HHC and vape advertising
Deputy Lawless warned that HHC and brightly marketed vape products are being sold to teenagers and harming young people. After repeated interventions from the Chair, the Tánaiste said upcoming nicotine-inhaling products legislation will ban point-of-sale displays, toy-like devices, certain flavours and disposable vapes, and he may also raise the HHC element.
I want to raise a very important issue on HHC, a semisynthetic cannabinoid. It is being sold legally in the State. It is being purchased and consumed by teenagers. Recently in my constituency of Mayo I heard of a harrowing case of a young teenager who consumed the drug not realising how dangerous it was because it was so freely and readily available. It ruined his life. He had to withdraw from school to try to get himself off HHC. The fact is that it is sold in vape shops throughout the country. It is sold with sweets. Very often these shops smell like bubblegum and cotton candy. It is a fact that these companies are purposely targeting children with vapes and HHC. We need action to address this. We need to ensure HHC is regulated.
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We also need to ensure that companies can no longer target children with vape shops and lovely beautiful colours-----
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-----and beautiful scents and smells. It is absolutely wrong. We need cross-party support. We need to address this.
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There are children who are walking the streets and teenagers purchasing vapes and HHC.
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It is a major issue and I hope the Tánaiste will address it and we will bring legislation-----
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I thank Deputy Lawless for raising what is clearly a very important issue. I am pleased to tell him there is a proposed public health nicotine inhaling products Bill which will contain a range of measures to reduce youth use of nicotine inhaling products such as vapes, a ban on point-of-sale displays and advertising, a ban on devices resembling toys and games, restrictions on flavours for sale, requirements for only basic flavour names to be used, and a complete ban on disposable vapes. Specifically on the HHC element raised by Deputy Lawless, I may ask in the context of the points he has made that the Minister and the Chief Medical Officer give us a view on it, and Deputy Lawless will have a chance as the legislation progresses to pursue it.