Convenience stores that sell vaping items to youth under 18. Cartridges that display a “feel” equivalent to two and a half times the legal nicotine content. Flavors suggesting that vaping is like candy. The “scourge” of vaping is growing among young people due to loopholes in regulation and law enforcement.
The duty found that purchasing vaping products by minors is literally child’s play. Young people under the age of 18 routinely buy vapes at the convenience store without being asked for their IDs, even though the law prohibits the sale of these products to minors.
Convenience stores also offer cartridges with a nicotine content of 50 milligrams per milliliter — two and a half times the legal limit of 20 mg/ml. Other products promise the “feel” of 50 mg/ml, even if the actual concentration is 20 mg/ml, depending on the packaging.
“With 50 milligrams of nicotine, it gives a head rush for a minute, as if you were high “says a student of 5e secondary.
She and six of her friends from the South Shore stock up on vaping items in convenience stores in Longueuil, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, in Montérégie. These young people aged 16 and 17, high school and college students, buy these products prohibited for minors without being asked any questions by the clerks of their favorite convenience stores.
“The owners of the convenience store where I go know me,” says a 17-year-old CEGEP student. She started vaping last year, after finding that “everyone was doing it” at parties at friends’ houses.
The vaping industry is so dynamic that the market is growing faster than the legal framework
“As soon as you have one [vapoteuse] for the parties, It’s finish. Your addict “, she says. The watermelon, passion fruit or green apple flavored cartridges make it feel like eating candy. She knows the health risks of vaping, but she doesn’t worry about it.
Schools at the front
Public health officials, school stakeholders and anti-tobacco groups are concerned about the proliferation of vaping among young people. The most recent Quebec survey on tobacco, alcohol, drugs and gambling among high school students reveals that the proportion of young people who have vaped in the 30 days preceding the survey has quintupled in six years (from 4% in 2013 to 21% in 2019).
“Young people don’t find it threatening. They don’t feel like they’re smoking, it doesn’t smell like a cigarette,” says Patrice Daoust, director of complementary services at the Federation of Private Education Establishments.
“Students are smoking it all over the place. If it smells like bubblegum or strawberry liqueur, there’s a vape somewhere. This is a big problem right now,” he adds.
Parents are asking schools to regulate the use of the vapoteuse, he explains. School principals may well ban it, but they need tools to curb this market officially reserved for adults, but which appeals to teenagers, adds the speaker.
Patrice Daoust notes that convenience stores located near high schools often tend to turn a blind eye to the purchase of vaping products by minors. He believes that Health Canada should devote more efforts to enforcing the law on vaping products, to avoid sales to young people under the age of 18.
Ottawa should also act quickly on its announced desire to ban flavors in vaping liquids, believes the school worker. “It’s been talked about for years and nothing has been done,” he said.
Vaping consumer groups are campaigning to avoid banning flavors, which they say are part of the pleasure of inhaling these products.
An industry to regulate
Flory Doucas, co-director and spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, is critical of the governments of Quebec and Canada. “The vaping industry is so dynamic that the market is growing faster than the legal framework,” she says.
The new strategy of displaying “boosted” cartridges, which offer a “feel” of 50 mg of nicotine per milliliter of liquid, while respecting the 20 mg limit, is confusing teenagers, according to Mme Doucas. “Often, vaping product package labeling is not particularly clear or adequate with respect to product content and ingredients. This leaves a lot of room for illusions and interpretation. »
With 50 milligrams of nicotine, it gives a head rush for a minute, like you’re high
Also, while governments are slow to ban flavorings, big tobacco is bringing to market the fourth generation of vapes, “smart” devices that sync with teens’ phones. And the online sale of vaping items may be prohibited in Quebec, but Canadian sites offer products accessible to young people here.
Flory Doucas is surprised by the delays in better regulating the vaping industry: the most recent inspection reports from Health Canada – which date back almost a year – do indeed confirm violations of the law. Audits conducted between August 2021 and March 2022 at 191 specialty vaping establishments revealed that 60% of them violated the regulations in some way.
Federal inspectors also conducted checks at 1,320 gas stations and convenience stores: 11% of businesses inspected did not meet the requirements for vaping products. “In the majority of cases of non-compliance, the nicotine concentration indicated on the label of the vaping product was greater than 20 mg / ml”, specifies Health Canada.