Black market vapes will ‘inevitably’ happen: Shadow Health Minister

Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston says the enforcement of vape restrictions will “inevitably” lead to black market sales, and the government needs to be prepared for this.

“I’m not necessarily sure that when you say the prescription has failed, it’s that the enforcement of the other requirements and regulations that has failed,” Ms Ruston told Sky News Australia.

“A prescription model obviously is a way of restricting access … if we make access to vapes almost impossible for them overnight, we really do need to be concerned about what happens then.

“What are the actions that the government’s going to put in place to try and deal with black market activity because we know inevitably, that’s what going to happen.”

[lukei]

The more you ban the more black market activities and crime. You can learn from the history of any drugs and alcohol.

[stateofdisorder]

I used vaping to get off smokes. Getting rid of them is a bad idea

[henrymancini]

If people are already getting nicotine vape liquid, there already is a black market. Stopping vapes isn't going to make the black market go away.

[meredithisme]

Tobacco everywhere black market it's thriving

[WitchDoctor-ms]

Yep Did well to Stop Chop-Chop Tobacco, Cannibis and Other so Called Illegal Drugs. NOT. 😂

[tbellew]

Folks are dying from fentanyl left and right and these fools are worried about nicotine. 🥺🥺

[DanielSMatthews]

All of the kids currently hooked on vapes will not be able to easily get smoking cessation treatment and their addiction will be powerful enough for a significant number of them to turn to black marker sources for the drug. The government needs to proactively put in place accesable treatment options for these underaged smokers or the othjerwise reasonable meassures will, in the short term, do more harm than good.