Regardless of greater than a decade of rising scientific consensus that smoke-free nicotine merchandise are far much less dangerous than cigarettes, governments the world over are accelerating bans on vaping, heated tobacco and different reduced-risk options. From Southeast Asia to Latin America and Jap Europe, policymakers are selecting prohibition over regulation—whilst real-world information persistently present that entry to safer nicotine merchandise reduces smoking, illness and dying.
The scientific basis for tobacco hurt discount is not controversial amongst unbiased researchers. Combustion—not nicotine—is answerable for the overwhelming majority of smoking-related illness. Merchandise that remove combustion, reminiscent of vapes, heated tobacco, snus and nicotine pouches, dramatically cut back publicity to toxicants. Public Well being England, Most cancers Analysis UK, the U.S. Nationwide Academies of Sciences and Engineering, and lots of different acknowledged well being entities, have acknowledged this danger gradient. But many governments proceed to deal with all nicotine merchandise as equally harmful, or worse, deal with safer options as a larger menace than cigarettes themselves.
Defending youth or the tobacco trade?
Vietnam provides one of many starkest latest examples. In December 2024, the Nationwide Meeting amended the nation’s Funding Regulation to dam all funding and industrial exercise associated to vaping and heated tobacco. This transfer bolstered a sweeping ban that took impact initially of 2025 and extends past gross sales to incorporate possession and private use. The result’s a complete prohibition that leaves people who smoke with no authorized harm-reduction choices in any respect.
Naturally, the World Well being Group strongly supported Vietnam’s resolution, urging the federal government to categorise these merchandise as prohibited companies and warning in opposition to any exemptions. After the vote, the WHO publicly praised the coverage and claimed it had already decreased youth use and hospital admissions, regardless of offering no supporting information. Hurt-reduction consultants have challenged these assertions, noting {that a} single yr is way too brief to evaluate the true penalties of prohibition, notably given stockpiling, delayed behavioural change and the inevitable progress of illicit markets.
Vietnam’s case additionally highlights a recurring battle of curiosity. The state-owned Vietnam Nationwide Tobacco Company controls roughly 60 % of the home cigarette market, mirroring conditions in India and Thailand the place governments keep deep monetary ties to flamable tobacco whereas banning safer opponents. Smoking stays a significant public-health burden in Vietnam, linked to greater than 14 % of all deaths in 2021. Critics argue that banning reduced-risk merchandise whereas defending cigarette monopolies will not be well being coverage, it’s market safety dressed up as prevention.
Sending safer options underground the place their security is questionable
Comparable dynamics are enjoying out elsewhere. Azerbaijan is shifting towards a complete prohibition on digital cigarettes by means of amendments that will outlaw their manufacture, commerce, storage, import, export and use. By redefining nicotine-containing e-cigarettes as tobacco merchandise and eradicating them from excisable items lists, lawmakers are successfully erasing them from the authorized market. Promoting bans are additionally being expanded to cowl non-nicotine gadgets, reflecting a coverage strategy that prioritises elimination over danger differentiation.
Mexico has taken an much more punitive path. New reforms to the Common Well being Regulation criminalise the manufacturing and sale of e-cigarettes, with penalties of as much as eight years in jail and substantial fines. President Claudia Sheinbaum has explicitly rejected the concept that vaping is usually a safer different to smoking. But enforcement realities inform a special story. Vapes stay broadly obtainable throughout Mexico Metropolis, bought brazenly and cheaply, elevating severe doubts about whether or not criminalisation will cut back use, or just entrench unlawful provide chains. Critics warn that prohibition absolves the federal government of its duty to control product requirements, age verification and high quality management.
Costa Rica is now contemplating an outright ban on all digital smoking gadgets, together with non-nicotine merchandise. The proposal follows reviews of vape-related intoxications amongst youth and extremely publicised medical circumstances. Whereas issues about underage use are official, many consultants argue that Costa Rica’s present regulatory framework has not been given time to work. The present legislation governing e-cigarettes has been absolutely in power for lower than a yr and already consists of taxation and controls. Abandoning regulation in favour of prohibition dangers increasing black markets, notably given weaknesses in customs enforcement and policing. Notably, illicit merchandise are sometimes extra harmful than regulated ones—a lesson discovered repeatedly in drug and alcohol coverage.
Selecting the mistaken battle
In the meantime, Malaysia illustrates how regulatory instability can undermine hurt discount even with out a formal nationwide ban. Though the Management of Smoking Merchandise for Public Well being Act 2024 initially promised clearer oversight, it has been adopted by a cascade of state-level vape bans. A number of states have outlawed vape retailing completely, whereas the federal authorities alerts that disposable vapes could also be focused subsequent. On the identical time, cigarette and heated tobacco taxes have risen, whereas vape taxes had been conspicuously left unchanged—fueling hypothesis that the class is being positioned for prohibition moderately than regulation.
The results are predictable. Unlawful cigarettes already dominate greater than half of Malaysia’s market. Trade teams warn that banning vapes will merely push shoppers into unregulated channels, repeating patterns seen in different prohibitionist jurisdictions. Heated tobacco merchandise are more and more seen as the one politically tolerable harm-reduction choice, not as a result of they’re superior, however as a result of they’re much less ideologically contested.
Banning hurt discount fights smoking cessation
Throughout all these circumstances, a typical assumption underpins coverage: that eradicating safer nicotine merchandise will cut back general nicotine use and defend public well being. The proof says in any other case. A number of research from america, Europe and Asia present that when entry to lower-risk options is restricted, many shoppers substitute again to cigarettes. Flavour bans, gross sales bans and outright prohibitions persistently weaken smoking cessation and strengthen illicit commerce.
In contrast, nations that regulate moderately than ban—setting age limits, product requirements, advertising and marketing controls and clear tax buildings—have achieved the quickest declines in smoking. Sweden, Norway, Japan and New Zealand show that hurt discount works when people who smoke are supplied interesting, reasonably priced options alongside a continuum of danger.
The worldwide rush towards bans ignores this rising physique of knowledge. It additionally ignores human behaviour. Demand for nicotine doesn’t disappear when merchandise are outlawed; it merely strikes into much less seen, much less controllable areas. Prohibition has by no means eradicated consumption, it has solely shifted who income and who bears the chance.
Tobacco hurt discount doesn’t require abandoning youth safety or public-health oversight. It requires acknowledging actuality: cigarettes are uniquely lethal, and insurance policies that make safer options more durable to entry than flamable tobacco are essentially incoherent. As bans unfold, the query is not whether or not the proof is adequate, it’s whether or not governments are prepared to comply with it. Except policymakers realign nicotine regulation with scientific danger, the world dangers repeating a long time of preventable hurt, pushed not by lack of awareness, however by refusal to behave on it.
Smoke-Free or Smoke-Stuffed? The Case Towards Blanket Vape Bans
