A nation-leading crackdown to stub out the sale of illegal vapes will mean landlords who lease shopfronts to illegal tobacconists and vape vendors face jail and six-figure fines.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls introduced the reforms in Queensland parliament on Tuesday, aimed at preventing access to the products by young vapers - particularly children.
The proposed laws grant health authorities unprecedented power to shut down traders for three months, up from 72 hours.
The courts will be able to close businesses for up to 12 months, while landlords will be allowed to terminate the leases of illegal operators immediately.
Landlords who flout the crackdown and knowingly allow traders to operate will face a maximum penalty of a $161,300 fine and up to one year in jail.
Queensland Health officers will also be able to stage undercover sting operations and seize all products - even if lawful - found at illegal stores being sold alongside illicit tobacco and vapes.
"We have raised the bar nationally by introducing the country's highest on-the-spot fines," Mr Nicholls said.
"We've empowered our enforcement officers to immediately forfeit and destroy vaping goods, and we've equipped Queensland Health with the tools to recover costs from those who flout the law.
"We are making the criminals pay."
Queensland's crackdown follows the federal government's reforms introduced last October, which authorities say reduced the number of young Australians taking up vaping.
Generation Vape Project research found the rate of vaping dropped from 20 to 18 per cent among 18-24-year-olds from 2023 to July 2025.
Among 14-17-year-olds, the rate of vaping started to drop in the last quarter of 2024, falling from 18 per cent in early 2023 to 15 per cent in the latest data.
Generation Vape also reported young people were exposed to fewer vape advertisements on social media in 2025 compared to early 2024.
Nationally, authorities have seized more than 10 million illicit vapes, with a current street value of almost half a billion dollars, from the Australian market since January 2024.
In Queensland, more than 420,000 illegal vapes, 52.4 million illicit cigarettes and 7500 kilograms of loose tobacco have been seized since November.
Queensland Health has issued more than 140 interim closure orders and imposed more than 3000 fines.
Mr Nicholls said the legislation was designed to protect the next generation of Queenslanders.
"We are taking a zero-tolerance approach to this criminal trade, by ramping up enforcement efforts and introducing the highest on-the-spot fines in Australia,'' he said.
"We need to stop this game of whack-a-mole where every time we hit an illegal business, it reopens within days or another springs up in its place.
"We're making sure when a closure order is issued, closed means closed.
"We don't want to see happening in Queensland what we read about almost every day in Victoria, and that is about tobacco wars and gangland wars."
