KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad has secured the Poisons Board’s backing for his proposal to remove nicotine-containing vape liquids from the Poisons List.
Although the Board’s approval isn’t legally required for the health minister to exempt the addictive substance from the list of scheduled poisons under the Poisons Act 1952 (Act 366 only requires the minister to consult with the Board), the Board’s endorsement lends expert and moral legitimacy to Dzulkefly’s imminent exemption order.
Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) president Prof Amrahi Buang said the Poisons Board held a secret ballot to decide on whether to support a proposed exemption of liquid nicotine from the Poisons List.
He added that Poisons Board members were “under oath” not to share any information.
“The Ministry has to answer this – on the reasons why the exemption was given,” Amrahi told CodeBlue.
A minister’s order exempting liquid and gel nicotine used in e-cigarettes and vape from the Poisons List has yet to be published on the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ legislation portal.
If Dzulkefly proceeds to gazette the order, it will mark a reversal of his stance last year about how banning vape wasn’t a question of “if” but “when”.
The Poisons Board met to discuss the health minister’s proposed exemption after the High Court’s landmark ruling last May nullified a 2023 liquid nicotine exemption order by then-Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
The government initially appealed the court verdict in the judicial review application by the Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) and two other non-governmental organisations, but withdrew its appeal in August.
“It wasn’t a commercial decision,” a source told CodeBlue about the Poisons Board’s decision to support a proposed exemption of nicotine e-liquids from the Poisons List.
The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to discuss Poisons Board proceedings, pointed out that the court’s cancellation of the 2023 exemption order created a regulatory conflict.
Without an exemption from the Poisons List, liquid nicotine is restricted under Act 366 to dispensation by pharmacists or doctors as a Group C poison. At the same time, the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852) permits the sale of nicotine vapes to adults for recreational use.
When asked if the Poisons Board opposed a ban on vapes, since it decided to approve legalising nicotine vape via an exemption from the Poisons List, the source who spoke to CodeBlue denied this.
“We want stronger enforcement of Act 852.”
According to the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Pharmaceutical Services Programme’s website, the Poisons Board has 11 members appointed by the health minister:
- Azuana Ramli (Deputy Director-General of Health, Pharmaceutical Services)
- Dr Sharmilah Kuppusami (Department of Chemistry Malaysia)
- Hafizah Mohd (Department of Agriculture Malaysia)
- Dr Tariq Jaafar (Department of Veterinary Services)
- Dr Thirunavukarasu Rajoo (Malaysian Medical Association)
- Prof Dr Wan Mohamad Wan Bebakar (Malaysian Medical Council)
- Zuriayah Sham Zainal Abidin (Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
- Lau Tiam Kwee (Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia)
- Amirhamzah Karim (Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia)
- Gnanasambanthan T. Supramanion (Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry)
- Nour Hanah Othman (Malaysian Pharmacists Society)
It’s unclear when the Poisons Board met to discuss the proposed exemption of liquid nicotine from the Poisons List, which members attended that meeting, and who voted yes or no.
The Poisons Board’s consensus decision-making means that all members – irrespective of whether or not they attended the meeting or how they cast their ballot – uphold the proposed exemption, unless they resign in protest.
Both MPS and the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), which represent pharmacists and medical doctors respectively, have repeatedly urged the government to ban vape.
Hence, it’s unclear if MPS and MMA will instruct their representatives — Nour Hanah and Dr Arasu respectively— to resign from the Poisons Board to indicate the associations’ objection to the Board’s decision.
Conversely, if MPS and MMA retain representation on the Poisons Board, the pharmacists’ and doctors’ groups can quit demanding a vape ban and pivot instead to supporting stronger regulation under Act 852. The tobacco and vape industry has repeatedly stressed the latter approach.
It’s unclear if the Ministry of Finance (MOF) will refund vape businesses more than RM354 million in excise duties collected on nicotine-containing vape liquids from 2023 to the date of the new imminent exemption order by Dzulkefly, pursuant to the court’s cancellation of the 2023 exemption order.
The Poisons Board’s 2026 approval of a proposed removal of liquid nicotine from the Poisons List marks a departure from its unanimous opposition to Dr Zaliha’s proposed exemption order in 2023.
Three years ago, the Poisons Board, which had different members then, rejected the health minister’s proposal because exempting liquid nicotine from the Poisons List would create a lacuna in the law and enable the sale of nicotine vapes to children. A tobacco and vape control bill hadn’t even been tabled in Parliament at the time.
But Dr Zaliha proceeded to gazette the exemption order in March 2023 against the wishes of the Poisons Board. The legal lacuna self-created by the Madani government persisted for a whopping one and a half years because Act 852 only came into effect in October 2024.
Now, Act 852 already exists. Hence, the Poisons Board’s approval of Dzulkefly’s proposed exemption of liquid nicotine from the Poisons List simply indicates that both the health minister and the Board aren’t inclined to prohibit vape and are instead seeking to reverse the de facto ban handed by the court in May.
Dzulkefly told reporters in September 2025 that the government targeted a nationwide vape ban by the middle of 2026.
Even though the High Court’s de facto ban on nicotine vapes occurred in May 2026, matching Dzulkefly’s timeline, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration chose not to implement the prohibition but sought to legalise nicotine vape once more. Over the past year, the police, general public, and lawmakers have been demanding a national ban to curb the spread of drug-laced vapes.
Unlike 2023, the government is now backed by the Poisons Board, even though the science and data on the harmful effects of nicotine haven’t changed in the past three years—unless experts in the Board found new unpublished evidence that they have yet to share with the Malaysian public.
