Australia’s strict pharmacy-only vaping law has collapsed the legal vape market and empowered organized crime, with government data showing legal sales make up just 1 in 1,700 vape transactions, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Documents obtained by the newspaper reveal that pharmacists report fewer than 6,000 legal vape sales per month, while over 10 million vapes flood the black market monthly—mostly Chinese disposables sold in convenience stores and smoke shops.
The 2024 law allows nicotine vapes to be sold only in pharmacies, without a prescription but under tight restrictions: limited flavors, plain packaging, and no consumer-friendly branding. However, pharmacies were not consulted before the law passed, and as a result, fewer than 700 of 5,900 pharmacies stock the products.
Health Minister Mark Butler claimed the legislation would “eliminate the black market,” however, since then, “Butler’s ‘world-leading’ vape restrictions—combined with Australia’s astonishingly high cigarette tax—have wiped out the legal vaping sector, expanded the already-huge black market, led to declining tobacco tax revenues, and encouraged organized crime participation in the vape market,” wrote Jim McDonald for Vaping 360.
Experts and critics now argue that Australia’s approach has failed, calling for full legalization and consumer market regulation to displace the black market and reduce harm.