A top health official has blasted e-cigarette makers as "vendors of death" as Victoria mulls introducing a tobacco licensing scheme.
Victoria is the only Australian state without a scheme or formal plans to introduce one, with Queensland's to begin in September 2024.
Health Department Secretary Euan Wallace said Victoria was unable to keep track of how many retailers sold the products but discussions were under way into how licensing could work.
Earlier this year, the federal government introduced sweeping changes to stamp out recreational vaping among young Australians including banning single-use vapes, tougher regulations and further reforms in the future.
Professor Wallace said authorities were considering whether a licensing scheme would assist authorities in implementing those changes.
He said e-cigarettes were introduced as a potential therapy to help smokers give up cigarettes but there was "flimsy evidence" they were effective at doing so.
"Big tobacco knew exactly what it was doing when it introduced e-cigarettes," he told the state's Public Accounts and Estimates Committee on Friday.
"They are vendors of death.
"And the Commonwealth has taken appropriate action in collaboration with states and territories to really address what is one of the most significant public health risks to our population."
More than 30 serious incidents and firebombings in Victoria this year have been linked to a conflict over the illegal tobacco trade.
Victoria Police say the dispute is believed to include members of Middle Eastern organised crime groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs that use youths, street gangs and low-level criminals to carry out offending.
On Thursday, more than $350,000 worth of illicit cigarettes, loose tobacco and vapes were seized in regional Victoria following searches of tobacco shops that led to seven people being arrested.
