Vaping is a worldwide disaster that’s getting extra youth hooked on medication. PHOTO: ST FILE
On Father’s Day, my household and I have been at a dim sum restaurant in Jalan Besar when a pair of their late 20s subsequent to our desk left.
Sitting on the steps outdoors, on the pavement, they nonchalantly took out units cupped of their palms and vaped.
Perhaps they thought the possibilities of them getting caught have been slim, as Well being Sciences Authority (HSA) officers can’t be in every single place, particularly on a Sunday. Or maybe they have been of the view that since extra folks have been vaping in Singapore, nobody would snitch on them.
READ: Smoking, vaping: Disaster worsening amongst PH youth
However I questioned in the event that they knew that as an alternative of getting a excessive, they have been really inhaling the breath of loss of life.
Vaping is a worldwide disaster that’s getting extra youth hooked on medication, as crime syndicates pack potent and addictive substances into small units that seem like pens or lighters.
The numbers are worrying sufficient for the United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC) to warn in a 2025 report that vapes, or e-vaporizers, now don’t simply comprise nicotine, but in addition cannabinoids and different artificial substances.
By now, you’d have seen stories and movies of individuals in Singapore behaving incoherently, apparently from vaping, and the painful and costly lung-washing procedures some have undergone attributable to their addictions.
READ: ‘Yosi Kadiri’ returns to show the dangers in utilizing vape
You in all probability know of family and friends members whose research and relationships have been affected by vaping.
Vaping: The Invisible Disaster
That’s why The Straits Instances is launching our anti-vaping marketing campaign, Vaping: The Invisible Disaster, right now.
It’s much like our Cease Scams marketing campaign, the place we publish stories on numerous varieties of scams and the way they work.
Why are we doing this?
We consider there must be extra conversations in regards to the vaping scourge that has already crept into our houses, colleges and workplaces.
Some mother and father informed ST about how vaping has torn their households aside. Others have reported their kids to the authorities. The proof reveals a vaping tradition has already established itself right here.
On Feb 26, Well being Minister Ong Ye Kung stated in a written parliamentary reply that there have been 2,000 instances of scholars together with these from institutes of upper studying (IHLs) reported for possessing or utilizing e-vaporizers in 2024.
That is up from 800 instances in 2022, and 900 instances in 2023.
In October 2023, then Second Minister for Training Maliki Osman, informed Parliament that though colleges and IHLs have elevated checks, it’s doubtless there’s under-detection.
And on March 3, Minister of State for Well being Rahayu Mahzam replied to a parliamentary query in regards to the variety of mother and father who reported their kids for vaping. One such case was referred to the HSA, and the kid was fined $300.
Ms Rahayu suggested mother and father who suspect their youngster of vaping to name the Well being Promotion Board’s (HPB) QuitLine on 1800-438-2000. It’s a part of HPB’s I Stop program, which was launched in 2014 to assist individuals stop smoking and accepts those that wish to cease vaping.
They won’t be fined or prosecuted, except they’re caught utilizing or in possession of vapes.
Worsening numbers
Within the first 9 months of 2024, about 9,680 folks have been caught utilizing or possessing vapes. That is greater than the 7,838 folks caught in the entire of 2023.
In 2019, HSA raids and investigations resulted in $95,460 value of seizures throughout the 12 months.
Primarily based on earlier stories, HSA had seized $41 million value of vapes from January 2024 to March 2025. That’s almost fivefold the reported worth seized from 2019 to end-2023, in accordance with numbers compiled by ST.
This regardless of vaping being banned in Singapore since 2018.
Peer-reviewed journal Emerald Perception stated in 2024 that the variety of vape customers was round 82 million worldwide in 2021, with 14.3 million in South-east Asia. The worldwide vape market was valued at US$22.8 billion in 2022.
Like scams, vaping is a profitable commerce for prison syndicates, and they’re focusing on our youngsters as prospects.
Mature readers will keep in mind the glue-sniffing scourge within the Eighties, when 23 folks died throughout an eight-year interval.
Mother and father needed to lock their kids up for worry of them going to bicycle retailers to get their repair of glue in a can. Some addicts drowned in reservoirs, and greater than 1,112 abusers have been arrested in 1987.
If not tackled aggressively, vaping will turn into the glue-sniffing disaster of our present technology.
As an alternative of a can of glue, the risk now seems as Kpods, a vape juice laced with the highly effective anesthetic drug etomidate.
Etomidate is a medicinal ingredient utilized in medical observe as an anesthetic agent and is assessed as a poison underneath the Poisons Act. This implies a license is required for its importation or sale.
Creating consciousness
How will ST be highlighting this social risk?
We shall be reporting usually on the influence of vaping, not simply in Singapore but in addition around the globe. We’ll give attention to how vaping has impacted your lives and people of your family members.
And we hope that by publishing these stories, it’s going to educate the general public on how lethal vaping could be to your well being and psychological well-being.
Extra must be performed to deal with this subject as a result of, for now, it appears there isn’t a devoted 24-hour helpline or app for the general public to report vaping offenses and the sale of vaping units to the authorities.
Presently, you possibly can contact solely HSA’s Tobacco Regulation Department on 6684-2036 or 6684-2037 from 9am to five.30pm on weekdays.
To deal with scams, the authorities have the ScamShield helpline on 1799.
The ScamShield app can be geared up with synthetic intelligence, and may establish and alert customers to potential rip-off threats on WhatsApp, Telegram and internet hyperlinks.
An identical app to report vaping offenses would assist the authorities stop vapes from reaching prospects and establish vape customers faster.
The vaping subject is clearly being addressed by colleges right here. Some colleges have even issued vape advisories on Mother and father Gateway, an app that connects mother and father and colleges on key administrative issues.
However this messaging also needs to be communicated to the general public to indicate a whole-of-government strategy to deal with the problem, as even main college kids have been caught.
Underneath the regulation, anybody caught shopping for, possessing or utilizing vapes could be fined as much as $2,000. These caught importing, promoting and distributing vapes withstand six months’ jail, a nice of as much as $10,000, or each.
All these imply nothing to the addict decided to get his or her vape repair.
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They need to know there isn’t a beneficial end result after they put a vaping machine into their mouth.
And that every time they suck in these toxins, all they’re doing is blowing their lives away. /dl
