Trading Standards are cracking down on the illegal sale of vapes to minors in Dorset
More than 3,000 ‘non-compliant’ vapes have been seized from nine premises across Dorset
More than a third of premises in Dorset were prepared to sell a vape to a minor, according to Trading Standards.
National statistics show that almost half of vapes purchased by under 18s were bought in shops.
In a bid to crackdown on this epidemic, Trading Standards in Dorset conducted ‘test purchases’ with a 15-year-old trying to buy vapes from 11 premises across the county, 7 failed.
Cllr Gill Taylor pushed for stricter enforcement, she said: “I wanted to be sure that our Trading Standards, who do the enforcement work on this, were on top of it because there are young people who are purchasing their own vapes.”
Since January 2022 officers visited 32 retailers selling vapes and completed eight seizures of ‘non-compliant vapes’.
Schools across Dorset and the police are also working to drive down the sales of vapes to children and legally non-complaint vapes.
Cllr Taylor fears vaping is a gateway drug onto something much more harmful: “I can see an awful lot of young people using vapes and I’m concerned about them becoming addicted to nicotine and where it leads to from there because there can always be a jump to try harder drugs.”
Over the past year the proportion of children experimenting with vaping had grown from 1 in 13 to 1 in 9.
YouGov found that there's been a 50% rise in children between 11 and 17 vaping, causing schools across West Dorset to hold a joint meeting, just a few months ago, to address the "explosion" of pupils vaping.
We we’re told by the Deputy Head Teacher that taking extra measures like installing CCTV and holding assemblies to try and deter kids.
David Withers, Deputy Head at Beaminster School, told us the extent pupils are going to vape: “Kids are very good at hiding them, they'll put them in ties, socks but they’ve got a bit savvier, so they're going for areas where we can't look such as bras and pants.
“There is a real concern that students are using it as an excuse to go to the loo or between lessons, pupils are taking a couple of drags and then going back in.”
Cllr Gill Taylor noted: “If we can understand the size of the problem and the demographic of people who vape, then there's a chance we could start doing specific targeting to try and stop those groups or at least make them far more aware.
“You're never going to stop a young person from vaping because you say it's bad for you, you've got to work out a more subtle way.”