A 13-year-old girl was able to purchase handfuls of illegal vapes containing as much nicotine as 100 cigarettes in the space of just one day.
It is illegal to sell vapes with nicotine to anybody under the age of 18. But when 13-year-old Rose tried to make the purchases from a host of shops in Manchester city centre, almost half sold her vapes containing the highly addictive drug.
Up to one in four vaping shops are selling super-sized vapes with illegal amounts of nicotine to kids, a Mirror investigation has found.
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The undercover shopper was sent to 16 retailers in Manchester and four of them sold her vapes with 3,500 or more puffs - which contain up to five times the legal amount of nicotine - for as little as £10.
Three more shops sold her regular legal disposable vapes, with some retailers offering her discounts and only one of the seven that sold her vapes even asking if she was over 18.
Within a few hours, nearly half of the shops tested had sold the teenager a clutch of vapes containing as much of the highly addictive drug nicotine as is found in 100 cigarettes.
And there are strict rules in the UK on how much nicotine disposable vapes can contain - no more than 2ml of liquid with no more than 2% nicotine.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of campaign group Action on Smoking and Health, told the Mirror, “it’s the wild west out there”.
There is evidence of a worrying rise in underage vaping, with rates doubling last year according to ASH, who found that 7% of 11- to 17-year-olds surveyed were “current users” in 2022, up from 3.3% the year before.
There is also concern about the rise of illegal sized black market vapes, with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute warning that around one in three vape products on shelves break UK laws.
The illegal vapes our undercover child bought contained five times as much nicotine as the legal ones for just twice the price.
Organised crime gangs are believed to be smuggling £500million worth of illegal vapes into the UK a year. They are mostly made in China and designed for markets where bigger and stronger vapes are legal, such as the US.
The Mirror's investigation confirms what some experts fear – that many of the shops selling illegal vapes are the same ones failing to carry out ID checks on children.
Two of the shops that sold our young teen a vape were Post Office franchises, including one which openly advertised Elux Legend 3500 vape bars – which are five times bigger than the legal limit – on pavement hoardings in the middle of Manchester’s busy Deansgate shopping street.
We repeated the investigation in Coventry where two out of 20 shops tested sold the same girl vapes, both of them legal.
The Post Office on Manchester’s Deansgate initially sold 13-year-old Rose a £6 Elf Bar 600, which is legal in the UK - though it is not legal to sell it to under-18s.
She went back inside and asked to exchange it for a “sour apple” favour Elux Legend 3500, which was being advertised outside the shop, despite being illegal in the UK.
When challenged, a shop worker later told us: “I’ve been told to say nothing. We don’t sell to under-18s. I’m shocked.”
Three neighbouring shops in Manchester’s busy Piccadilly Gardens also sold Rose illegal vapes.
First a shop called Vaping Mart sold her another Elux Legend 3500 for £11.25. The manager later told us: “I am very shocked. Even with no nicotine ones, we refuse hundreds of times.”
Two doors down, a female shop worker in Smokers Paradise sold her a Crystal 4000 Puffs vape, which is not registered with the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and is “100% illegal”, according to one expert we showed it to.
The shop worker asked for ID but when Rose said she had left it at home the assistant sold it to her anyway for £13.
When we asked the manager if he wanted to comment, he accused us of a “scam” and then tried to prevent our reporter from leaving.
Police were called and told about the illegal vapes for sale. One officer said he would pass the information to trading standards, adding that he had been on their raids and said “it is a problem we are aware of”.
Further along at Marhaba newsagent, Rose asked for another brand – a “lost Mary triple mango”. But instead of the legal 600 puff version, which typically costs £5, she was given an illegal 3500 puff version for £10 and wasn’t asked her age. The manager later declined to comment.
Most vape brands offer 0% nicotine versions which are legal to sell to children of any age. Rose did not say she wanted vapes containing nicotine but still none of the shopkeepers offered her the nicotine-free versions.
The Department of Health and Social Care told the Mirror: “It is illegal to sell vapes to children or vapes that break our clear rules, and just this week we announced a new ‘illicit vapes enforcement squad’ backed by £3million to take further action.
“The squad will have the powers to disrupt illicit supply, undertake test purchasing and testing of products, and will share knowledge and intelligence across the country.
“We will not tolerate the sale of illegal products and will take necessary actions to remove them from shelves and stop them from crossing our borders.”
John Dunne, director general of the UK Vaping Industry Association, said: “The results do not surprise me in the areas you have looked at.
“It is one of the reasons the UKVIA have been pushing the Government to take drastic action.
“We are fully behind taking these people to task. We don’t condone their behaviour at all. It is retailers like this who are putting the entire industry in jeopardy.”
Mr Dunne said retailers are likely to face “minuscule fines” of about £200, though the maximum is £2,500. He called for the Government to hike this to £10,000.
He also wants a licensing scheme for all vape retailers and distributors, including “robust age verification training”, and a national testing scheme “like the Mirror has been doing”.
Illegal vapes could have the wrong tank size, illegal nicotine concentration levels, could contain CBD, which is derived from cannabis, or have incorrect labelling, including the wrong health warning.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute warned last month: “While trading standards officers are working tirelessly to try and combat the tidal wave of non-compliant vapes being sold by retailers, there is a wider issue of faults in the supply chain.”
Dr Mike McKean, vice-president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, wants it to go further, with tighter restrictions on advertising vapes.
He called for action on “bright packaging, exotic flavours and enticing names” which appeal to children.
It is believed that 45 million illegal vapes a year are smuggled into the UK by criminal gangs, thought to be based in West London and Manchester, before being more or less openly sold in shops, online and through social media.
The gangs could be costing HM Revenue & Customs up to £150m in lost VAT and customs duty alone.
John Dunne of the UKVIA added: “This problem is massive. There are 4.2 million vapers in the UK and the industry is worth £2billion. They are making millions of pounds a week. It is big, big business.”
20mg of nicotine is roughly equivalent to 20 cigarettes.
The Elux Legend 3500 with 2% nicotine is illegal in the UK due to its 10ml tank size - five times the limit. The packaging on the illegal Lost Mary BM3500 clearly shows it has the same 10ml tank size and 2% nicotine strength. The Crystal 4000 Puffs does not reveal the tank size on its packaging but it is not approved by the MHRA for sale in the UK.
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