ILLICIT TRADE IN NEXT-GEN NICOTINE

IN recent years, the illicit market has evolved and grown beyond traditional tobacco products to include the nextgen nicotine category as well.

With next-gen usage on the rise and nicotine levels capped at different levels by different countries, vapes and other products run the risk of failing to comply with UK standards.

“With approximately 4.3 million people now regular vapers, an illegal strand of vaping has emerged. A JTI UK commissioned study found that a shocking 25 out of the 28 disposable vape products tested on the market were not legally compliant, while the UK Vaping Industry Association recently estimated that up to 60% of disposable vape products in the UK are illicit,” says Ian Howell, fiscal and regulatory affairs manager at JTI UK.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) states illicit vapes to be the products that 60% of trading standards professionals are most concerned about. According to the CTSI, more than 1.4 million tonnes of illegal vapes were seized in the last six months of 2022 in the northeast of England alone. On top of this, underage vaping is a growing concern.

CTSI chief executive John Herriman says: “While we recognise that vaping can be a useful quitting aid for smokers, we are worried about increasing breaches of the law, with many non-compliant devices being sold on high streets. There is an increasing problem with vaping products being sold to children in many general retail premises, such as mobile phone shops, gift shops and convenience stores.

“Trading standards teams are cracking down on the unscrupulous retailers who are selling these products to young people without the legally required age-verification checks. It is important that vaping products comply with rules that were established to safeguard public health, and that they do not end up in the hands of children.”

Kate Pike, tobacco control lead for Trading Standards

North West, has seen a large increase in reports about shops selling illegal vapes or next-gen products to children.

Mo Razzaq, from Premier Mo’s Blantyre in South Lanarkshire, believes the UK

Vape Industry Association needs to sit down with other trade organisations to work out a strategy to ensure vape products are sold legally.

“The disposable vape is here to stay, but if regulations come in, people may turn to organised crime to get them,” he says. “If they don’t do it properly and instead just offer knee-jerk reactions, then we’re going to have issue after issue. We are raising concerns as we have done for years.”

Supplier tips

What suppliers and authorities are doing

“We have launched a new and improved anti-illicit trade website as part of our continued ‘Suspect it? Report it!’ trade campaign to tackle illegal sales of tobacco. The redeveloped website is a valuable resource for information about the illegal tobacco problem in the UK, with the site containing information about the latest developments in illicit tobacco via an updated news page, LinkedIn page and Twitter feed,” says James Hall, anti-illicit trade manager at Imperial Tobacco UK&I.

“Our test-purchasing programmes continue to identify physical and online sellers of illegal tobacco and vapes. Last year, we gathered evidence of more than 230 retail outlets selling illegal tobacco and/or vapes, including 107 in the north-west of England,” says JTI UK’s Ian Howell.