NSW Health disposed of approximately 300,000 vapes in 2024.
Tobacco can be cheaply dumped into landfill, but courts require entire seizures to be stored as evidence throughout a prosecution, which can take years.
In Sydney’s west an entire government warehouse is storing 178 tonnes of cigarettes which will cost $1.1 million to destroy.
Vapes are more expensive than cigarettes to destroy; the combustible battery and hazardous chemicals mean they cannot be trashed or recycled and must be pulled apart and disposed of by component.
It will cost a further $350,000 to destroy 4.4 tonnes of vapes stored in the seizure warehouse.
NSW Health said they had spent $246,000 so far this financial year disposing of seized tobacco and vapes. NSW Police did not respond when asked how much money it spent on their disposal.
Another technical issue also vexes police, and explains why the streets remain littered with vapes despite more than a year of prohibition – they’re not illegal to possess.
That means police can’t invoke their search powers, even if a person is seen with a vape because it might be legally obtained from a pharmacy.
Without seizing a known illegal vape, police can’t get a search warrant against the tobacconist suspected of supply.
NSW Health, however, can search a shop without a warrant because it has powers to conduct an inspection.
“So shouldn’t it just stay with Health, or better yet, the Feds?” one officer said.
“They’re the ones collecting the money anyway.”
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Commonwealth agencies, the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and Criminal Intelligence Commission, received $150 million from the federal government in March to police illegal tobacco.
The NSW Police received none of that money and the state receives none of the excise on tobacco.
Minns this week said the federal government should reduce the steep tobacco excise to discourage the thriving black market.
“I know that their ultimate intention is to have $60, $70 packet of cigarettes, but unfortunately, the unintended consequence of that tax is they’ve created a $17 packet that’s available everywhere,” he said.
“We’ve got to either allocate police resources to confronting illegal tobacco sales, or we should have a commonsense look at the massive excise.”
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out any excise cuts saying cutting the price of legal smokes would not end demand for a black market.
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