The Netherlands has drafted a new law to raise the legal age limit for buying cigarettes and vapes from 18 to 21.
The Ministry of Health says it also plans to impose higher fines for anyone caught selling vapes illegally.
The Dutch government says the proposals are in response to an increase in the number of young people vaping in recent years.
“The presence of nicotine makes vapes highly addictive,” the ministry said. Citing a report from health institute RIVM showing almost a quarter of 12 to 16 year-olds had tried vaping in 2023, it added: “This is not surprising: nicotine is the most addictive drug in existence after heroin and crack.”
Increased fines among other restrictions
The proposed legislation aims to substantially increase the fine for selling vapes illegally from the existing €1,300. “I am working on draft legislation which would make it an offence to keep a supply of flavoured vapes, so sellers can no longer get away with having them at all,” junior health minister Vincent Karremans said. “The product safety board NVWA said on Wednesday it had confiscated 180,000 vapes this year so far.”
The new law would also ban the sale of accessories that make vapes more appealing such as flavoured tips, reduce the number of retailers allowed to sell the devices and require them to have plain packaging.
Online vape sales and flavours have been banned in the Netherlands since January 2024. However, a recent poll by Dutch vaping consumer association ACVODA found that most vapers (80 per cent) had simply switched to buying vapes from other countries or online.
Karremans, who is Dutch State Secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport, announced the proposal as part of a wider plan for the Netherlands to achieve a ‘smoke-free and nicotine-free generation’ by 2040.
He said the government has earmarked €3 million for law enforcement to crack down on the illegal vape trade and to educate parents about the dangers of vaping.
A report submitted by Karremans to parliament last week said: “The figures from the Dutch Society of Pediatrics [NVK] show that in 2024 at least 14 children ended up in hospital after vaping with serious conditions such as a collapsed lung or a pulmonary hemorrhage.”
It added: “It is not normal for children and young people to use nicotine in any form. I therefore see an important task for the government to protect young people against addiction to tobacco, vaping and new nicotine products.”
One key issue is that vapes are not yet treated socially with the same measure of concern as tobacco products, Karremans claimed. He said parents and children need to be better educated about the likelihood of getting hooked on vaping.
False vape claim by Dutch European Commissioner
The new proposals come after European commissioner Wopke Hoekstra falsely claimed that “vaping kills” in a public address to parliament last month.
Speaking at the Subcommittee on Tax Matters on February 6, Hoekstra inaccurately stated that vaping kills in the same way as smoking. He said: “700,000 Europeans die each year because of tobacco. Smoking kills. Vaping kills.” While his statistic on smoking deaths is correct, vaping has not in fact been scientifically linked to any deaths globally.
