A leading UK news channel is preparing to air an investigation into illegal vapes that contain the synthetic cannabinoid “spice” as the debate on how to regulate legal vapes hots up in Parliament.
In correspondence seen by Clearing the Air, a researcher from ITV News contacted a number of laboratories in the UK asking them to test samples of vapes for the presence of Spice, a synthetic cannabinoid.
“We are working on a story about vapes and vape liquids being illegally sold in the UK” the email reads. “We would ideally want to be testing a sample of vape liquid, as well as a packaged vape”, it continues.
Spice is illegal in the UK, but has been found in large numbers of black market vapes in a recent investigation by the BBC. According to the University of Bath, which conducted the study on behalf of the BBC, synthetic cannabinoids like spice have severe effects that are distinct from THC, and are implicated in around half of deaths in prison. The University of Bath found that vapes containing spice were being sold as cannabis vapes and were “widespread” in English schools. All of these products are illegal today, and sold by drug dealers.
The ITV story comes as the Tobacco and Vapes Bill - which would give the government powers to ban flavours in legal vapes, but would not address vapes that contain spice - makes its way through Parliament.
“The worry is that a story like this is being timed to scare MPs into supporting a crackdown on legal products without realising that it will do nothing to prevent drug dealers selling things that are already illegal”, one industry insider told CTA. They were granted anonymity as they were not cleared to speak to the media.
“We’ve seen anti-vape campaigners place scare stories like this as a tactic in the US; now it seems to be coming here”.
In 2019, US media reported that vaping was causing acute respiratory diseases in young people, and implied that this was due to legal nicotine vapes. While it was eventually discovered that cases of the disease - named EVALI by anti-vape campaigners - was actually caused by illegal cannabis vapes that contained vitamin-E, it is still used by prohibitionist campaigners as an argument to ban legal vaping products.
UKVIA Director General John Dunne warns: “Consumers can feel confident that when they buy regulated products from any reputable vape supplier, that they will be getting nicotine vapes which are designed to help them transition from cigarettes.
“There have already been scare stories in the media with headlines such as: ‘Vapes confiscated in schools contain the zombie drug spice’ and this causes people to wrongly believe that the nicotine vape industry is responsible for this new trend”.
“Unless a clear distinction is made between the regulated vape market supplying adult smokers with products which are 95% less harmful than cigarettes and the unofficial supply of illegal products, then people will become wary of all vapes with the potential to drive smoking rates back up again.”
