The "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes" will be implemented on May 1, and the reporter's investigation found that


  Illegal online sales of electronic cigarettes still exist in large numbers

  □ Our reporter Han Dandong

  □ Our intern Wang Yitian

  From May 1 this year, the "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes" will be implemented, which explicitly prohibits the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes other than tobacco flavors and electronic cigarettes that can be added with atomizers; the sale of electronic cigarette products to minors is prohibited.

  A number of experts interviewed by reporters from the "Rules of Law Daily" pointed out that e-cigarettes are not only unhelpful for smoking cessation, but may also form an "entry effect", causing non-smokers to become nicotine-dependent and become smokers.

Teenagers are the first victims, and it is recommended to take a multi-pronged approach to "stuck" the sales and use links.

  What a great taste

  Recently, the reporter opened a small program of an electronic cigarette brand and searched for nearby merchants selling the brand of electronic cigarettes and found that there were 20 offline stores selling it within 5 kilometers.

  In the RELX store in Songjiang District, Shanghai, one to six generations of electronic cigarette products of the brand are displayed.

After statistics, the reporter found that there are as many as 43 flavors of pods. In addition to the fruit flavor that is most popular among young people, there are also flavors such as "Kung Fu Tieguanyin" and "Yiduoduo".

  Among the 18 people who smoked e-cigarettes randomly interviewed by the reporter, only one of the students smoked the pods with tobacco flavors, and strawberry, grape and other fruit flavors were more popular.

  The fact that many respondents stockpiled goods through various channels has attracted the attention of reporters. Can e-cigarettes be purchased through other channels besides physical store purchases?

  In January 2019, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation announced the "Notice on Further Protecting Minors from E-cigarettes", urging e-cigarette production and sales companies or individuals to shut down e-cigarette Internet sales websites or clients in a timely manner , the e-commerce platform shuts down e-cigarette stores in time and removes e-cigarette products from shelves in time.

  Some respondents told reporters that although e-cigarettes are banned from being sold online, there are still businesses who take risks and sell e-cigarettes and cartridges online.

  According to the interviewee, the reporter added a merchant specializing in this business, and the other party directly sent the product link to the reporter, and said that after the selected product was selected, the transaction was settled through the e-commerce platform.

The reporter opened the link given by the merchant to enter the product interface and saw the packaging of various electronic cigarettes.

The other party asked the reporter to determine the type and quantity of pods to be purchased, and said that on the surface it was selling electronic cigarette packages, but the goods finally received were pods.

  The reporter's investigation found that such behaviors of "selling dog meat" have occurred on many e-commerce platforms and social platforms.

  Fuzzing keywords about e-cigarettes has always been a routine used by e-cigarette merchants.

The electronic cigarette brand whose name is RELX cannot be directly searched on various platforms. After adjusting its word order, for example, changing "Release Five Generations" into "Yuedai Wuke" and "Yueke", you can search for it. arrive.

  The search results showed atomizers similar to electronic cigarettes and businesses selling electronic cigarette casings, but without exception, words such as "smoke smells great" appeared in the comment area, so the reporter randomly contacted the customer service of several stores.

  "The merchant is not online, please consult XX (a social platform) for details." The unified reply from several merchants left reporters puzzled. Why do they go to social platforms to communicate? What's the trick?

  It turned out that the electronic cigarette packages displayed by these merchants on the shopping platform were all pretense.

In fact, merchants trade through social platforms, allowing e-cigarettes to bypass platform supervision.

  The merchant named "A. Steam Time (Scan Code Payment)" provided the reporter with a taste map of the pod, and said that due to the policy reform, there are only pods left in stock, and you want to buy them as soon as possible.

The pods that used to cost only tens of yuan offline have now become in short supply, rising to 100 yuan.

  Minors can also buy

  The reporter noticed that most of the merchants did not ask the reporter's age, but just blindly urged to place an order.

When the reporter said that he was a minor and wanted to buy cigarette sticks and cartridges, the merchants said that there was no problem, and also promised to deliver privately, and words such as electronic cigarettes would not be seen on the express package.

  In the "Notice on Further Protecting Minors from Electronic Cigarettes", it has long been required that various market players shall not sell electronic cigarettes to minors.

  On June 1, 2021, the Juvenile Protection Act brought e-cigarettes into regulation.

On June 18 of the same year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice on the "Special Action Plan for Protecting Minors from Tobacco and "Guarding Growth", which included the supervision of e-cigarette operations as the main task.

  Article 22 of the Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes also stipulates that the sale of electronic cigarette products to minors is prohibited.

E-cigarette operators should set up signs not to sell e-cigarettes to minors in prominent positions; if it is difficult to tell whether they are minors, they should be required to show their identity documents.

  However, many interviewees introduced that when they purchased e-cigarettes at offline counters, they were not reminded to show valid information such as ID cards.

  "When I bought electronic cigarettes, I was never asked if I was an adult. There are even adults who help minors to purchase from offline, and then transfer money to complete the purchase." said Wang Zeyu (pseudonym) from Weihai, Shandong.

  "A Integrity Steam Museum" also introduced that there are not a few minors looking for him to buy electronic cigarettes.

  Introduce strict governance policies

  "Because my country has not officially promulgated the national standards for electronic cigarettes, various electronic cigarette products on the market are highly arbitrary in terms of raw material selection, additive use, process design, quality control, etc. The quality of electronic cigarette products is uneven, and some products are There may be quality and safety hazards such as e-liquid leakage, inferior batteries, and unsafe ingredients. It must be mentioned that many e-cigarette manufacturers and sellers add flavors such as fruit, coffee, and chocolate to e-cigarettes in order to increase the sales of e-cigarettes. , attracting a large number of minors and people who have never smoked traditional cigarettes, causing many potential adverse consequences." said Yao Jinju, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

  Wang Yue, a professor at the School of Medical Humanities of Peking University, believes that the "Administrative Measures for Electronic Cigarettes" explicitly prohibits the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes other than tobacco flavors and electronic cigarettes that can be added with atomizers. Tobacco is also regulated.

  "Just as smoking tobacco in public places is prohibited, the use of electronic cigarettes in public places should be prohibited. Only when the use link is blocked will the electronic cigarette be curbed in the sales link." Wang Yue said.

  In Yao Jinju's view, the "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes" has systematic and strict regulations on the production, sales, import and export trade of electronic cigarettes, and the supervision and management of electronic cigarettes.

"This means that the access standards for the e-cigarette industry have been greatly improved, the number of legal e-cigarette companies that can exist in the market will be greatly reduced, and the industry players will be reshuffled."

  The reporter noticed that the "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes" put forward strict conditions for units and individuals to carry out the retail and wholesale business of electronic cigarettes, and at the same time strictly restricted the platforms and locations of electronic cigarette sales.

  In this regard, Yao Jinju explained that e-cigarettes can only enter the unified and unique e-cigarette transaction management platform after they meet relevant national standards and pass the layers of approval. The qualifications of e-cigarette sellers and the quality of e-cigarette products will be effectively guaranteed. The way of selling through the Internet, social platforms and small workshops will no longer exist, and the standardization of the e-cigarette market will be effectively improved.

  But Wang Yue also raised concerns that once the implementation and implementation of the policy are not in place, underground transactions may be formed.

Therefore, he suggested implementing a buyer reward reporting mechanism to form a game relationship between sellers and buyers, so as to fundamentally eliminate the circulation of non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.