India’s vape ban was meant to keep e-cigarettes out of reach of youth. Yet recent arrests in Hyderabad show that these products are still reaching through informal channels. Four teenagers aged 15 to 17 were found using vapes, while police traced the devices to suppliers who had ordered them online and resold them. Another raid seized 53 more vapes. Seven years later, the problem is no longer whether these products are illegal. It is whether prohibition is effective enough to do its job.

The arrests are justified. Anyone selling nicotine products to minors should face legal consequences. But the raids also raise a bigger question: why does a company continue to find customers and suppliers? The Hyderabad raid offers a glimpse into how it happens. Police allege that one supplier was placing cash-on-delivery orders for several devices on websites before reselling them through an associate at a markup. These products were banned, but the demand for them had not disappeared. That is the problem with black markets operating outside the legal frameworks. Once the market moves underground, regulators lose much of the control they would have over a legal market. There is no licensed seller responsible for checking a buyer’s age, no consistent oversight of what is being sold, and no clear accountability for how products are marketed.

A retailer operating legally can be penalised for selling to a minor. An illicit seller has already chosen to operate outside the ambit of law. The more the market depends on such sellers, the harder it becomes for regulators to control who gets........

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