Burning out: how Australia’s bid to cut smoking rates exploded into suburban tobacco wars

With the illicit market worth at least $2bn a year and the rise of illegal vapes, experts say the status quo is failing

There are three tobacconists in a strip of no more than a dozen shops on the same side of a street in Melbourne’s west. Earlier this year, someone reached between the metal bars protecting one shop, smashed the front window and flung a molotov cocktail inside.

Eight days later, a driver rammed the security screen at a second store and tried to set it alight before fleeing. A jerry can was left on the street as if in homage to the failed arson.

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Law (Australia) | The Guardian