The youth vaping crisis we are not talking about enough
As we observe June as No Smoking Month, the filing of House Bill No. 9603 (the proposed Smoke-Free and Vape-Free Environment bill) last June 1, led by Albay 1st District Rep. Krisel Lagman, marks a critical step in addressing a rapidly evolving public health crisis: nicotine addiction.
Recent findings from the Health Promotion Program at the National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila, are sounding the alarm with new data from a large youth survey: vapes have become the primary gateway to nicotine addiction for Filipino youth. Shockingly, one in three students has now tried a vape product, a rate nearly double that of cigarette experimentation. This initiation is happening earlier than ever, with 35.8 percent of young users starting at or before the age of 11.
The urgency of stronger policy measures is further underscored by the staggering ease with which minors bypass current regulations. More than half of students describe vapes as “somewhat” or “very” easy to obtain, even in cities with active tobacco control programs. Students consistently identify sari-sari stores and online platforms as the most common access points, noting that vendors frequently sell products openly without requiring age verification. Students reported that they can order vapes online “easily,” despite being minors, as current age-gating systems are easily circumvented.
If you ask a Filipino teenager why they vape, you might not hear what you expect: “nakaka-relax daw.” It helps with stress. This cuts to the heart of a crisis that we keep misreading. Even if most students can name the harms of nicotine, they are vaping regardless. What this tells us is that information campaigns alone will never be enough. We are facing a two-part problem: young people are being misled about the risks, and even those who understand them continue using vapes to cope with stress and to belong socially.
Schools and health centers remain ill-equipped to offer real alternatives; counselors are scarce, mental health services are stigmatized, and stress management programs are treated as add-ons rather than infrastructure.
This is the part of the youth vaping crisis we are not talking about enough. We debate flavors, taxes, and packaging. We count devices confiscated at school gates. But we have yet to seriously reckon with the reason so many young Filipinos reach for a vape in the first place, and what it says about the support systems we have failed to build for them. A total ban on vaping products, particularly those with flavors and designs that target new users, is the most direct route. Short of that, stricter and genuinely enforced age-based restrictions, a comprehensive ban on advertising and promotions, and tighter local enforcement at every point of sale are nonnegotiable. These measures address the supply. But demand requires investment: funded, permanent stress management and mental health programs in every school and community health center.
To truly protect the next generation, legislation must address this “enforcement gap” by moving toward the comprehensive protections proposed by HB 9603, including the expansion of smoking and vaping bans in public places, improving access to interventions such as counseling services and stress management initiatives, and integrating prevention with adolescent support systems.
Bill Whilson Baljon and Lloyd Christiann Esteban,
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