Selling vapes to under 18s to become an offence under proposed Bill

A Bill regulating the sale and supply of vaping products to children was published on Thursday and will make it an offence for a person to sell a vaping product to a person aged under 18 if passed.

The proposed Bill will also make it an offence for a person aged 18 or over to buy a vaping product for a person aged under 18.

The Bill will amend the Children and Young Persons (Alcohol, Tobacco and Gaming) Act 2006, and includes products such as e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-shisha whether they include nicotine or not.

Also included are cartridges, refill containers and substances intended to be vaporised.

The provisions on notices to be displayed by retailers selling tobacco will also be amended to extend to retailers selling vaping products.

“Where a child is found using or intending to use a vaping product in a public place a police officer may confiscate it from them,” the Government said.

“This is not a situation where a child is criminalised for vaping but rather intended to stop the supply of these products to children and also allow for them to be removed lawfully from children in public places.”

The Minister for Justice, Samantha Sacramento, said this increasing use of e-cigarettes and other vaping products by young people is a public health issue in Gibraltar.

“Part of this concern is that there is some evidence that the use of these products by adolescents increases their chance of starting to smoke cigarettes later in life with the risks to health that this brings,” she said.

“As such, following consultation with the GHA, this Bill will regulate the supply of these products to children and grant the police powers to confiscate them from children in public so as to protect children from these products in the same way as they are protected from tobacco and alcohol products.”

Anyone concerned about vaping can contact the GHA Smoking Cessation Clinic on 200 52441 for advice.