The black market for disposable vejps and other e-cigarettes is growing rapidly in Finland. Despite strict legislation on flavors and age limits, use among young people is skyrocketing.
"Primary school children are recruited by gangs to sell to their friends," reports YLE newspaper.
In the shadow of both taste ban and ban on selling e-cigarettes A black market for e-cigarettes is growing online. And this is particularly true among young people under 18. In a series of articles YLE newspaper noticed that minors are acquiring vejp products via social media or through friends at school. According to the police, some form of organized crime is often behind the sales. There are threats and violence surrounding the sales, they say.
- Extortions, robberies and threats that occur in the context of trade are the most unpleasant mild phenomena. For example, a young person may be threatened with assault if he does not hand over his property," says Chief Constable Toni Reinikainen to YLE newspaper.
Many bans on e-cigs
As Vejpkollen previously reported, Finland has some of the Europe's toughest laws For example, e-cigarettes and e-liquid cannot be flavored with anything other than tobacco flavors. All e-liquids are taxed, including unflavored e-liquids - i.e. glycerine and propylene glycol liquids (at least if they are sold in a shop that also sells vejp products). Online sales are prohibited and those products that are still available on the open market are regulated via an age limit (18 years) and a license to sell. At present, few everyday shops sell e-cigarettes. The exception is the tobacco company Phillip Morris' own e-cigarette, a variant that only tastes of tobacco.
Young vejpar anyway
However, the legislation in place since 2018 does not seem to have had a significant impact on the use of e-cigarettes among adults. Today, as in 2018, it is closer to one percent. According to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare However, the use of e-cigarettes among young people aged 14-20 has doubled in Finland in the last two years. Six percent of boys and five percent of girls use e-cigarettes daily. At the same time, smoking has decreased among people aged 14-20. Six percent of boys and four percent of girls smoke daily.
Praised by the WHO
WHO highlighted Finland's tough legislation in 2020According to the WHO's Tobacco Convention, smoking (but according to some interest groups also vejping and snus use) must fall below 5% to achieve the convention's "endgame". Today, 12% of men and 11% of women smoke in Finland on a daily basis (the corresponding figures in Sweden are 4 and 6 percent).
Tobacco crime has increased
Despite the tough legislation, vejping has become a phenomenon among young people, according to the police in Finland. And it accelerated even more during the summer and fall.
"This year, some 50 cases have come to the attention of the police in Inland Finland through reports, but the official figure is marginal compared to the scale of the phenomenon. The number of tobacco-related crimes has increased recently," says Markus Antila to the YLE newspaper.
He notes that young people are buying vape products and nicotine liquids online and reselling them to other minors at many times the price.
Deregulation reduced smuggling
While the black market for e-cigarettes is growing, the black market for white snus, nicotine pouches. This is after the previously illegal products will now be regulated under tobacco laws. The Finnish government justified the decision by saying that it wants to tackle illicit trade and use among young people through taxation and regulation. How any flavor bans and taxes will affect that market is not yet clear.
