WA’s ‘toothless’ penalties blamed for rampant illegal tobacco, vape sales

Half of Perth’s corner shops are selling illegal tobacco, according to the Australian Council of Smoking and Health, which is calling on the WA government to urgently reform its penalties.

The council surveyed 103 outlets across 56 suburbs and found the illegal sale of tobacco or vapes was rampant at newsagents, delis, tobacconists, convenience stores and gift shops.

“Illegal tobacco and vapes are being sold in broad daylight — proudly displayed in glass cabinets and listed on laminated menus,” chief executive Laura Hunter said.

“There’s no pretense, no fear of being caught, and very few enforceable penalties when they are.”

WA is the only state in Australia that has not updated its legislation in response to the rise in the illegal tobacco and vape trade, with the ACOSH calling the state’s laws “toothless”.

Currently, a person can be fined up to $10,000 for breaching the tobacco laws, or a business up to $40,000 for a first-time offence.

Following a series of violent attacks on smoke shops and fears of ‘tobacco wars’ in the west, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch last month said the penalties were too low to deter shop owners.

He said he wanted the power to issue interim closure orders.

Yesterday during question time, Police Minister Reece Whitby defended the state government’s pace to reform its laws.

“From January this year, the WA Department of Health has conducted more than 1,600 inspections in Western Australia. It has seized more than 190,000 vapes, 460,000 cigarettes and over 85 kilograms of loose tobacco,” he said.

“Western Australia wants to have the toughest and the best laws in the country in relation to this issue, so we are currently involved in putting those laws together.

“We are looking at what the other states have put up because we want to have the toughest, most effective and best anti–illegal tobacco laws in the country.”

It comes a day after the Department of Health’s annual report showed smoking in WA had bucked the trend and increased over the past two years from 10 per cent of people to 12 per cent.

In 2018, just 9 per cent of the population smoked, with the Cancer Council of WA at the time predicting that figure would drop to 5 per cent by 2028.

Meanwhile, a University of Notre Dame report released last month warned convenience stores remained a “common source of vapes for young people”.

The report looked at the closure of dedicated vape shops between January 2023 and September 2024, after strict federal legislation came into effect.

It found a raft of dedicated vape stores closed after the laws were introduced, but convenience stores continued to sell vapes under the counter, including nine within a 500-metre radius of Perth’s CBD.

In August, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch told Radio 6PR he wanted the power to shut down convenience stores and smoke shops that sold black market tobacco over fears of a brewing “tobacco war”, following two shootings and firebombings in Perth.

At the time, Blanch said selling illicit tobacco was already illegal in WA, but the meager fines were not acting as a deterrent for shop owners.

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