A more useful modus operandi would be for the government to regulate vaping, as well as better combat unlicensed and unregulated vape stores both physically and virtually throughout the country.
It's unclear what drove Mevta to make a sudden about-turn in its position on the GEG or what concessions, if any, were offered by MOH to the vape industry in exchange for support.
Khairy Jamaluddin says in a parliamentary reply that MOH is still studying the use of vape as harm reduction for tobacco smoking, but notes that e-cigarettes are shown to affect one’s health.
Maria Chin Abdullah from PKR says she doesn’t see how the next generation will quit smoking if authorities fail to curb the entry of illegal cigarettes.
Teenagers, who may not know how extremely addictive nicotine is when they try their first cigarette, and young children exposed to secondhand smoke at home lose their right to health.
"Heavy offences" punishable with imprisonment under the tobacco bill target the sale or distribution of tobacco and vape products to those born from 2005.
E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) is now a notifiable disease in Malaysia; two EVALI-related cases in Labuan and Kuching have been reported so far among teens forced to be on continuous oxygen support.
“Don’t tell me that we shouldn’t have high ambitions just because there’s an illicit cigarette market…I’ve never heard such defeatist sentiments,” says Khairy Jamaluddin.