Stores selling illegal vaporizers are under surveillance by a state government seeking to financially disrupt the burgeoning underground market and increase the impact of a federal crackdown.
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls revealed the government is considering more extreme measures to disrupt supply chains by imposing larger fines on retailers.
Currently, Queensland Health officials can impose a fine of $3,200 for individual retailers and $10,000 for corporations.
“At the rate they’re selling these vapes and illicit tobacco, that’s just a drop in the ocean, it’s like a flea bite for some of these operators,” Nicholls said.
“Currently we have between 350 and 400 stores under surveillance… when we get to the courts, where the major penalties are… they have already recovered the funds.”
However, Nicholls did not provide any details on the increase in fines or when to expect legislative reform.
“I think we want to make sure they’re right, and we want to make sure we’re not just taking several bites off the cherry on top of that,” he told reporters.
“The goal is to remove the financial incentive and make it more expensive to run the business than the profits generated by doing so.”
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls revealed the government is considering more extreme measures to disrupt supply chains by imposing larger fines on retailers. stock image
In October 2024, the federal government made sweeping changes to the sale of vaporizers, making them illegal to purchase anywhere other than pharmacies.
Small retailers and corner stores, which traditionally sold cigarettes, lost an important market when pharmacies became the only place to sell nicotine-containing vaporizers.
But Nicholls said the laws have not gone far enough to provide a “deterrent.”
“A 72-hour closure means someone is going to have a long weekend,” he said.
“What we want to be able to do is give them a punch in the hip pocket, so if they have a long weekend, they don’t use it to go to Hampton Island.”
The sale of nicotine vaporizers was already illegal from 2021 under laws introduced by the previous coalition government, but many retailers continued to blatantly sell them illegally.
In a bid to correct the failings of previous legislation and crack down on the supply of vapes in convenience stores, Health Minister Mark Butler introduced a nationwide ban on the importation of disposable vapes from 1 January of last year.
In 2023, Australian men were urged to ditch their vapes after research found a link between smoking e-cigarettes and erectile dysfunction.
Currently, Queensland Health officials can impose a fine of $3,200 for individual retailers and $10,000 for corporations. Vaporizers stock image
Vaporizers were previously marketed as a safer alternative to cigarettes, but evidence in recent years suggests that electronic devices cause similar harm to the body.
Experts warn that vaporizers can damage the user’s DNA, cause respiratory problems, promote tumors, increase the risk of lung cancer and heart disease, and are even linked to erectile dysfunction.
A study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine analyzed data on e-cigarette use in approximately 13,000 men over the age of 18.
It found that healthy men between the ages of 20 and 65 who vaped were more than twice as likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction as men who did not vape.
“ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) were associated with erectile dysfunction, independent of age, cardiovascular disease, and other risk factors,” the study wrote.
Australia’s top urologist, Dr Chris Love, told Daily Mail Australia the study results were “concerning”.
He said it is vital to educate doctors and the public about the long-term impacts of vaping on men’s sexual health.
“It’s worth bringing people’s attention again because many vaporizers contain nicotine and that’s the cause of the problem,” Dr. Love said.
‘There are many things that young men do early in life that can affect them and lifestyle factors are important in the development of diseases later.
“Vaping fits into that group of things that we think you shouldn’t do if you want to stay healthy in the future.”