Website age verification processes are also poor, meaning young people can easily buy vaping products online.
According to data released last October from the Youth19 survey of secondary school students in Auckland, Northland and Waikato, more than a third of New Zealand high school students had tried vaping.
Ten per cent of young people were found to be vaping regularly and 6 per cent vaping weekly or more often.
About 80 per cent of those who reported vaping regularly and 90 per cent of those who vaped weekly or more often, sometimes, or always, used e-cigarettes containing nicotine.
It also found students often began experimenting with vaping at a young age, with 22 per cent of Year 9 students (13- and 14-year-olds) saying they had tried vaping.
Forgie explained her school had been forced to take on a policing role and implement education about vape use.
She said this often caused great distress and anxiety for whānau, who were sometimes also struggling to stop the behaviour.
"The worst thing that can happen is this becomes normalised behaviour," she said.
"We need external support to make vaping illegal and only available on prescription for those seeking help to cease cigarette smoking."
Okaihau College also recently called on whānau to be mindful of vape use, particularly on school buses.
Deputy principal Delina Tahitahi reported in the Okaihau Breeze, in July, how the Kaikohe Bus Company had been dealing with a number of students vaping on buses.
"This is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by the bus company or the school," Tahitahi said.
"The legal status of vaping in schools is [that it is] prohibited, and the Kaikohe Bus Company also prohibits vaping on the buses.
"If a student is identified as vaping on the bus, the bus driver will inform the student immediately in person and... they will not be allowed to catch the bus the following day."
Professor Janet Hoek is co-director of ASPIRE 2025, the research centre for a tobacco-free Aotearoa at the University of Otago.
She has written extensively on vaping and young adults and is about to start work exploring how young people access vaping products.
Hoek backed Forgie's claims that marketing and advertising were behind the steep uptake in vape use in young people.
"There's one key reason why vaping has become so popular among young people - the marketing of vaping products," Hoek said.
Marketing of 'fun and attractive' vaping products is the key reason researchers have found for the uptake in vape use in young people. Photo/File
"For over two years (2018-2020) vape product marketing was not regulated and it was designed to appeal to young people.
"It featured social influencers, used youth-oriented promotions, sponsored youth events such as music festivals, and products were clearly designed to appeal to young people."
According to Hoek, when legislation regulating vaping products was passed, the most egregious marketing stopped.
However the new legislation, in her opinion, failed to introduce important measures to reduce the availability of vaping products.
"The most important thing the Government can do is develop better policy," Hoek said.
"It's now 18 months since the legislation's key provisions came into effect and it's clear these are not working well enough.
"The Government needs to restrict the supply of vape products to specialist vape stores, prevent these from being located close to schools, and set a maximum number of stores.
"They should also develop guidelines to support vaping cessation among young people and provide specific advice to schools, caregivers and other groups dealing with a large number of young people vaping."
Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) co-founder Nancy Loucas said the issue of vaping in schools was definitely a concern.
She felt, however, that the problem lay with a lack of law enforcement and parental responsibility.
"The issue is not the vapes themselves... if children are gaining access, one has to look first to the parents - where are they and how can they be unaware of what is going on?" Loucas said.
Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) co-founder Nancy Loucas. Photo/Supplied
"Then to the Vaping Regulatory Authority - where is the enforcement of the law?
"The regulations currently in force, if they were enforced consistently and appropriately, are there to prevent youth access."
Loucas did not agree with Forgie's claims vaping was an epidemic among young people.
She claimed the official statistics did not show this and again put the responsibility back on parents and the Government.
"If schools are struggling with vaping, their first port of call should be to call the parents and have a hui with them one on one," she said.
"I would also suggest having a knowledgeable expert (someone from the Ministry of Health) come in and give a talk to both the kids and the parents and provide them with the facts."
Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand confirmed it was currently working with an external agency to develop a social media campaign to support young people to make the decision not to vape.
A spokesperson said rangatahi (young people) knew more about why young people were vaping, and together, they were exploring ways to reduce the harms of vaping.
"A core crew of rangatahi and whānau are working with Te Whatu Ora to help deepen our understanding of community attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and needs connected to vaping," the spokesperson said.
"Part of this work will also include a survey of a selection of schools and the campaign will launch later this year."
The Ministry of Education confirmed vaping amongst students was indeed a concern for principals.
MOE Hautū (Leader) Operations and Integration Sean Teddy said educating young people about the benefits of a smoke-free and vape-free lifestyle was important.
"The health and physical education curriculum learning area includes opportunities for drug education, including the importance of being smoke-free," Teddy said.
"The 'Don't Get Sucked In' website includes information and resources on vaping to encourage teens not to try vaping (or smoking) in the first place."
According to Teddy, from May 11 last year, under the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act 2020, all schools, kōhunga reo, ECEs and kura were required to display "no vaping" notices.
The issue of vaping was also recently raised at a local government level, with the sale of vape products possibly soon to be more strictly regulated.
Local Government New Zealand's (LGNZ) member councils recently passed a remit proposed by Kaipara District Council calling on the Government to limit the retail of vapes to specialist stores.
As part of this year's round of amendments, it also asked to include proximity restrictions to prevent the clustering of vaping product retailers to protect young people.
