Sale of e-cigarettes to people under 18 banned in South Australia from 2019; extended to liquid e-cigarettes in 2021

The 2019 restrictions in South Australian included smoking an e-cigarette in a motor vehicle if a child under 16 were present.

South Australia passed the law in October 2019 banning advertising, promoting and selling e-cigarette products to people under the age of 18.

Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia director Marina Bowshall called it an important public health measure to reduce the exposure to the effects of e-cigarettes and to bring South Australia in line with most other states and territories.

The law prohibited sale or supply of e-cigarette products to a person under 18, including online,  and
       • providing or offering free samples, prizes, gifts or other benefits in connection to the sale of e-cigarette products,
       • sale of e-cigarette products from temporary outlets, sales trays and vending machines.
       • use of e-cigarettes in public places that were smoke-free under the law, including in a motor vehicle if a child under 16 were present.

Penalties for businesses failing to meet the regulations were up to $20,000 for a first offence and up to $40,000 for a subsequent offence. Adults over 18 were still able to buy e-cigarette products, but there are no changes to the ban on the sale of nicotine for use in e-cigarettes under the Controlled Substances Act 1984.

The Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association criticised the legislation: “Businesses will close or move, causing hundreds of job losses and millions of dollars of lost revenue for South Australia. Life-saving vaping products will be harder to access and many vapers will be condemned to returning to deadly tobacco smoking”.

In October 2021, a variation to regulations clarified that an e-cigarette liquid was an e-cigarette product, with the ban on sale to minors under 18 applying. E-cigarette retailers, when selling e-cigarette liquids, had to ensure flavours were not displayed. 

Also in October 2021, changes by the federal Therapeutic Goods Administration to the national classification of nicotine meant consumers who wished to legally access nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and nicotine vaping products in Australia would require a prescription from an Australian medical practitioner, including for products imported into Australia.

South Australia applied an exemption for pharmacists and medical practitioners who might, under the Controlled Substances Act 1984, sell or supply nicotine lawfully prescribed as a Schedule 4 prescription-only medicine to help someone stop smoking.