Photo: Unsplash / Tbel Abuseridze
A well-known self development course says it is dealing with an increasing number of vape-addicted students who don't even realise they are hooked on nicotine.
Outward Bound promotes personal development through outdoor adventure and challenges and has been operating in the Marlborough Sounds for more than 60 years.
All participants are expected to be smoke- and vape-free for the duration of the course.
But the not-for-profit says its instructors are upskilling to deal with vape addiction, with some students oblivious to the problem until they start experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
Outward Bound school director Hamish Reid told Checkpoint the outbound course was designed to be physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging, and "throwing nicotine withdrawal into that mix isn't necessarily very pleasant".
He said he found vape smokers did not know how much nicotine they were consuming, as opposed to cigarette smokers.
At the start of the course, students are asked to put away drugs, alcohol, vapes, smokes.
"We lock it up for the duration of your course and you get it back at the end of the course."
'It feels like something that needs to be addressed' - Listen to the full interview here
Reid said contraband was not much of an issue until this year when from among about a dozen students, called a 'watch' on the course, they foundfour or five to have vapes that they were passing around.
"This is not something we've seen before."
He said the instructors had to relearn how to deal with it.
"Because if you don't know that you are going to have these withdrawal symptoms, it's a bit of a shock ... feeling a bit jittery potentially, or anxious can be a withdrawal symptom. If you don't know why you're feeling that, then that will make you anxious. You can end up being anxious about being anxious."
He said the course was not an addiction support service.
"It's not necessarily something that needs to be a moral panic, but we're seeing a really rapid rise and and feel like it is something that needs to be addressed."
Teen smoking rates have dropped over the past 20 years, the latest Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH) survey found - daily use falling from over 15 percent of Year 10s in 2000 to just 1.1 percent in 2022. But vaping has gone from non-existent in the early 2010s to 10.1 percent last year.
Ministry of Health figures supplied under the Official Information Act show fines totalling $42,900 since June 2022.
There were 96 infringement notices, the majority for selling to people under the age of 18.