Twenty-eight of the 76 vape and vape-juice products the HSE’s national drug treatment centre lab has analysed so far in 2026 contained HHC or related compounds such as semi-synthetic cannabinoids. Eight held potent synthetic cannabinoids, ten an acetate-containing compound, a dozen cannabis or related compounds, and 41 contained CBD. Professor Eamon Keenan, the HSE’s national clinical lead in addiction services, set out the lab’s figures in remarks reported on 19 August.

Set it beside the Korean test batch this desk covered last week: 13 of 105 ‘nicotine-free’ products carried nicotine, 12 an analogue — a wrong number on a legal ingredient. Ireland’s is a controlled drug inside the device. HHC became a Schedule 1 substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 on 29 July 2025, in an announcement that listed e-cigarettes and vape pens first among its formats.

The shelf is not outside this

The Journal, which visited the lab in Dublin, reports both CBD and nicotine products had been tampered with. Keenan goes wider: “These 76 vapes are a mixture of vapes which are being sold in shops, from online and from the black market,” and his stated concern is products “being sold in shops and misnamed.” This is not a parallel trade running alongside the counter. Part of it is the counter.

For a given device, no source says where in the chain the substance entered. One route is on the record, though: nicotine bottles bought legitimately, emptied, refilled and sold on the black market, described by Nicki Killeen, the HSE’s emerging drug trends manager, in remarks the trade press carried on 27 August. That is the illicit half, not the shop shelf. Past it we do not guess.

Read the denominator before the ratio

Twenty-eight of 76 is still not a survey of anything you can buy. The Journal’s account puts the lab’s samples at music festivals, homelessness and addiction services and hospitals, usually after somebody has already had a bad time. Keenan is explicit: there is no test-purchasing programme and no budget for one. The ratio describes the sample, not the market.

The acetate figure needs the same care: ten of 76, not ten of 28. Keenan calls acetates “a specific chemical that’s been associated with lung damage in the United States” — a documented association, not a finding about these devices.

What it changes here

This desk reads published claims and holds makers to them, which assumes a sealed unit somebody intended. Tampered with, a device has no ingredient list left to argue with.

None of which makes the compliant side of the counter benign. The nicotine in a properly declared bottle is an addictive chemical too, and this desk writes for adults of legal purchase age who already use it — 21 and over in the United States, 18 and over in most other markets.