E-cigarettes are selling widely before the ban

"Just use it until it's banned!"

We searched on Facebook with the keywords “Electronic Cigarettes”, “vape pod”, then many public pages and groups appeared such as “Electronic Cigarettes”, “Electronic Cigarette Sales”, “Vape Pod Juice Cau Giay - Hanoi”… with the number of members ranging from 9,000 to 66,000, with an average of 10 posts/day, many posts with up to 1,300 comments offering and asking to buy products.

Selecting a suggested group, anonymous posts with the content "What now if we get banned?" appeared, receiving more than 200 comments from group members, most of which were for sale, some users even commented: "Just use it. Throw it away next year", "Just buy and use it first, we still serve everyone with all product lines" - one comment wrote...

Besides, forums, social networks... often have advertisements with all kinds of items and always state "ready to ship", in any area can be delivered to customers.

Most worryingly, according to a survey by Lao Dong reporters, electronic cigarettes are currently produced in the form of "disguised" soft drink, milk, and beverage boxes, to create a cover to help students easily hide their smoking behavior at school.

According to experts, there are 3 groups of health risks in electronic cigarettes: nicotine, artificial flavors and drugs.

A survey by the Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital) on e-cigarette samples used by 120 patients showed that 16 of these samples tested positive for drugs (accounting for 13.3%). The results of toxicology tests on some specimens sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine detected drugs with the following ingredients: ADB-Butinaca, MDMD-butinaca; ADB-4en-pinaca; MDMB-4en-pinaca; EDMB-4en-pinaca; THC; PB-22.

Sales locations are usually near schools.

Perhaps the choice of locations for e-cigarette and heated tobacco stores also has to do with the target customers. A brand selling this product has 2 locations in Hanoi, the special thing is that both of these locations are located near universities with a very high density of students.

Just standing there for a while, it is easy to see young people coming to buy. We also tried to contact the phone number on the social network and the billboard to ask to buy online. The store said that there was a delivery service and then the staff called back and added us on Zalo to give further advice.

We were advised that the store has 2 types: The type that uses a machine with essential oils for long-term use and the type that is disposable. The type of electronic cigarette that is disposable, according to the introduction, is often called a disposable Pod, here there is a Priv Bar brand product, this type has about 10 different fruit flavors for customers to choose from, with a lighter nicotine level than the type that uses a machine with essential oils.

According to the store owner, the type of electronic cigarette that uses a machine with essential oils is currently popular among young people. The price of these types is usually offered from over 400,000 VND to over 900,000 VND (especially free shipping).

The essential oils used in this line are very diverse, from 38% nicotine (addictive substance) to 58% nicotine. Many people often mistakenly think that "using electronic cigarettes to reduce harm or to quit smoking" but in fact, experts warn that this nicotine index is very worrying for human health. Because compared to the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, these essential oils are many times higher, and can even cause poisoning.