Major enforcement clampdown on illegal tobacco and vapes in SA

The Malinauskas Labor Government is further cracking down on the sale of illegal tobacco and vaping products in South Australia, with a significant funding boost to shake up enforcement against this criminal activity.

The Government is investing more than $16 million over the next four years in the 2024-25 Budget to stifle this growing illegal trade with licensing and enforcement to be driven by officers in Consumer and Business Services (CBS).

Staffing will be expanded within CBS to get more inspectors out enforcing compliance with licensing and sale of tobacco and vaping products regulations in South Australia.

From July 1, CBS will take on the licensing functions currently undertaken through SA Health, with responsibility for assessing new licence applications, ensuring existing licensees are complying with the law and investigating any reports of illegal sales.

CBS will assume responsibility for licensing of tobacco and vapes, and enforcement relating to their sale and supply, with approximately 20 additional full-time equivalent employees recruited to cover everything from licence applications, to responding to consumers and inspecting premises.

SA Health will retain both its role in formulating policy in relation to vaping and tobacco, as well as enforcement functions relating to the use of cigarettes and vapes – such as smoking and vaping in public places.

The tougher compliance approach is necessary to tackle the criminal activities that are occurring. It is more closely aligned with the current compliance work of CBS, and helps prepare for new federal vaping laws later this year.

It comes as the State Government launches a new hard-hitting media advertising campaign showcasing the voices of young people who’ve had first-hand experience with the harmful effects of vaping.

The campaign, launching this week by SA Health’s new preventive health agency Preventive Health SA, will run across radio, outdoor and digital platforms in South Australia.

The ‘Every vape is a hit to your health’ campaign, designed by the Cancer Institute NSW, is targeted specifically at 15 to 25-year-olds who currently vape and those who might be at risk of future uptake.

The campaign will run over five weeks and includes powerful testimonials from ex-vapers who share their real stories around vaping and quitting.

Vapes contain hundreds of harmful chemicals, heavy metals and toxins such as formaldehyde, arsenic and lead. These ingredients can cause cancer, heart disease and lung damage.

The majority of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, with known harms of vaping including nicotine addiction, breathlessness, and symptoms of nicotine poisoning such as vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea.

According to the 2022-2023 Australian secondary students’ alcohol and drug survey, more than a quarter of students in South Australia had used e-cigarettes, an increase from 8.9 per cent in 2017.

The new ad campaign aims to connect young people to more information about vaping and quit support including digital apps, Quitline telephone support, talking to their GP, and behavioural quit strategies.

It’s the latest in a series of tobacco and vaping social marketing campaigns and part of the State Government’s comprehensive strategy to address the increasing use of e-cigarettes and to stamp out smoking and vaping among young people in South Australia.

Last year during an eight-week blitz, more than 4,500 illegal vapes were taken off the streets and 12 Adelaide businesses slapped with fines as part of a targeted crackdown on illegal nicotine sales.

The Government also introduced a raft of new outdoor vape and smoke-free areas in March this year, including near beach jetties and patrol flags, schools, kids’ sporting events and shopping centre entrances as part of tough new laws to protect the community. On-the-spot fines of $105 and prosecution penalties of $750 apply for people caught smoking or vaping in the prohibited areas.

The new ad campaign can be viewed here.

For more information on vaping, young people can visit www.bevapefree.sa.gov.au

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Quotes

Attributable to Peter Malinauskas

The Malinauskas Labor Government is pulling every lever it can to crack down on the illegal tobacco and vape market and the criminals who target our children.

Toughening our enforcement arm and hiring more inspectors will help us stifle this illegal trade that’s causing so much harm in our community.

Smoking kills and vapes contain all kinds of nasty chemicals – this is a warning to dodgy sellers that we are acting to stop you.

Attributable to Chris Picton

Smoking is the biggest preventable killer and now vaping , particularly among young people, is rising significantly and becoming a public health crisis.

Strengthening our enforcement, with tough new vaping laws on the way, will help keep these harmful products out of the hands and lungs of our young people.

Attributable to Andrea Michaels

With vaping increasing rapidly among young people, we need to ensure our response to this escalating health issue matches the threat it poses.

The fact that SA Health last year seized illegal vapes with dangerous levels of nicotine – including one brand with the equivalent of at least three cigarette packets worth of nicotine in one vape – demonstrates we need to be doing more in this area.

That’s why we are investing an additional $16 million to combat the scourge of illegal tobacco and vapes.

Shifting compliance and enforcement to Consumer and Business Services – with the backing of additional resources – will help shut down illegal operations and ensure businesses are adhering to their licence conditions.

Quotes attributable to Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier

The large surge in vaping in recent years at both a state and national level is a major public health concern, and I am very pleased that further decisive action is being taken to help stop an epidemic of vaping and nicotine addiction among our youth.

SA Health’s Public Health Division has to date been the lead agency in tobacco compliance and enforcement, but we are facing increasing challenges in managing the sale and supply of illegal tobacco and vaping products.

We are very pleased to now be partnering with Consumer and Business Services, whose skilled officers will be backing enforcement efforts at the supply chain level.

We need everyone to lean in to keep these harmful and often illegal products out of the hands and lungs of our young people.

Attributable to Preventive Health SA Manager Tobacco and E-Cigarettes Unit Clinton Cenko

The uptake of vaping among 15 to 25-year-olds is extremely concerning and it is critical we are proactive in addressing this worsening issue in the community.

For more than a decade, advertising campaigns about the risks and harms of smoking have played a significant role in reducing the prevalence of smoking and this proven approach is now being applied to vaping harms awareness.

The best approach to addressing this issue is educating young people on the devastating health impacts so they can make informed decisions.