UK independent retailers are urging more vaping products education to help combat the illicit trade.
Whether one sniffs or smokes, the end result will always be the same-addiction. That is why effective drug education is important to young people. Education to be precise, can play a counterbalancing role in nurturing a culture of safety, moderation and informed decision making.
In fact, top retailers during a recent roundtable meeting attended by JTI representatives acknowledged that education on vaping is not only necessary for the consumers but for them as well. Nishi Patel a retailer of Londis Bexley pointed out that retailers are often asked questions around the number of puffs a vape contains. Nevision’s Bobby Singh on the other hand noted that consumers also request for additional puffs.
The above requests are undeniably dangerous to the health of the consumer and if a retailer is not aware of this, they may end up selling the higher puffs hence contributing to the detreating health of vapers. This therefore means that retailers need to be educated on the vape devices and commodities they sell so that they can gently confront consumers with the reality of their requests. This is because while some consumers know the dangerous of these drugs, some are genuinely unaware of the effects they have on their health hence having this information conveyed by retailers will help save such victims of vaping.
You will be shocked to learn that consumers are not only interested with the vapes with higher puffs counts. Some specifically frequent stores to request for illicit vapes. Doubt us? Well, during the retailer’s roundtable discussion, retailers said that consumers ask them for vapes that are non-compliant with the UK standards on a weekly if not daily basis.
The retailers further noted that the requests of the consumers are often met, and this is because of misinformation accompanied with the quantity of illicit vapes in the market. Sasi Patel specifically pointe out that the marked is heavily swamped with the illicit drugs. This therefore means that although the retailers might work to educate the consumers, something needs to be done about the vapes in the market.
Perhaps the government should be vigilant in their journey of banning the illicit vapes. Influencing this is the fact that it would be difficult foe retailers to educate the consumers yet what they have are the illegal vapes. Remember the primary role of the retailers is to also sell products and make profit in return and most do not mind the cost at which the profit is made or if it affect other people.
Different people may have different opinions on whether retailers really must be educated about the commodities they are selling. This is because most retailers are only being paid to do the sales job. But think of it this way, laws are being passed globally against vaping. Laws that put both the retailer and consumer at risk. Therefore, our advise to the innocent retailers is that they ensure they are knowledgeable about what they are selling to save themselves from being on the wrong side of the law.
