By Dr Chong Karleen and Dr Mohd Hafyzuddin Md Yusuf
A vape device tucked inside a school bag may look harmless. It may be brightly coloured, fruit-flavoured and shaped like a pen, toy or USB drive. Yet behind that innocent appearance can lie nicotine addiction, toxic chemicals and, increasingly, substances never meant to be inhaled outside a hospital or laboratory.
Malaysia is no longer confronting only a smoking problem. We are facing a fast-moving youth addiction crisis.
The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022 showed that current e-cigarette and vape use among Malaysian adolescents aged 13 to 17 rose from 9.8 per cent in 2017 to 14.9 per cent in 2022. Among boys, prevalence reached 23.3 per cent—almost one in four—while 6.2 per cent of girls reported current use. Vaping has moved from the margins into classrooms, campuses and family homes.
The World Health Organization estimates that 15 million adolescents aged 13 to 15 already use e-cigarettes. In countries with available data, adolescents are, on average, nine times more likely to vape than adults. Sweet flavours, colourful packaging, discreet devices and social-media promotion have made nicotine appear fashionable, modern and harmless. It is not an innocent flavouring. It is highly addictive and particularly harmful to children and adolescents whose brains are still developing.
Exposure during adolescence can affect attention and learning and increase the likelihood of long-term dependence. What begins as curiosity during a school break can become a daily compulsion before parents or teachers notice.
Vapes are increasingly being used as delivery devices for illicit and psychoactive drugs. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has warned that unregulated vape liquids have been found to contain synthetic cannabinoids, ketamine, methamphetamine, etomidate and even powerful synthetic opioids. These products may be mislabelled, contain unpredictable concentrations or combine several substances, leaving users unaware of what they are inhaling.
Viral “zombie vape” videos circulating in 2026 showed young people appearing dazed, collapsing or behaving erratically after allegedly using drug-laced liquids. In one widely reported case, police arrested three people and seized liquid believed to contain ketamine after footage of two men in an intoxicated state spread online. It must not be treated as comedy or online entertainment. Behind every viral video may be a frightened family, a young person sliding into dependence, or a medical emergency waiting to happen.
The scale of enforcement confirms that this is not an isolated phenomenon. In July 2026, the Home Ministry reported that authorities had seized 718.43kg of vape and e-cigarette products suspected of containing prohibited substances since 2023, involving 585 arrests and 400 cases. In only the first five months of 2026, 267 arrests were recorded—almost twice the total for the whole of 2025. Authorities have also warned that these products are increasingly being targeted at young people and school students through social media, online platforms and courier services. Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024, or Act 852, prohibits sales to minors and online sales, alongside controls on advertising and promotion. These measures are essential.
However, legislation cannot stand alone. A law cannot automatically give a teenager the confidence to resist peer pressure, question an influencer’s claims or recognise the early signs of addiction in a friend. The debate about vaping as harm reduction for adult smokers, there should be no debate about protecting children, non-smokers and young people from nicotine addiction and drug-laced products.
This is why community education and youth advocacy matter.
On 15 July 2026, Universiti Malaya, the Muallim District Health Office and Politeknik Sultan Azlan Shah (PSAS) jointly organised the HEBAT—Henti. Elak. Basmi Asap Tembakau—Training of Trainers programme.
This strategic collaboration united healthcare professionals, educators and students around one shared purpose: to develop knowledgeable and confident advocates capable of carrying tobacco- and vape-prevention messages into their institutions and communities.
HEBAT goes beyond conventional lectures. Participants explore tobacco-control history and policy, the health, environmental and economic harms of tobacco and vape products, smoking-cessation support, media ethics and persuasive communication.
They also analyse misleading media messages and develop social-media advocacy materials capable of competing in the same digital spaces where vaping products and harmful behaviours are promoted.
Most importantly, the Training of Trainers model transforms participants from passive listeners into multipliers of change. Each advocate can reach classmates, colleagues, families and communities. The programme does not end when the workshop closes; that is where its real work begins.
The partnership between Universiti Malaya, PKD Muallim and PSAS demonstrates what meaningful public-health action should look like: academic expertise connected with frontline healthcare experience and the energy of an educational institution.
The initiative will expand further through another HEBAT Training of Trainers programme at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris later this year, extending the network of advocates committed to protecting Malaysia’s younger generation.
We must stop describing youth vaping as merely a lifestyle choice. It is often an engineered pathway to nicotine dependence and, for some young people, a route of exposure to dangerous illicit substances.
A tobacco- and vape-free generation will not be created by fear alone. It will be built through truthful education, trusted relationships, responsible media, consistent enforcement and young advocates prepared to protect one another.
Every advocate trained today may prevent an addiction tomorrow.
In a crisis hidden inside pockets, school bags and social-media feeds, empowering our young people may be one of the most important investments Malaysia can make.
The authors are medical lecturers at Universiti Malaya and fellows of the Nicotine Addiction Research and Collaborating Centre (NARCC).
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