New Report Launched at Global Forum on Nicotine Warns Vape Prohibition Hands Markets to Criminals

New Report Launched at Global Forum on Nicotine Warns Vape Prohibition Hands Markets to Criminals

05 June 2026. Warsaw, Poland.  

A new report launched at the Global Forum on Nicotine warns that governments pursuing vape bans, flavour bans, retail restrictions, and other prohibition style policies are not eliminating nicotine demand. They are instead pushing the market into criminal and informal channels.

The report, When Regulation Becomes Prohibition: Black Markets, Enforcement Failure, and Vape Restrictions, authored by Professor Sinclair Davidson, examines restrictive vape policies in Australia, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Across all five jurisdictions, the report finds the same pattern: prohibition does not achieve its stated aims, but it does come with huge costs.

“Prohibition does not work. It does not kill the nicotine market; it hands it to criminals, black market dealers, and informal sellers,” said Professor Sinclair Davidson. “Governments wanted control. They achieve the opposite.”

The report estimates substantial recurring annual regulatory failure costs from prohibition style nicotine policies, exceeding billions of dollars in foregone taxes and direct economic impact.

“Vape bans do not protect children; they push them out of regulated shops and into unregulated black markets,” Davidson said. “Police get the crime, treasuries lose the revenue, and honest retailers lose their businesses. That is not public health policy. It is market share for criminals.”

The report finds that Australia, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark have all adopted different versions of prohibition style nicotine policy, with similar results. The product remains available, but the market becomes harder to tax, harder to test, harder to inspect, and harder to control.

“You can outlaw the shop, but you cannot outlaw the demand,” Davidson said. “Prohibition does not eliminate nicotine. Every country in this report learned the same lesson the hard way.”

Tim Andrews, Director of Consumer Issues at Americans for Tax Reform and spokesperson for Prohibition Does Not Work, said the report should be a warning to policymakers considering ever stricter nicotine restrictions.

“The choice is not between regulation and no regulation,” Andrews said. “It is between a lawful, taxable, inspectable market and an illicit market run through social media, informal sellers, and organised crime. Governments that ban safer nicotine products are not protecting consumers. They are blinding themselves and empowering criminals.”

Davidson said policymakers must stop mistaking tougher laws for greater control.

“The best way to get illicit products off the market is to replace them with lawful regulated alternatives,” Davidson said.

The report concludes that prohibition style regulation is in effect, a weaker form of control than actual lawful regulation.

The full report is available HERE.

About Prohibition Does Not Work

Prohibition Does Not Work is a global advocacy platform highlighting the unintended consequences of prohibitionist policies and promoting evidence-based regulation that protects consumers, reduces harm, and supports public health goals.