Black market adapts after Qld's illicit tobacco and vape shop crackdown

The black market for illicit tobacco and vaping products has surged in the past 10 years. (ABC News: Thomas Edwards/File)

Laws introduced in Queensland last year seem to have reduced visible illicit tobacco and vape sales, but many sellers have shifted online.

Convenience stores say some customers briefly returned to legal cigarettes before moving back to the cheaper black market.

There are calls for the tobacco excise to be cut, but health experts say stronger enforcement is the better long-term solution.

Last year, you could walk into one of several tobacconists in a busy Gold Coast shopping precinct and buy a vape or a carton of illicit cigarettes over the counter.

But in November, these tobacconists, along with about 150 other shops, were given three-month shutdown orders during a statewide crackdown by Queensland Health.

Public health researchers say Queensland's laws have resulted in a "very notable decrease" in such retailers selling illicit tobacco and vapes.

But the convenience store sector, which has seen demand for legal cigarettes fall sharply, warns the black market has been adapting beyond the shop front.

Retailers on the Gold Coast had previously openly advertised the sale of vapes. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)

Queensland Health has issued 275 closure orders since November last year, with about 40 per cent of retailers subsequently evicted.

Landlords who knowingly lease their properties to tenants supplying illicit tobacco and vapes can face a maximum penalty of $161,300 and one year in jail.

Research fellow at the University of Queensland's School of Public Health, Cheneal Puljevic, said there has been a "marked difference" in the availability of illicit tobacco or vapes.

Boxes of suspected illicit tobacco and vapes were seized from stores in Bundaberg in November last year. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)

"For a long time, there was virtually no penalty associated with selling these products," she said.

"You could very brazenly sell illicit tobacco and vapes without any kind of consequence and just make an awful amount of profit."

Dr Puljevic's team has been monitoring the sale of illicit products for three years and has noted retailers have moved online in recent months.

"We're seeing retailers giving out details to trusted customers to say, 'Phone this number and someone will home deliver the products to you or join this WhatsApp group'," she said.

"But to go from being able to buy these products in every suburb at every tobacconist, to needing to call someone to arrange for them to deliver, it's a lot harder and a lot