NSW government crackdown on illegal vape sales

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The NSW government is cracking down on the sale of illegal vapes but the Premier admits enforcement is difficult under current laws. He says he wants the federal government to go ahead with its proposed ban of non-prescription e-cigarettes.

Transcript

00:00 Behind the bright packaging and fruity flavours is a bitter truth.

00:06 This will probably kill me if I keep doing it.

00:09 It kind of tastes like childhood lollies.

00:11 Just like lollies, vapes can be found at many convenience stores.

00:14 If it was hard for me to find, I never would have even started.

00:17 I've seen more and more school kids vaping.

00:19 Hooking a new generation on nicotine.

00:21 When I was a kid we used to have to hide to smoke our cigarettes.

00:24 Now you can just vape wherever you like.

00:26 We found that young people who were non-smokers who used e-cigarettes

00:31 were three times as likely to go on to smoke as young people who had not used e-cigarettes.

00:36 It's a trend the state government is trying to vaporise,

00:40 doubling the number of enforcement officers to 14.

00:43 And this I've made sure is going to be a personal priority of mine.

00:47 Selling nicotine vapes to people without a prescription is against the law,

00:52 but it is legal for adults to buy e-cigarettes without nicotine.

00:56 While tens of thousands of illegal vapes are seized every month,

01:00 prosecutions are rare.

01:02 Only, only if NSW and the prosecutors can prove that the retailer knew

01:08 that nicotine was contained in the vape.

01:12 And considering it's not on the side of the box,

01:14 it's very difficult to meet that high threshold.

01:16 The Premier says the state can't vanquish vaping alone.

01:20 He's calling on the federal government to ban the sale of e-cigarettes in retail settings.

01:25 The Commonwealth says reform is already in train.

01:28 I've said that I'll be aiming to put in place an import control regulation

01:33 by the end of this year which will ban the import of vapes into this country

01:37 other than through a very narrow therapeutic pathway.

01:41 Restricting vapes to those trying to make their nicotine habit go up in smoke.

01:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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