Smoking continues to be the drug that kills more Australians than any other.

The best estimates indicate that smoking kills around 20,000 Australians annually compared to 6000 from alcohol and 2500 from illicit drugs.

Australia probably leads the world in reducing smoking rates. We were one of the first countries to place restrictions on advertising and include prominent warnings on packaging. We are at risk of losing that mantle, unfortunately, because of a reluctance to legalise e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes deliver nicotine through an electronic mechanism that turns liquid nicotine into a gas or ‘vape’. It allows a smoker to mimic the interaction they have with a smoke and, compared to nicotine gum or patches, it delivers the nicotine ‘hit’ in a similar way to a cigarette.

The best health outcome would be for people to neither vape nor smoke. Nicotine is highly addictive and, like all drugs, can have bad impacts on your health. But e-cigarettes do not contain the cancer causing carcinogens that smokes do. Lives would be saved and lives would be improved if more people quit smoking and switched to e-cigarettes.

A young mum gave evidence to a senate committee this week about her switch to vaping and how it has improved her relationship with her two young children. She no longer smells of tobacco around the kids and doesn’t have to pop outside all the time just to have a smoke.

The good news is that more Australians are giving up smokes for the alternative of e-cigarettes. Over the last three years 130,000 more Australians are using e-cigarettes, according to the largest national survey on drug use. And, over the last three years, 127,000 Australians have given up smoking.

The bad news is that vaping remains illegal in Australia. You can sell a vaping device and there is a limited ability to import liquid nicotine with a prescription. But it is illegal to sell liquid nicotine and, in most Australian states, it is illegal to possess liquid nicotine.

In reality these laws are not enforced and many do import liquid nicotine through online shops even without a prescription. Australia is the only developed country to ban all vaping products. We risk losing the mantle of a leader in tobacco reduction efforts.

Our ‘black market’ creates other health risks. Many vapers import liquid nicotine in concentrated form, often in containers without childproof caps. Tragically a three-year old girl died in Victoria a few years ago after she ingested her mother’s concentrated nicotine.

We should instead have a regulated market that imposes proper standards on the packaging of products and restricts their sale and marketing just as we do for tobacco products.

A recent major review of all of the scientific evidence from around the world concluded that “e-cigarettes probably do help people to stop smoking for at least six months”.

Some are concerned that if we legalise e-cigarettes, these products could create a ‘gateway’ for young people to start smoking. But a recent CSIRO study concluded that “the evidence for (the gateway effect) being an important route to smoking initiation in Australia does not appear strong”.

We should focus on practical solutions that can improve people’s lives. There is so much evidence from thousands of Australians that vaping has helped them get off the smokes and made their lives better. It is time for Australia to catch up to the rest of the world and legalise e-cigarettes.