Council president Dr Lekhraj Rampal said concerns were raised at a workshop it organised today that drug dealers may use such devices to peddle drugs to school children.

“Can anyone guarantee that no one would lace drugs in vape devices? We don’t know. We may think it is just another flavoured liquid,” he said at a workshop on vaping and teenagers. It was attended by 20 representatives from consumer groups and Parent-Teacher Associations (PIBG) from the Klang Valley as well as activists from the National Cancer Society Malaysia.

A PIBG representative from SMK Orkid Desa in Cheras, Nurizan Ariffin, 52, said she was concerned as to how easy it was for students to own a vaping device. She said parents would never buy such devices for their children as they knew full well what it was for.

“People are selling it to our children. This is dangerous,” she told FMT. But Nurizan said that the PIBG could not do much as students would vape after school hours.

She proposed that the education ministry empower the PIBG to take action against students who vape, especially if they did so while wearing school uniforms.

Consumers Association of Penang education officer NV Subbarow urged the government to emulate the stern measures adopted by developed countries to control nicotine and tobacco use.

“We need to prevent teenagers from nicotine and drug use before it affects them in the next five to 10 years.”

In July, the health minister Dzukefly Ahmad said it was drawing up a new Tobacco Act to regulate the usage of tobacco, vape, electronic cigarettes and shisha, while deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said that 90% of vape liquids are laced with nicotine, which is addictive.