State Duma in the first reading supported the introduction of punishment for repeated sale of vape devices to children

The State Duma at the plenary session passed in the first reading a bill proposing to introduce criminal penalties for the repeated sale of vapes, other products with nicotine and devices for its consumption to children. Information about this was published on December 10 in the database of draft laws of the State Duma.

"After the abolition of the government of the Russian Federation moratorium on inspections of stores selling such products, Rospotrebnadzor in the fall of 2023 conducted 27.5 thousand preventive measures, 9 thousand of them - control. According to the results it was found that in more than 90% of cases the following violations of the law were revealed," - stated in the explanatory note to the bill.

The initiative was submitted to the State Duma in November, it proposes to amend Article 151.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Retail sale of alcoholic beverages to minors").

The authors of the project note that in the current legislation there is only administrative punishment for the repeated sale of vape products to children. At the same time, the results of a study conducted by the ROMIR Human Institute showed that 72% of surveyed teenagers 11-17 years old, who buy vapes and similar electronic systems for nicotine consumption, said that sellers have never refused to release such goods to them.

Against this background, the authors of the bill believe that responsibility for the repeated sale of vapes to children should be toughened and a fine of 50-80 thousand rubles or correctional work for up to one year should be introduced as a punishment for such a crime.

Earlier, in April, the Russian government announced its readiness to support such a bill, because practice shows that the current measures to regulate the sale of vape products are ineffective. At the same time, the country is implementing a policy to combat tobacco use, and the initiative would be in line with this vector.

Later, on September 2, Duma deputy Alexei Kurinniy noted that now it is more important to ensure compliance with the already existing restrictions on the sale of vapes, rather than a complete ban. He noted that flavored smoking mixtures, for example, are already banned, but they can still be found on sale.