Drug gangs are giving free £5 ‘Elf Bar’ vape pens to vulnerable children as young as 12 in a bid to groom them into organised crime, youth worker warns
- Edge North East said those as young as 12 were being targeted by drugs gangs
- One youth worker said dealers were bribing the children with the £5 vape pens
- Elf Bars are the joint-strongest disposable vape you can buy anywhere in the UK
Vulnerable children are being groomed to commit crime by being bribed with £5 vapes, one youth worker claims.
Edge North East, a community interest company in Newcastle which supports exploited young people, said those as young as 12 were being targeted.
It says drug gangs are using the £5 e-cigarettes to bribe them to deal the illegal substances to their friends.
The Edge’s Joanna Tweddle said: ‘I work with a number of young children and I have one who will do anything for a vape pen. He has been asked to deal drugs and an Elf Bar is his reward at the end of it.
It says drug gangs are using the £5 e-cigarettes to bribe them to deal the illegal substances to their friends. Stock vape photo used
‘This particular boy is obsessed with them — he wants them all the time. If someone tells him, “Go and pick this bag up and we’ll give you a vape”, he is more than happy to deliver some drugs.’
Elf Bars are the joint-strongest disposable vape you can buy in the UK, meeting the legal limit of 20mg/ml of high-strength nicotine salts e-liquid.
Each vape contains the nicotine dosage of 48 cigarettes.
The number of 11 to 17-year-olds who are vaping has doubled in the past year.
Elf Bars are the joint-strongest disposable vape you can buy in the UK, meeting the legal limit of 20mg/ml of high-strength nicotine salts e-liquid. Stock photo used
Of them, more than half now rate disposable e-cigarettes as their favourite product — up from just 7 per cent in 2020.
Ms Tweddle told the Times: ‘They want to look cool but are highly addictive.
‘We have a lot of young people who want things their friends have. A lot of children come from families that don’t have much money. Obviously the cost of living has gone up.
‘They want vapes and trainers but to get them they risk being groomed.”
Lynn Perry, Barnardo’s chief executive, said frontline workers knew of the trend.
She added there was ‘a variety of techniques used to coerce vulnerable children and young people into criminal activity, including offering them vape pens and e-cigarettes’.
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