DUBAI // Illegal suppliers of imported electronic cigarettes are prepared to risk hefty fines or jail time to help their growing client base to quit tobacco.

Graphic artist K T, one of a handful of illegal importers of e-cigarettes in Dubai, quit smoking tobacco, dokha and medwakh thanks to e-cigarettes and now earns up to Dh5,000 a month selling imported hardware and vapour refills.

K T said he would quit his job to build a business if e-cigarettes were legitimised.

“Because there was no supply here in the UAE, I was dependent on friends bringing them in for me from the Philippines, so ended up going back to smoking medwakh,” he said.

He now illegally imports up to 20 electronic pipes and up to 100 30ml refill bottles of flavoured nicotine liquid every month.

Hardware from the Philippines or the US can cost up to Dh1,100 and refills from Dh30 to Dh100.

“My main ambition is to help people get off cigarettes and start ‘vaping’,” said K T, who admitted he was playing a risky game with customs officers.

“No one can do anything about the law at the moment but I’m hoping it will change.”

In 2011, the UAE signed a pact with GCC countries to ban the import and sale of e-cigarettes in the region. All cigarettes and tobacco products have to be approved by the Ministry of Health before sale in the UAE.

One of K T’s best Dubai customers, Filipino R K, 24, said he can breathe easier, and his breath smells better in the mornings since taking up e-cigarettes.

He has cut down from 20 cigarettes a day to the equivalent of five since taking up e-cigarettes four months ago.

“There is a stigma because they are illegal,” said R K. “If they were legalised, the industry could be regulated. Not being able to smoke in public legally stops me quitting tobacco altogether.

“Now, smokers like me are forced into the black market.”

nwebster@thenational.ae