Band-Aids on a Gaping Wound: How Australia’s Vape Policy Failure Fuels Crime, Confusion, and Harm

Alan Gore 22 June 2025

Australia is facing a nicotine crisis not because of vapes, but because of politicians who’ve wilfully ignored science, dismissed consumers, and doubled down on policies that have catastrophically backfired.

As the public watches with growing alarm, arson attacks, gang warfare, soaring smoking rates, and a black market worth billions, the government’s response has been to blame landlords, launch sting operations, and increase penalties. These may sound like decisive actions. But they’re not solutions. They’re band-aids on a gaping wound, and they avoid the core truth: you can’t enforce your way out of a crisis created by bad policy.

The Policy Failure That Sparked the Fire

When the federal government, under Health Minister Mark Butler, introduced its harsh restrictions on vaping products, banning retail sales, stripping away flavours, and pushing access into pharmacies, it declared the goal was to protect public health.

But what it really did was destroy the regulated legal market for adult smokers and vapers, replacing it with:

• Bureaucratic hurdles to access

• Massive stigma for adult users

• A wide-open field for criminal syndicates to dominate the supply

Instead of helping people quit smoking, the policy has pushed safer alternatives underground, made access harder than ever, and fuelled an explosion of unregulated, illegal products.

The Stats Don’t Lie

The numbers are shocking — and they tell a story of policy failure, not success:

• Illicit Market Domination: In 2024, British American Tobacco found that 39.4% of all tobacco sales were black market, a figure now projected to hit nearly 60% in 2025, a 54.6% increase in a single year.

• Legal Vaping Access Crushed: In May 2024, only around 6,000 legitimate pharmacy vape prescriptions were processed, while an estimated 10 million illegal vapes changed hands on the black market that month.

• Escalating Violence: Over 130 firebombings of tobacconists and vape-related premises have been reported, linked directly to black market turf wars, with law enforcement struggling to keep up.

• Adult Vaping Demand Still Surging: The number of adult vapers in Australia has climbed, proof that demand for safer alternatives hasn’t gone away. It’s just gone illicit.

• Smoking Decline Stalling: Australia’s smoking rates, once world-leading, are now declining more slowly than comparable countries. In contrast, New Zealand’s smoking rates dropped twice as fast after regulating, not banning, vaping.

Not Regulation. Obstruction.

Australia’s approach to vaping isn’t regulation, it’s obstruction. Want to quit smoking using a vape? You’ll need:

• A doctor’s appointment

• A pharmacist willing to stock products

• A restricted list of products (no flavours, no diversity)

• To repeat this process every 4 weeks

Now compare this to buying a packet of cigarettes: walk in, show ID, pay. Done.

How did we end up in a system that makes quitting smoking harder than continuing?

Because instead of treating nicotine like a harm reduction issue, policymakers like Butler and his handpicked advisors have treated it like a moral battle, and in their righteous war, smokers and vapers are collateral damage.

Crime Thrives in a Vacuum

The government claims it’s cracking down on crime. But let’s be honest — the black market didn’t appear out of thin air.

It emerged from the ashes of a legal market the government burned down:

• Vape shops that once checked ID and offered advice? Shut.

• Legitimate businesses that sold regulated products? Outlawed.

• Adults trying to quit? Pushed into alleys and Telegram groups.

This isn’t harm minimisation. It’s harm amplification.

A Better Way Is Not Only Possible — It Already Exists

Just look at Sweden: the country is about to become the first smoke-free nation in the world. How? Not with bans. Not with criminalisation. But with harm reduction.

They embraced safer alternatives like nicotine pouches and vapes. They allowed adult smokers access. And their smoking rates have plummeted male lung cancer deaths are 61% below the EU average, and overall cancer deaths are 34% lower.

Australia’s own National Drug Strategy includes harm minimisation as a pillar. Yet the government’s vape policy ignores this completely, bowing instead to ideologues and selective science.

What Needs to Happen

This isn’t just a policy failure, it’s a public health betrayal.

If Australia wants to reclaim its once-proud leadership in tobacco control, we must:

• Rebuild a legal, adult-facing vape market with safety standards and flavour options

• Stop criminalising consumers trying to quit smoking

• Include actual experts in nicotine science, not just prohibitionists

• Centre the voices of vapers and ex-smokers, not lobby groups and pharma interests

• Adopt evidence-based harm reduction, not fear-based policy theatre

Final Word: This Isn’t Over

Enforcement cannot fix what the policy broke.

The longer we wait to course-correct, the more Australians will relapse to smoking, the more crime will escalate, and the more trust we’ll lose in public health institutions.

It’s time to face reality. The war on vapes is a war on smokers, and it’s time it ended.

Let’s choose compassion. Let’s choose evidence. Let’s choose health.