Viral doll and vape epidemic plaguing the inner west

The inner-west Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill has no police station, no ambulance station, no fire station and no home for under $1 million – but it does have four tobacconists, and each one sells illegal vapes.

In neighbouring Marrickville, a new store is using viral Labubu toys to promote illegal vapes just metres from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electoral office in another sign of how fearless Sydney’s black market tobacco has become.

From July 1 last year, all nicotine vapes have been classified as therapeutic goods, meaning they can only be purchased at pharmacies. It is illegal for any tobacconist to sell them, and new laws are being introduced by the Minns government to fine, shutter and even imprison large-scale suppliers.

However, the Herald this week visited the four tobacconists in Dulwich Hill – three on Marrickville Rd and a fourth on New Canterbury Road – and asked for an Alibarbar vape from each.

Some produced laminated menus showing the various flavours of Chinese-made vapes. Most offered a discount for paying cash, and the price averaged about $35 for a gold “ingot” vape boasting 9000 puffs.

One of the Dulwich Hill stores has been open for only a matter of weeks, but is already offering the illegal product on a two-for-$70 deal.

In Marrickville, there are at least 10 tobacconists. The Herald visited the newest store, Labubu Stop & Shop, which has opened across the street from Anthony Albanese’s electorate office.

Labubus are a viral toy marketed to children. The red sign shows a Labubu smoking, and the shelves inside are lined with lollies – a common practice in the Dulwich Hill smoke shops as well.

Labubu Stop & Shop also sells illegal vapes for $30. The helpful staff offered a free test-taste, inside the store, to ensure the vape worked.

Inner-west locals have complained about the proliferation of the vapes, and illegal cigarettes, which no authority in Australia is capable of stopping, even as underworld gangs move into the market.

“We nearly got rid of the scourge of people smoking and ruining our local streets, but now you can get these Chinese fruit whistles and illegal cigarettes for next to nothing,” one business owner said, speaking anonymously for fear of being targeted.

The NSW and federal governments have locked horns this year over who should police the tide of illegal tobacco and vapes and which levers can be pulled to stem its spread, such as the federal taxes which account for $28 of a $40 pack of cigarettes.

In June, Premier Chris Minns warned the NSW Police it may need to step up enforcement, a duty it shares with NSW Health.

However, police pushed back, telling the Herald it would divert 500 officers away from more serious investigations such as domestic violence and organised crime.

Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne wants to stop the spread of smoke shops and said the current laws were “toothless”.

“I had to ask my kids what a Labubu was. To find out that on Marrickville Road there’s a depiction of this kids’ toy holding a packet of Camel cigarettes and, down the street, another shop with Mario and Luigi smoking cigars, it’s just absurd,” Byrne told the Herald.

“We thought we broke the back of advertising tobacco to children 40 years ago. The NRL is no longer playing the Winfield Cup, Rothmans isn’t sponsoring motorsport.

“But the lack of attention to this problem has allowed it to sneak back in, and now it’s more mainstream, more prevalent.”

Despite being mayor, Byrne learns about new tobacconists only when walking the streets because the shops do not need to put in a development application (DA) to open.

“We don’t even have a register of how businesses like this exist in the inner west because the legislation doesn’t even allow that – that means we can’t trace who the business owners are,” Byrne said.

Byrne lobbied the state government to tighten the DA loophole last year so tobacconists would need to submit to the same tests as bottle shops, addressing community impact and objections.

But the push hit a dead end in state parliament. New laws tabled by the Minns government do not include any that would allow councils to intervene in the planning process.

“If we had five or six bottle shops opening in one shopping strip, there would, quite rightly, be an outcry and it’s rightly illegal,” Byrne said.

Inner West council dispatched rangers to the Labubu and Mario-themed shops on Tuesday ordering them to remove the signs. But that is the extent of their powers, Byrne said.

“We can’t shut them down and, even if we could, another tobacconist could open next door or around the corner tomorrow,” Byrne said.

“I strongly agree with the legislation the NSW government has tabled to crack down on sales, but if we don’t do something serious about policing and inspection then legislation has no teeth.”

Elsewhere in Sydney, Pittwater’s federal independent MP Jacqui Scruby highlighted what she calls the “blatant targeting of children”. She cited a Bilgola Plateau shop that opened 500 metres from a primary school that displayed lollies at the entrance and sold under-the-counter cigarettes.

“A resident in Mona Vale also wrote to me about a tobacconist opposite the local primary school who is running Facebook ads. When a concerned parent questioned the owner about the proximity of the store to children, the response received was, ‘That’s what we call being strategic’,” Scruby said.

Scruby has made six submissions to the current parliamentary inquiry into illegal tobacco, including mandatory buffer zones around schools, childcare centres and playgrounds, and targeted youth education campaigns.

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