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What did I find?
Vapes, nicotine pouches and other products can look unfamiliar. You do not need to learn every brand or slang term. Use the pictures below to get your bearings, then focus on what it is, where it came from and how often your child is using it.
Products parents are seeing
Products change quickly, but most fall into a few broad groups.
Rechargeable, pod and vape-pen devices
These are reusable electronic cigarettes and vape devices. Some use refillable liquid; others use replaceable or prefilled pods. Many contain nicotine.
What matters: ask what liquid or pod is being used, how often, and where it came from. A device that looks like an ordinary nicotine vape can also be used with other substances.
Single-use or disposable vape
These are designed to be thrown away rather than refilled and reused.
What matters: selling or supplying single-use vapes has been banned across the UK since 1 June 2025. If a shop or seller is still supplying them, you can report it.
Photo: Swenico / Unsplash
Nicotine pouches
Small white pouches placed between the lip and gum. They do not contain tobacco, but they can contain nicotine and can lead to dependence.
What matters: ask how many they use and what strength they are. From 29 October 2026, all nicotine products will be age 18+ for retail sale.
Example product photo: Brendan Stephens / Unsplash. UK cigarette packs use standardised packaging and health warnings.
Cigarettes and roll-ups
Smoking burns tobacco and produces toxic smoke. It remains much more harmful than vaping.
What matters: tobacco cannot be sold to someone under the legal age of sale. If your child is buying cigarettes or loose tobacco from a shop, seller or another adult, that is worth reporting.
What do THC and Spice mean?
THC is the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis. Spice is a common name for synthetic cannabinoids – lab-made drugs that act on similar receptors but can have very different and unpredictable effects.
There is no single “Spice product” to recognise. Synthetic cannabinoids may be sold as herbal material, liquids or in vapes. Illicit vapes sold as “THC” have sometimes contained synthetic cannabinoids or other drugs instead. They can look like ordinary vape devices or cartridges, so you cannot reliably identify the contents by appearance alone.
If you find one: do not taste, open or test it. Ask where it came from and what your child believes it contains. If they are seriously unwell after using an unknown vape or drug, call 999.
Yes - you can report underage or illegal sales
You can report underage sales, illegal single-use vapes, suspicious shops or sellers, online accounts and concerns about THC/cannabis products through No Ifs. No Butts.
You do not need proof and you should not investigate or confront anyone yourself.
It is also illegal for an adult to buy a nicotine vape for someone under 18. From 29 October 2026, that proxy-purchase rule expands to all vaping and nicotine products.
If they may be unwell
If you think your child has swallowed, inhaled or used an unknown substance and you are worried about their health, get medical advice. Call 999 for a serious or life-threatening emergency. For urgent advice when it is not an emergency, use NHS 111 Wales.