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Luke Grant talks with Spectator writer Terry Barnes on the news of the week.

The perennial debate about whether the legalise e-cigarettes has raised its head again.

The Minderoo Foundation, who commissioned a report into e-cigarettes, suggests the push for e-cigarettes is coming from tobacco companies eager to lure another demographic into their sales market. On this reasoning, vaping is presented as having a “gateway” effect. It supposedly leads or prompts consumers to conventional smoking products.

But Dr Attila Danko says this is not the case.

“If it was true that e-cigarettes were a massive gateway to children becoming addicted, I wouldn’t be on the side of legalising it,” says Danko.

“But the truth is, the use among young people is mostly experimental. They’ve found that teenagers who tried cigarettes also tried smoking. They’ve said that because they tried e-cigarettes and then they tried smoking, the e-cigarettes must have led to the smoking. But it’s just not the case.”

Danko says he cannot understand the resistance around legalising e-cigarettes given that comparatively, vaping is far less dangerous when it comes to our health.

“The Royal College of Physicians, which has to be one of the most authoritative medical bodies in the world, they did one of the most extensive studies on the whole field, looking at all the research,” Danko explains.

“They concluded that vaping almost certainly represents less than 5% of the risk of smoking.”

“It’s just a no-brainer. Why would you allow the most harmful product to be freely sold everywhere and ban the far safer product?”

Professor David Flint chats to Luke Grant on the weeks political news.

Listen to the Full Show podcast of Overnights with Luke Grant on July 11

Listen to the Full Show podcast of Overnights with Luke Grant on July 10

Luke Grant chats with naturopath Russell Setright to get the latest in health and wellbeing news.

Listen to the Full Show podcast of Overnights with Luke Grant on July 9

A rural doctor has asked the Medical Board of Australia to relax rules which preclude medical practitioners from having relationships with former patients.

Practitioners in the bush are reportedly struggling on the relationship front, as nearly all potential partners in their rural towns are also their patients.

A doctor can potentially be struck off for having a relationship with a patient.

But according to the letter penned by an anonymous doctor, this kind of relationship-avoidance is causing endemic loneliness and putting physicians off practicing in regional communities.

Despite this, Peta Rutherford from the Rural Doctors Association says the rules are there for a reason.

“There is a power differential in the relationship with a doctor and a patient and it needs to be recognised,” says Rutherford.

“The doctor themselves needs to really think about what the situation is. Certainly, if a patient has thing like mental health issue that you’re treating them for, or if you’ve treated them for obstetrics or gynaecological conditions, it’s a no go zone.”

“If you’ve had a one-off consultation for an ingrown toenail, that might be a little different.”

Rutherford’s ultimate message was that if a doctor senses a potential relationship brewing with a patient, they should consult help.

“If any young doctor find themselves in the situation early in an interaction with someone that they thought they might want a future relationship with, the should talk to someone, get some advice.”

Listen to the Full Show podcast of Overnights with Luke Grant on July 6