Nicotine oil one of the most commonly seized items inside Victoria’s jails
An addictive nicotine substance is among the most popular items smuggled into Victoria’s prisons, as inmates look for new ways to beat the ban on smoking.
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An addictive nicotine substance is fast becoming one of the most smuggled – and seized – items inside Victoria’s jails as inmates get creative to beat smoking bans.
It comes as the latest Corrections Victoria contraband data revealed 450L of “nicotine oil” was seized off prisoners between July 2024 and March this year amid a major crackdown on smoking paraphernalia behind bars.
Nicotine oil – or liquid nicotine – contained highly addictive substances and flavoured chemicals that were used in e-cigarettes.
So far this year Melbourne Remand Centre has had the most amount of the substance seized, with guards taking 118L from 88 finds.
Likewise more than 85L has been taken from inmates at Barwon – Victoria’s notorious maximum security jail.
Tobacco was controversially banned in Victorian prisons in 2015, with inmates instead given nicotine patches – until those were added to the list of prohibited items in February 2024 after crafty prisoners found a way to make cigarettes out of them.
But prisoners are given one packet of nicotine lozenges a week.
In the nine months to March 2025 guards confiscated twice the amount of smoking gear than at the same point in the previous year.
According to the March drugs in prison report 6871 items of smoking paraphernalia were seized from 628 finds, as opposed to 3482 items taken from 632 searches at March 2024.
In the 2023/24 financial year there were more than 3100 smoking-related items – including cigarettes, lighters and matches – seized from 104 successful searches of visitors entering the state’s various prisons.
The most popular jail for would-be smugglers in 2023/24 was Port Phillip Prison where 973 pieces were taken — followed by Melbourne Remand Centre and Ravenhall in the city’s western suburbs.
On the drugs front meth remained one of the most popular substances in the slammer, making up 16 per cent of all positive drug tests so far this year.
Nearly half of all positive tests for meth in the state’s prison system came out of Melbourne Assessment Prison and Port Phillip in Truganina.
Meth is the second most popular drug inmates tested positive for behind Buprenorphone.
More than 683L of alcohol has also been seized from inmates this year, with nearly half of the booze brewed out of Port Phillip.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman said Corrections was “cracking down” on nicotine misuse.
“Nicotine patches have been removed from Victorian prisons due to growing health and wellbeing concerns due to misuse,” she said.
“People in custody who are nicotine dependent continue to be supported by health services to support them during this adjustment.”
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