[CONSOLIDATED] Singapore's Vaping Crisis. CNB, HSA monitoring situation

[Medicated Oil]

no choice have to think of smth drastic to prevent/control.
i think the most basic procedure for sch now is to conduct bag checks or body checks since students so good at hiding.
last time my school pai kias hide stuffs in toilets also,.... alot of place can hide.

End up the school discover another can of worms.

 

[buzzlightyear852]

End up the school discover another can of worms.

i think the discipline master of the schools are important.
but if they cant carry out caning like last time then they are rendered useless also

 

[Medicated Oil]

i think the discipline master of the schools are important.
but if they cant carry out caning like last time then they are rendered useless also

Dunno how strict are the school now on discipline.
The kids nowadays dun really give a damn.
Maybe the cane dun even work any more.

 

[Guojing88]

In the 80s, it was glue sniffing.

When I was in primary school, I never tried it because I was told about the long term harm.

Nowadays pri students yolo is it?

 

[ninja99]

Impose fine on parent if child kena caught confirm will have effect one

 

[GoneNuts]

this is what happens when you idolize and glorify ex-convicts to the extend of worshipping them....

It leads to a false illusion that the safety net is so strong and thinking that is okay to go down that path...

 

[buzzlightyear852]

Dunno how strict are the school now on discipline.
The kids nowadays dun really give a damn.
Maybe the cane dun even work any more.

nowadays mostly school will just give counseling/suspend from school.
they dun really hand out harsh punishment like last time, got public caning in school etc

 

[siaoliaolor]

Need to train dog to whiff our vapes in toilet ?

 

[Laneige]

If the number of vapers are huge, I think the principal and teachers are also stuck on how to perform all the checks and follow-up.
They also have to handle the response from all the parents.

I think they Shld just have police go into sch n do check

sometimes drilling in fear is gd for the benefit of the kids when it comes to drugs n such

 

[DragonFire]

They need the iron in them.

Grant a 2 month amnesty. Vape cessation support for free. Ads in the papers and on social media. Banners on the streets.

Then come down hard with jackboots on those who still dare. Mandatory 2 week inprisonment.

 

[DragonFire]

Dunno how strict are the school now on discipline.
The kids nowadays dun really give a damn.
Maybe the cane dun even work any more.

SAF run reeducation camp it is then. Can repeat the school year next year.

 

[lockks]

For 2 years, all kept quiet.

 

[Bumperbee88]

any updates on the vapes trashbin??? wonder if anyone use it???

Message from

S’pore funeral services​

 

[Bumperbee88]

didnt know this thread since dec last year. HWZ working harder than HSA

We work beri beri hard you know.

 

[charliebrown]

people wanna die let them go huan loh for wat?

 

[buzzlightyear852]

They need the iron in them.

Grant a 2 month amnesty. Vape cessation support for free. Ads in the papers and on social media. Banners on the streets.

Then come down hard with jackboots on those who still dare. Mandatory 2 week inprisonment.

nowadays no one can be like LKY alrdy
strawberry generation even our ministars also strawberry

 

[Emperor_Hippo]

Teachers both in primary and secondary schools told ST they are seeing more students sneaking around with vapes.
PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - During the June holidays, primary school teacher Wong (not her real name) saw one of her Primary 5 boys vaping openly while cycling near their school.
“It was very disturbing,” she said.

Since the start of 2025, her school has caught about five pupils – mostly from the upper primary levels – with e-vaporisers. One pupil has been caught vaping in school so far.

Some children this young are getting their hands on the devices from channels such as Telegram, Ms Wong said, while others obtain them from their siblings in secondary school.

Teachers both in primary and secondary schools told The Straits Times they are seeing more students sneaking around with vapes – which can be dissembled and easily concealed – on school grounds.

Vaping is harder to detect than smoking, which has more telltale signs, they added.

The problem has become more prevalent since 2021, the teachers said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ms Wong said her school has planned and conducted training sessions for staff on how to handle pupils caught vaping.

“A lot of teachers are unaware to what extent this is happening, so we even have to show them samples of how these (vapes) might look, as some are very harmless-looking,” she said.

In 2024, there were 2,000 cases of students – including those from institutes of higher learning – reported for possessing or using e-vaporisers. This is up from 800 cases in 2022, and 900 cases in 2023.

The numbers had risen due to a ramp-up of enforcement efforts by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), which is the enforcement agency for vaping-related offences, and the Ministry of Education (MOE).

But teachers said more cases probably go undetected as teenagers are finding ways to vape more discreetly or to share the devices with friends by passing them around.

An MOE spokeswoman said schools have stepped up education and enforcement efforts, but challenges remain “due to students having the perception that vaping is harmless and trendy, as well as e-vaporisers being appealing with their novel flavours, ease of use and convenient access”.

Since 2023, the ministry has been working with the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and HSA to issue joint advisories on vaping to parents every semester.

The advisories emphasise the illegality and harmful health effects of vaping, and offer tips on how to talk to children suspected of vaping.

Teachers said the situation improved after the authorities implemented fines for students caught vaping from March 2024. Now, first-time offenders in schools and institutes of higher learning caught buying, using or possessing e-vaporisers can be fined up to $2,000 after being referred to HSA.

Before the fines were rolled out, teachers would usually confiscate the vapes from students and either pass them to their parents or to HSA. One teacher said it was left to the individual schools to determine disciplinary measures.

MOE said these measures include suspension or caning for boys.

HPB also provides support to students caught vaping through QuitLine, a tele-counselling service, and on-site counselling by student health advisers at some schools.

A secondary school teacher who sits on her school’s discipline committee said one challenge was dealing with parents who pushed back against schools’ penalties.

“Many parents tried to retaliate or negotiate if we wanted to suspend their kids for even a day,” she said.

This resistance has dwindled since the fines kicked in, although the teacher said that she has had “recalcitrant students who were fined $1,200, or even more”.

Her school handles vaping cases once every two weeks.

The teacher was also taken aback by one parent’s reaction in 2023 after being informed that the child had been caught vaping, and would face school punishment.

“If (the authorities) didn’t say anything, then why does the school want to cane my child?” the parent had asked.

“Vaping is better than smoking. Besides, children are just curious,” she recounted the parent saying.

Harder to detect vaping​

Another teacher said she was shocked to learn that vapes could come in different shapes, sizes and flavours.

“They look like pens, thumb drives… I wouldn’t have known otherwise if the school hadn’t prepared me,” she said, referring to slides prepared by her school’s head of discipline, who saw the need to get teachers up to speed on vaping devices.

A secondary school teacher who has been in the service for more than 25 years said that unlike vaping, smoking was much easier to detect because of its more obvious signs.

These include lingering nicotine smells on fingertips and uniforms, and suspicions that are easily confirmed with a handheld monitor, designed to detect increased levels of carbon monoxide after smoking, through a breath test.

“If they return to class after a long toilet break smelling like a garden, that’s a sure sign that they used perfume to mask the cigarette smell. When they vape, however, they leave no clues,” he said.
He added that cigarettes, lighters and matches are easy to spot and harder to conceal during spot checks.

In comparison, vapes are harder to identify when disassembled because they come in so many forms.

Another teacher pointed out that students sometimes hide vape components in their undergarments, knowing teachers cannot conduct thorough body searches.

Students are also becoming more creative in how they share and hide their devices.

“One time, we realised the students were hiding the vape devices in the toilet roll holders early in the morning. And they had a system or timetable to share vapes during school hours,” said a teacher, who caught eight repeat student offenders in 2024.

Tackling the scourge​

The recent rise in vaping among young people and the introduction of Kpods – e-vaporisers laced with etomidate, an anaesthetic – have prompted government agencies to take stronger actions to deal with the scourge.

Between January 2024 and March 2025, HSA seized more than $41 million worth of e-vaporisers and their related components.

The authorities are working to list etomidate, which is being abused via e-vaporisers, under the Misuse of Drugs Act, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on July 20.

When asked then about the situation in schools, Mr Ong said the authorities had not detected any etomidate in the vapes seized from schools a few months ago.

But in the latest exercise, one in three vapes seized from the public here was found to contain etomidate, he noted. “So I will not assume that etomidate has not made their way to schools.”



MOE said parents play an important role in vaping and drug prevention. Parents may call the QuitLine on 1800-438-2000 for help, and any disclosures made during the programme are kept confidential and will not be reported to other authorities.

May (not her real name) resorted to placing her 13-year-old daughter in a residential girls’ home in 2025 after her teen refused to stop vaping.

The 55-year-old widow said that her daughter picked up the habit while in Secondary 1 in 2024, at a girls’ school. None of her teachers knew about it, even though her daughter had up to seven e-vaporisers in her possession at one time.

“She told me that some of her teachers are very blur. They don’t know how to find the vapes if students keep them in their pockets,” said May, who works in social services.

“She was sleeping in class, not paying attention, not handing in assignments. They informed me about this change in her behaviour only much later, during a parent-teacher meeting in October,” she said, wishing that teachers had picked up on signs of her daughter’s declining performance in class and connected it to possible vape use.

Acknowledging that teachers are stretched thin dealing with vaping and many other responsibilities, she said: “The schools and ministry need to come up with something together. There must be something they can do.”

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ers-spore-schools-grapple-with-vaping-scourge

these teachers nowadays ah. some are just wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much of goody-two-shoes to the point they dunno the blardy tricks of kids.

end up become as helpless as a deer staring in the headlights of an oncoming trailer.

should hire GTO.

they know all the tricks, all the tell-tale signs, all the hiding spots.

the problem is, whether MOE will 破例 and hire a teacher instead of a bureaucrat or not.

 

[Medicated Oil]

I think they Shld just have police go into sch n do check

sometimes drilling in fear is gd for the benefit of the kids when it comes to drugs n such

The mata are already caught up with their daily petty incidents.
Fear ?
Not sure whether it still works on the present gen.
They are the just do it and dun give a damn batch.

 

[Philipkee]

school should announce school assembly ask everybody strip down to underwear and do checks

confirm nobody dare bring liao

What if some of them never wear undies ?

When this happens, there will be edmw posts on all the ghey or btss

cos females can also hide in bra and all that or even inside the underwear so the only way to check is to remove everything

Then how? The people who suggest this will quietly disappear while the ones actually doing the search will kenna big time

 

[Laneige]

They need the iron in them.

Grant a 2 month amnesty. Vape cessation support for free. Ads in the papers and on social media. Banners on the streets.

Then come down hard with jackboots on those who still dare. Mandatory 2 week inprisonment.

Must put the punishment bog
2 strokes too light
Min 5