Regulatory loopholes in the Kurdistan region allow large volumes of illegal vapes to enter the marke

Although the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq has restricted the sale of tobacco and e-cigarette products to minors, shops are still finding ways to avoid penalties for selling e-cigarettes to minors by exploiting loopholes at the government level.

On Monday, Rudaw’s Payam SaRBAst spoke with several minors who regularly buy e-cigarette products, as well as shop owners who sell them, despite regulations prohibiting such sales to underage customers.

A 17-year-old boy told Rudaw that since he and his 14-year-old friend started using e-cigarettes a year ago, they have never had any trouble buying them.

All interviewees declined to show their faces or reveal their names.

“I started using e-cigarettes with my friend a year ago. They’re available on the market, and sometimes I buy them at shisha shops. Most of the time, I buy them at stores that only sell shisha and e-cigarettes,” he said, adding that the products are just as easy to get when purchased in the market. “I can get them very easily. No one questions me. I just take them,” the teenager added.

A shop owner who has been selling e-cigarette products since 2007 said he earns around 2 million Iraqi dinars per month from these sales, and many of his customers are minors.

“I swear, if the regional government could ban the sale of these e-cigarette products across the whole region, I’d shave my head, because when these products enter through border crossings and airports, there is absolutely no control over them,” the shop owner said anonymously.

“Many women have come to my shop repeatedly and asked me to sell e-cigarettes to their children to calm them down,” he added, noting that children themselves have also come to his store and asked him to speak with their mothers, after which the women told him to keep selling the products to their children.

“Many teachers also come to me, buy e-cigarette products, and then resell them to students,” the shop owner said.

“The profit we make from selling e-cigarette products to minors is higher than from selling to adults, because adults know how to spend money,” he added, commenting that “the government is not prepared to send people to every shop to find out who we are selling products to.”

E-cigarette products on the Kurdistan regional market mainly come from China, Turkey, and Iran, with prices ranging from 1,000 Iraqi dinars to nearly 100,000 Iraqi dinars. People do not need to visit a vape shop to buy e-cigarettes, because many supermarkets display them both in front of and behind the checkout counter.

“Sometimes minors as young as seven or eight come to buy e-cigarettes, but I won’t sell to them. I know two students who come twice a week to buy e-cigarettes and then take them to school,” a supermarket owner who spoke to Rudaw anonymously said.