Like three million other Australians at the time, picking up a packet of cigarettes was a daily habit.
"Advertising made it look cool, and I followed along," Mr Fulton told AAP.
The now 73-year-old lit up 20 to 40 cigarettes daily for 50 years until a massive stroke in 2023 gave him a wake-up call.
"Lying in the stroke recovery unit, seeing people with disabilities worse than mine, I knew I had to stop smoking," Mr Fulton said.
Research suggests Mr Fulton is one of many who have kicked the habit in the past two decades.
The number of daily smokers has more than halved since 2001, according to data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Some 1.3 million Australians still smoke every day, but the proportion of people aged 14 and over who have never smoked has hit a record high of 68.7 per cent.
Daily e-cigarette use has grown by just 0.1 per cent since 2022, the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2025 results show.
Frequent e-cigarette use among young people aged 18 to 24 also slumped, from 11.3 per cent in 2022 to 5.8 per cent in 2025.
Among the 17,500 people surveyed, those who vaped weekly or monthly were increasingly likely to drop the harmful habit.
Institute acting chief executive Louise Gates said experts feared people who casually tried vaping when the product exploded onto the scene would become daily users.
"It doesn't seem like that's happening at the moment, but that could change," Gate said.
Researchers are now turning their focus to other emerging trends, including oral nicotine pouches and illicit tobacco use.
"Nicotine pouches are also misleadingly marketed saying they can help improve 'mental clarity' and 'gym performance' when in fact they can lead to mouth lesions, an upset stomach, a sore mouth, sore throat and nausea," Â Quit director Rachael Andersen said.
One in three smokers are buying black market cigarettes, which is double the proportion recorded in 2022.
The proportion of people using three or more nicotine products is low, at 0.9 per cent of the population.
But that figure has tripled since 2019, sparking fears from health advocates.
"We're worried that use of more than one product can worsen nicotine addiction without the user even realising, Andersen said.
More detailed results of the study, including figures on alcohol and other drug use, are expected in August.
6°C