The Coalition could have sat back and waited to watch the vaping ban unfurl, but instead, they've chosen option two: INHALE

For months now, the Coalition has been ruminating internally over how to handle the Albanese government's impending ban on the importation and sale of disposable vapes. And Pass The Dutchie became a much more live option on Monday night when it emerged that Health Minister Mark Butler had cut a deal with the Greens to soften the ban, allowing vapes to be sold without prescription in pharmacies, and confirming that the possession of vapes remains decriminalised, even among the very young. Shadow health minister Anne Ruston announced that the Coalition will – if elected – reverse the vapes ban and instead install its own system to tax and regulate them similarly to tobacco. ABC Politics in your inbox Photo shows Politics journalist Brett Worthington on a black backgournd Sign up to the ABC Politics newsletter with Brett Worthington "Labor's prohibition-style approach plays straight into the hands of organised crime syndicates, who are massively profiting from the sale of illegal vapes," she said. A Dutton government, she confirmed, would go to war with the criminal syndicates by creating a $250 million illegal tobacco and vaping taskforce led by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force, to stamp out illegal vapes and ensure only safer, legal e-cigarettes were available from customary retailers.