There is still hope that e-cigarettes and vapes will be legalized in Thailand, a country which was the first in the region to legalize cannabis.
Thailand’s minister of digital economy and society insisted he is still pushing to legalize e-cigarettes in the country despite initial backlash and pushback he received when he first announced his plans last October.
At the time, minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn mentioned how e-cigarettes sold through online channels and on the black market damaged the local tobacco market, incurring a loss of THB6 billion (US$180 million) each year, and that he was looking to find ways the devices could be legalized to offer a less harmful alternative to smokers.
Criticism rained down on the minister from anti-tobacco organizations which include the National Alliance for a Tobacco-Free Thailand, the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management center, the Royal College of Physicians of Thailand, and the Medical Association of Thailand, all claiming some variation of the “e-cigarettes are dangerous” line.
Thanakamanusorn said legalizing e-cigarettes would enable the country to tax their sales and would provide smokers with a safer option. His next steps will be forming a working group to study legislation, encouraging the public to sign a petition that the Constitutional Court rule if the country’s current ban on imports of e-cigarettes violated people’s rights, particularly their right to have access to less dangerous products, as well as holding forums and seminars to further educate the public on e-cigarettes.