The co-author of a University of Otago study says cheap, high-nicotine vapes are still widely available in low-income communities with high Māori and Pasifika populations.
Lesieli Katoa, a 20-year-old medical student, used her summer break to act as a mystery shopper for the study, which visited 74 of greater Wellington’s 77 specialist vape retailers.
The study found many stores failed to ask for age identification and continued to sell single-use vapes, which have been banned.
There was also significant discounting to get rid of vapes with nicotine content above the legal maximum, and deliberate marketing of vaping products at young people.
“Vape products are attracting to our young populations because of the cool flavours that are out there – like sour gummy, or peach apple-eyes, and things like that. It attracts our attention. And so now it’s just become a huge problem, which we need to be aware of, and the government needs to do something about,” Ms Katoa says.
There is increasing evidence young people who have never smoked tobacco are now vaping .
