Vapes, ‘rollie’ cigarettes and nicotine pouches: how people in their 20s are using tobacco

Three young people walk into a Dublin pub.

One smokes a disposable vape, the other a cigarette and the last prefers to slot tooth-sized pouches of nicotine under his upper lip to get his fix.

They all would like to quit smoking or are trying to, they say, expressing a shared regret about taking up smoking in their early 20s and late teens.

However, when it comes to the Government’s latest attempts to discourage other young people from starting to smoke, by lifting the legal age of cigarette sales from 18 to 21 and flagging future sales bans on disposable vapes, their opinions are divided.

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“I don’t think it will make a difference, if people are going to smoke they’ll smoke,” says Shannon Hyland, finishing a ‘rollie’ cigarette outside a city-centre pub with a smoking area famed for its people watching. Even at 3pm on a weekday, the outdoor area of Grogan’s was buzzing with punters looking to see and be seen.

“People are smoking before 18 ... It’s the same as drink, people are drinking before they’re 18 and can buy it,” Hyland says.

She says she’s not sure what would work in terms of curtailing young tobacco smokers, but is adamant about what should be done about vapes.

“Just ban them.”

Hyland, a healthcare worker in her early 20s, says she’s well-informed about how her DIY cigarette habit may be harming her health. Which, she says, is why she prefers them to vapes because “I know what they’re doing to me”. Whereas the long-term effects of smoking tobacco have been established for many years, the same level of research is not yet available about vapes.

[ ‘Toxic’ chemicals in flavoured vapes could lead to ‘wave of chronic diseases’ in future, researchers say ]

“There’s research about vapes lowering your bone density ... what if in 50 years’ time people are riddled with stuff,” she says.

Michelle Riley (28) welcomes “anything to make it harder” for younger people to start smoking, but wants to see vapes targeted at the same time as cigarettes.

“I think they should be completely banned and taken off shelves,” Riley says, with her disposable vape sitting on the table in front of her.

Riley turned to vapes as “the next step down” after “smoking cigarettes for years” and deciding to quit.

“I find it so much worse,” she says, adding that is because she finds she can smoke a vape more frequently than a cigarette and doesn’t need “mouthwash, deodorants and perfume” to “cover up the smell”.

“With this you can just do it in your bedroom, it’s too accessible and too easy ... I’d be happy to see them all banned,” she said, citing friends in Amsterdam who gave up vaping after the Netherlands outlawed e-cigarette sales as an example of why such measures could work.

John Walker (26) says although people will always find ways to circumvent bans, he supports lifting the legal cigarette-buying age to 21 because it will target social smoking.

“The harder you make them to get, the better, because you don’t start doing it unless you’re introduced,” he says.

“If I [could] go back and change at 16 or 17, I’d rather not have started.”

Walker gave up smoking, first replacing cigarettes with vapes for four months but they “didn’t feel like they were doing anything, the cravings were still there”.

“I feel like they’re a lot worse than the pouches because you’re putting stuff into your lungs rather than just your mouth,” he says, lifting up his top lip to reveal a small pouch of white oral nicotine tucked up in his gums, similar to the oral tobacco product found in Scandinavian countries called “snus”.

After seeing footballers with them, Walker started using the pouches two or three years ago because “they’re discreet, they don’t make you smell, you can walk around with them and use them at work.”

[ Ireland is getting stricter on cigarettes. But is vaping a more urgent problem? ]

While he acknowledges nicotine pouches have their own adverse health warnings and “they’re probably not great for your teeth”, he still sees them as “better” than regular smoking “where you’re f**king up your lungs”.

Prof Des Cox, co-author of the Royal College of Physicians Ireland policy position paper Tobacco Free Ireland: Time for Tobacco 21, says while passing this planned legislation involving tobacco and age limits should remain a priority, regulating nicotine products should remain firmly on the Government’s agenda.

“They will need to constantly look at this because the tobacco industry is out there, there’s novel products coming on the market,” he says.

“Not just vaping products but non-burned products like tobacco-free nicotine patches. There are always different ways of expanding the repertoire to try to get people addicted to nicotine.”

Prof Cox says lifting the age of tobacco product sales would curtail the age-old method of younger people “asking an older friend or sibling” to buy illicit items because by expanding the age gap, this would limit the circle of people available to ask. For example, a 16-year-old probably has more social contact with 18-year-olds than with 21-year-olds.

“If you can delay someone’s initiation to smoking, they will be less likely to be a regular smoker later and suffer harmful effects later in life,” says Cox

Declan Costelloe, the head of operations at Tobaccoland, Ireland’s self-described “largest independent supplier of cigarette and tobacco product” says the restrictions “came out of the blue” and have the potential to hurt the business.

“We are not big tobacco, we are a family business that employs 40 people who happen to sell tobacco, which is a legal product,” he said.

“We’re almost 40 years in business and we haven’t had a single conviction against us for selling to the underage.”

Costelloe says although the increased age limit will cause a drop in the tobacco company’s business, he doesn’t think that there will be a drop in consumption. According to Costelloe “34 per cent sold in this country is illicit”, which means it’s likely tobacco products will still be available to under-21s despite the ban, especially with the soft Border with Northern Ireland.

Citing the historical example of alcohol prohibition, Zeta Ashmore (21) says restricting the sale of cigarettes could have a counterproductive effect on the smoking habits of people her age.

“If you ban something people just want it more,” she says, stubbing out her after-coffee cigarette with friends on Dublin’s South William Street.

[ Up in smoke — Frank McNally on the once-thriving Irish tobacco industry ]

Prof Cox acknowledges the criticism of the policy but says the available evidence on tobacco should make restricting its sale the clear choice.

“The reality is these things don’t kill one or two users: half of the people who smoke die of a smoking-related disease, you know, so there’s no other product out there on the market ... that even compares to smoking.”

[ The Irish Times view on raising the age limit for tobacco: a reasonable and measured response ]