Social media dealers willing to sell vapes laced with drugs to young teenagers

According to a TikTok spokesperson, the promotion of vaping products is forbidden on the platform

Vape liquid seemingly containing illegal drugs is being advertised on TikTok, with dealers willing to sell on Telegram to teenagers as young as 14, ITV News has found.

The TikTok profiles have been uncovered as part of an ITV News investigation into the harm caused by vapes containing drugs, such as spice.

The profiles share videos of small bottles of liquid, which can be used in refillable vapes. The liquid is advertised as containing THC – a psychoactive substance found naturally in cannabis.

Videos of vape liquid advertised as containing THC from TikTok. / Credit:

Spice is a synthetic version of THC. Experts have told us that at least some of what is advertised in these videos as THC is likely to be spice, which is often a cheaper, but more dangerous, alternative to THC. Both are illegal, Class B drugs.

The TikTok profiles which have posted the videos also share links to channels on a different social media app, called Telegram, where the vape liquid is being openly sold.

Telegram is an encrypted messaging app. Its founder, Pavel Duvrov, was arrested last year in Paris for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.

We followed the links in the profiles of some of these TikTok accounts onto the Telegram app, and posed as a 14-year-old interested in buying the vape liquid. Within two hours, three sellers on Telegram were willing to let us purchase.

ITV News posed as a 14 year old wanting to buy the vape liquid and within just two hours, three sellers on Telegram agreed to sell to us. / Credit:

One asked us if we’d like it posted to us as a birthday gift, and another offered to disguise it as a clothing package.

According to Freedom of Information requests submitted by ITV News to police forces in England and Wales, children as young as 13 have used vapes containing drugs, including dangerous Class As like fentanyl.

“Polly”, a 13-year-old girl from Teesside, collapsed after vaping a device suspected to contain spice at school. We have changed her name to protect her identity.

The drug is known to cause seizures, psychosis and breathing difficulties – and in Polly’s case, doctors said she was close to cardiac arrest.

“It traumatised me,” she said. “I’d never do it again.

“The teacher was talking to me a bit, but I was throwing up and passing out. When I was in the ambulance the lady said to me, ‘don’t close your eyes in case you don’t wake back up’.”

It comes after ITV News revealed last year that vapes were being sold to under-18s on TikTok shop, with sellers creating listings on the app’s e-commerce feature which disguised the devices as stationery.

According to a TikTok spokesperson, the promotion of vaping products is forbidden on the platform, and said it had removed the accounts found to violate its guidelines.

They added that in the app’s most recent community guidelines enforcement report, 99.5% of videos found to violate policies on controlled substances had been removed before they were reported.

A statement from Telegram said: “The sale of controlled substances is expressly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and is removed whenever discovered.

“Moderators empowered with custom AI and machine learning tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports from users and organisations, in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day.”