Brazenly selling e-cigarettes in Hanoi's Old Quarter
Located in the center of Hanoi, Luong Ngoc Quyen and Ta Hien streets are entertainment spots, attracting a large number of young people and tourists from home and abroad. Due to high demand, although banned, e-cigarettes are still sold in many places, despite current regulations.
According to reporters' records, on just one street section about 300m long, there are already three e-cigarettes selling traditional cigarettes. These points of sale mainly "hid" in the form of grocery stores, sidewalk cafes. However, e-cigarettes are still sold quite openly.
In the role of a tourist who needs to buy disposable vape e-cigarettes, the reporter approached a stall in the middle of Ta Hien street.
Initially, the store owner was cautious and did not sell the goods immediately. This person said: "I will not sell, if you have a need, go somewhere else to buy".
When reporters asked why the goods were displayed publicly but refused to sell, the store owner said: "I said so because I was afraid of being fined, the police went to check all the time. If you buy real, I'll take it for you to see." Then, the woman took out a blue bag, inside containing dozens of electronic cigarette products with many different codes, selling price from 300,000 - 500,000 VND/piece.
Here there are many designs and types, high-quality goods. You can rest assured because Western customers really like it. Buy and try it, if you like it next time, support me," the store owner advertised.
Electronic cigarette business group updated by minute on closed groups
Due to frequent inspection and handling by functional agencies, a series of e-cigarettes business establishments have closed their stores, maintained transactions via telephone and social networks, and are ready to deliver goods to the place, meeting all customer orders.
To facilitate exchange and avoid being detected, sellers and buyers focus on closed groups on social networks, where advertising and e-cigarettes trading activities take place continuously by the hour.
At the "Pod Hanoi" group, created by Nguyen Nhu Trong account, there are currently more than 23,000 members participating. In this group, e-cigarettes are updated almost every minute. Just a short post with the content "Finding pods in Hoang Mai area", after about 17 minutes, attracted nearly 20 comments, mainly accounts of sellers offering many types of e-cigarettes, eye-catching designs and commitments "ready to ship".
Not only buyers post articles looking for goods, many accounts in the group also actively advertise e-cigarettes with the commitment "standard, genuine goods", "reasonable" prices, targeting all customer groups, especially students.
Electronic cigarettes mixed with drugs - a danger to health
Quang Hai (character name has been changed), owner of a cigarette accessory business on Nguyen Chi Thanh street, said that he and his friends used to do business in accessories sold with e-cigarettes. However, after the time this item was banned, he stopped selling e-cigarettes and only traded in accessories.
According to Quang Hai, the main customer group of e-cigarettes is students who are still very young. "To attract customers, many places mix Tobaco (American marijuana - a strong drug) to attract and retain customers," Hai revealed.
According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen - Director of the Poison Control Center of Bach Mai Hospital, e-cigarettes use many flavorings and chemicals, so they can be exploited to use drugs through mixing.
Bach Mai Hospital has received hundreds of hospitalizations after using e-cigarettes, including a 15-year-old teenager who was diagnosed with a typical serotonin syndrome due to stimulants, even drugs. Testing many e-cigarettes samples of patients showed positive for drugs.
The treatment cost for cases of e-cigarettes mixed with mild acute drugs to severe cases costs an average of over 10 million VND to hundreds of millions of VND. Common symptoms include consciousness disorders, convulsions, sweating, multiple organ failure. Nicotine in e-cigarettes is a toxic substance, very addictive. It is necessary to completely eliminate tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, from social life.
Reality shows that large profits have caused e-cigarettes trading activities to shift from public to underground, from stores to cyberspace, continuing to target young people and sow the risk of addiction and disease.
Faced with this situation, stopping at a ban is not enough, requiring functional agencies to strengthen inspection and handling, and at the same time promote communication to stop the vortex of illegal e-cigarettes trading.
On January 5, in an exchange with Lao Dong Newspaper, lawyer Bui Quang Hung, Law Office of the National Assembly and Associates, Hanoi Bar Association, said that the business of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco in cyberspace as reflected is a serious violation of legal regulations, requiring strong involvement from functional agencies.
In principle, online sales or direct sales are both commercial activities. For a good that has been banned from being sold directly, online business is also a prohibited act. Advertising and trading in e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes in cyberspace is against regulations, and no cases are allowed," lawyer Hung emphasized.
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