Vaping with nicotine in Australia is not like it is in the United Kingdom or the United States. There are no stores in Australia that sell nicotine e-liquid, which might strike some as odd given that cigarettes are sold at local stores in Australia. As a result, vapers in the country seek out overseas suppliers through the internet from which they can import nicotine and nicotine e-liquid for personal use.
Some Australian vapers buy the nicotine separately and mix it with nicotine-free vape juices to create their own nicotine-infused vaping fluids while others buy it pre-infused. Regardless of which route they choose, Australian vapers end up shopping online for their supplies.
It is possible to buy vaping products in some areas of Australia, but none of these products contains nicotine. All local vape stores sell nicotine-free e-liquid if they sell e-liquid at all. Hardware is a different story though, as vapers can buy vape kits locally, but just like with e-juice, the vapes purchased at local stores do not contain any nicotine.
This is how things have been in Oz for some time. Vapers who want to use e-cigs with nicotine shop online for their supplies and overseas companies ship their orders to them. It’s not illegal and there are rules to follow, such as only ordering enough e-liquid at one time to last three months.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regulates the importation of nicotine-containing e-cigs and e-liquids. Under the Personal Importation Scheme, it is currently possible for Australians to import vaping products that contain nicotine for personal use, however, this almost changed earlier this year when the Australian Government moved to ban the importation of such products. This proposed ban was postponed and then later scrapped.
