I'm addition to nicotine, colorants and attractive smells, experts have discovered synthetic drugs and other dangerous substances in e-cigarettes.

According to the police, the essential oil injected into e-cigarettes can cause great harm. People can use the method to bring drugs to youthful lives. While waiting for a legal framework to prevent the synthetic drug, the police, education, healthcare, market management and families need to apply regulations to prohibit students aged below 18 from using this product.

Nguyen Hai Hung, director of the Gia Minh Center for Labor and Social Affairs, confirmed that the center has received students for rehabilitation after using e-cigarettes. They have the clinical manifestations of a common drug addict. They have to go through cessation, hallucination and intoxication. The adverse effects on the body, especially the nervous system, are serious.

Hung, a policeman, said e-cigarettes are sold in the open air in the market. Students can easily buy it. Though it is cheap, the consequences for students are quite serious.

When he asked the students at the rehabilitation center, he found that they got addicted because they lacked vigilance, trusted sellers and followed the crowd. 

At first, they think that smoking e-cigarettes will not lead to addiction, and if it leads to addiction, the situation will not be serious. 

Only when hallucinations, psychosis, and body breakdown appeared did they realize that the problems were more serious than they thought. At that moment, the users will be dependent on the drugs.

According to Hung, though the substances still cannot be identified as synthetic drugs, it is necessary to realize that this is a new type of  dangerous substance.

The problem is there is still no legal framework to handle the users of cigarette essential oil. The police are facing obstacles in putting cigarette essential oil under supervision and control as a drug on the list stipulated by the State.

If it is not found on the list of prohibited substances, it is impossible to deal with it.

There is also a lack of means of finding narcotics in compounds. A specialized equipment is made to test substance A (A is the drug substance in prohibited substances). However, traders mix compounds of many chemical substances to create AB substances. AB is a new addictive substance but is not listed among prohibited substances.

The tricks of the subjects are sophisticated. They carefully learn the legal factors to circumvent legal loopholes, so that drugs are sold to young people through different channels.

Senior Colonel Le Minh Hoan, Chief Police of Tu Ky District in Hai Duong Province, said the lack of a legal framework makes it very difficult to prevent drugs from penetrating the youth community. 

Testing can find toxic chemicals in e-cigarettes, but it is difficult to handle the substances, because they are not included on the prohibited list.

The definition of a list of drugs always lags behind the appearance of the substances. While waiting for sanctions, it is necessary to apply preventive measures. Young people must be prohibited from using cigarettes made from chemical substances which still cannot be controlled.

“While waiting for the police and healthcare to give an exact name to the substance, the educational sector needs to set up a technical barrier to prevent students from using e-cigarettes,” he said.

T. Nhung