Unmasking a trend that is poisoning young people.

Schools are struggling to ban e-cigarettes, yet they remain readily available.

At dawn, an e-cigarette shop in Minh Nong ward, Viet Tri city, was bustling with customers. All were wearing school uniforms, taking advantage of the short time before class. From how to exhale smoke to the eye-catching e-cigarette models and how to choose e-liquid flavors, the students had memorized everything and were inviting their friends to try them out.

“We encountered students gathering at the school gate, still wearing their white uniforms, but with e-cigarettes in their hands, puffing away in public, trying to appear very stylish. We even saw some sitting on the back of their parents' motorbikes on their way to school, casually smoking without their parents knowing. Young people are ‘poisoning’ their own future with something they consider ‘fashionable’,” reporter Huyen Trang shared.

The student, in his school uniform, "carelessly" smokes a pipe, exhaling plumes of white smoke from his vape or pod in a public place.

Currently, e-cigarette products are not permitted for import, sale, or distribution in the domestic market. However, these products are being openly and widely advertised, from social media to stores, making buying and selling easy. According to our team's survey, buying a device once costs a few hundred thousand dong, and then having to buy e-liquid every few days for only a few tens of thousands dong. As a result, many students have become regular customers of e-cigarette shops.

What should we do and how should we speak out against this situation to provide timely warnings to the community? – that was the question posed to the news team of Phu Tho Radio and Television Station. The station's management is very interested and encourages the team to create innovative works.

The most difficult part of producing this series was filming and interviewing the students who used e-cigarettes. The reporting team maintained complete anonymity to avoid negatively impacting the students. The students were very wary of strangers asking them questions, and moreover, they often smoked secretly in discreet, familiar spaces such as game arcades and billiard halls, making filming a major challenge.

Reporter Huyen Trang

Through the radio format, reporter Huyen Trang and her team strived to capture the most vivid on-site sounds, clearly reflecting the actual context, habits, and psychological state of students using e-cigarettes.

“Therefore, it took us a long time to get acquainted and ask questions. Sometimes, to obtain concrete evidence, the team had to spend a whole week ‘lying in wait’ at locations around areas where illegal e-cigarette sales were taking place. There were also times when we were discovered and noticed. The individuals immediately packed up their goods and closed their doors, avoiding the cameras. In a few cases, even intimidating-looking individuals approached us to threaten and drive us away,” said Ms. Huyen Trang.

Reflecting on the increasing use of e-cigarettes among young people, reporter Huyen Trang sought out health experts to analyze the harmful effects of e-cigarettes; she also highlighted the loopholes in e-cigarette management in Vietnam today, calling for the involvement and responsibility of families, society, relevant agencies, and emphasizing the urgent need for the National Assembly to enact a clear legal framework for managing e-cigarettes.

Each aspect of the issue is presented in a separate installment of the series, with the aim of enhancing the persuasiveness of the work, clearly illustrating the dangers that e-cigarettes pose to future generations of the country, and encouraging the community to take action to prevent this threat.

The meeting between the two very young defendants took place at the detention center.

For reporter Huyen Trang, the most emotionally impactful story was her encounter with two very young defendants at the detention center. These two defendants were accused of trafficking drugs through electronic cigarettes commonly known as "pod chill."

Despite his young age, he faces a long and arduous sentence. All it took was a few puffs of e-cigarettes, initially perceived as delicious and enjoyable, to lead him down the path of addiction and drug trafficking. The youth of his life has been ruined.

“This makes us feel apprehensive; the risk of drugs being mixed into e-cigarettes is too great. For students still in school, even those in elementary or middle school… if they are lured into contact with these disguised drugs in e-cigarettes with fruity flavors, what dangers lie ahead? That’s what truly worries and frightens us,” reporter Huyen Trang said emotionally.

Reporters meet with Dr. Nguyen from Bach Mai Hospital.

With its separate e-liquid reservoir and heating system, the e-cigarette can be easily customized to suit individual needs. Users can mix flavorings or drugs into the e-liquid cartridge and add heating coils to the heating system to increase the temperature and enhance the high. Because the drugs are colorless, odorless, and have a mixed scent of e-liquid, they are difficult to detect with the naked eye.

At 17 years old, instead of attending school like his peers, a male student from Thanh Son district, Phu Tho province, is currently being treated at the Poison Control Center of Bach Mai Hospital. The patient had been using e-cigarettes for two years, purchased online. Upon admission, he suffered from insomnia for many nights, experienced hallucinations of strangers nearby, paranoia, anxiety, restlessness, sluggishness, and exhibited unusual behaviors such as constantly turning lights on and off.

These are heartbreaking, alarming, and reprehensible stories about the current state of e-cigarette use among young people in society.

What Huyen Trang and her colleagues appreciate most about this work is the spread of the message about raising family and social responsibility, and the impact of the series after it aired.

Reporter Huyen Trang shared: “Through meticulous analysis of the underlying issues, the team behind this work hopes to send a message, first and foremost, to parents to closely monitor their children against temptations that could harm their future. Furthermore, regarding policy issues, Vietnam needs to promptly enact a legal framework to strictly regulate e-cigarettes before it's too late.”

The series of articles "Don't let e-cigarettes 'poison' young people" broadcast by Phu Tho Radio and Television Station has received a positive response. In Phu Tho, the education sector has coordinated with the police and health sectors to strengthen communication campaigns about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes in schools. The market management sector immediately conducted inspections and seized many e-cigarette products of unknown origin.

"Nothing is more valuable than a piece of journalism that resonates with people and creates positive changes for the community," journalist Huyen Trang expressed.

Hoa Giang

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/boc-tran-mot-trao-luu-dau-doc-gioi-tre-post299598.html