenient vapes are compared to cigarettes. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“When I smoke cigarettes, I would sit down, I would roll a cigarette, I’d go for a walk, I’d chat to a mate, I’d had one cigarette, I’d come inside, I’d do what I was doing. That was a process and a ritual, almost,” Mr Owens-Gale said.<\/p>\n

“With a vape, I’m playing video games, I die on a video game, take a hit of the vape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m tying the nicotine to other forms of dopamine and serotonin in my system.”<\/p>\n

According to the 2024 ACT General Health Survey, the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who have tried a vape has almost tripled since 2018.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vaping support service Nicotine Knockout says young Canberrans are taking the initiative to quit through the program. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

But Canberra’s first dedicated vaping support program says young people are taking it upon themselves to overcome addiction.<\/p>\n

Nicotine Knockout, operated through Anglicare’s The Junction Youth Health Service opened in March, offering people under 25 years old support from nurses and youth workers to tackle nicotine dependence.<\/p>\n

Nicotine Knockout nurse practitioner Diane Bowden said a good number of young Canberrans wanted to get off vapes, and were “motivated” to quit.<\/p>\n

“They probably have tried previously, and they might have succeeded for a short time, but then it’s something’s happened and they’ve taken it up again,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Diane Bowden says she believes Nicotine Knockout’s supportive environment is a big part of the program’s early uptake. (ABC News: Joel Wilson)<\/p>\n

Ms Bowden said Nicotine Knockout is not just about addiction, but assisting young people change their mindset towards vaping.<\/p>\n

She attributed the program’s early uptake to its supportive environment.<\/p>\n

“If they come in and they’re not quite ready, or they come in for their second appointment and they haven’t managed to reduce or quit, that we’re not judgemental about any of that,” Ms Bowden said.<\/p>\n

“We just keep supporting them along and just keep at it with them and see when they’re ready.”Catch-22 of prescription vapes\"A<\/p>\n

Cameron Owens-Gale says swapping to a prescription vape has been a bit of a catch-22. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

In the last few months, Mr Owens-Gale, who is too old for Nicotine Knockout, switched to using a prescription vape to try and break his addiction.<\/p>\n

He said it doesn’t hurt his lungs as much as an unregulated vape, which makes it harder to quit completely.<\/p>\n

“The lung pain is really what gave me the kick to get off it. So, there’s a bit of a catch-22 with these,” Mr Owens-Gale said.<\/p>\n

“[Prescription vapes are] significantly better for you and if you’re going to be vaping anyway, that’s the way to go.<\/p>\n

“But it’s going to have less impact on your body and therefore you’re going to have less need to overcome that horrible nicotine addiction that’s so hard to get rid of.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dr Kerrie Aust says she’s had no patients successfully quit nicotine by switching to vapes. (ABC News: Toby Hunt)<\/p>\n

But outgoing ACT Australian Medical Association President Dr Kerrie Aust said with a single device containing the equivalent nicotine amount of 50 cigarettes, no vape is good for health.<\/p>\n

She said in the short-term, vaping can cause anxiety, but the long-term health impacts are still unclear.<\/p>\n

“People will feel agitated, they will have lots of cravings, it often affects their sleep,” said Dr Aust.<\/p>\n

“Longer term, we know that people will start to report persistent cough, reduced exercise tolerance, and sometimes an increased propensity towards lung infections.”<\/p>\n

‘Using vapes for stress management’\"An<\/p>\n

The most common reasons Canberrans aged 16 to 44 reported starting vaping was curiosity, or because they think it tastes better. (ABC News: Rachel Carbonell)<\/p>\n

Recent research from the University of New South Wales found nicotine vapes are likely to cause lung and oral cancers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although e-cigarettes were originally introduced to help people quit smoking, Dr Aust said traditional nicotine replacement methods have been more effective for her patients.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had no patients have success with using vaping to quit,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We do have a lot more success with using the traditional forms of nicotine replacement therapy such as patches, gum and the nicotine inhalers.”<\/p>\n

While 65.7 per cent of Canberra’s smokers aged 45 to 64 vape to help them quit tobacco, young people take up vaping for a different reason.<\/p>\n

The 2024 ACT General Health Survey found the most common reasons Canberrans aged 16 to 44 start vaping is because they’re curious, or because they think it tastes better.<\/p>\n

Ms Bowden said the reasons young people start vaping are complex.<\/p>\n

“It could just be a fact of, okay, they’ve started doing it because of peer group pressure, now they’re addicted,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But there is definitely that element that are using vapes for stress management, anxiety, depression.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So, the mental health component is huge.”<\/p>\n

Convenience of nicotine in the pocket\"A<\/p>\n

Vapes can only be legally sold in a pharmacy, to help people quit or manage nicotine dependence, but illegal vapes are not difficult to find. (ABC News: Stephanie Richards)<\/p>\n

Ms Bowden says the accessibility of vapes led one of her patients to take up smoking cigarettes instead.<\/p>\n

“It was a lot harder to smoke a cigarette than it was to have the vape in the pocket,” Ms Bowden said.<\/p>\n

“[She could] just walk around with it and have a hit on it whenever she felt like it.”<\/p>\n

Since July 2024, vapes can only be sold in a pharmacy, to help people quit smoking or manage nicotine dependence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Mr Owens-Gale said he doesn’t think stricter laws have made it harder for people to purchase illegal vapes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cameron Owens-Gale says he doesn’t believe government crackdowns on illegal vape sales has made them harder to access. (ABC News: Caitlin Maloney)<\/p>\n

“I’ve never found it difficult to get my hands on a vape. During any of the crackdowns, I have been able to go and purchase them. All the places that sell them still sell them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s not to disparage the government’s crackdown. I don’t think it’s the wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n

“I do think that when you produce such strenuous and expensive nicotine laws and taxation, you open up an option for a black market, which is what we’re seeing across Australia right now.”<\/p>\n

Dr Aust said there needs to be more investment in research and education about the harm vapes cause.<\/p>\n

“And then start to put that investment into making sure that we’re tackling the mental health issues associated with vaping, the support services and easy access to nicotine replacement therapy if that’s what’s needed for young people,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Owens-Gale first picked up vaping almost 10 years ago in California, before they became popular in Australia.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2666,6116,64,63,2667,53617,2689,137,2990,2289,2668,8624,39849,1861,2681,8286,22410,8621,8622,2969],"class_list":["post-615989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-act","tag-addiction","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canberra","tag-canberrans","tag-dr-kerrie-aust","tag-health","tag-knockout","tag-local-news","tag-local-stories","tag-nicotine","tag-nurse","tag-people","tag-program","tag-quit","tag-support","tag-vape","tag-vaping","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}