MALAYSIA must focus its efforts on curbing smoking prevalence in the country by introducing regulations as well as a legal framework that will encourage smokers to switch to less harmful products, rather than introducing new policies that will not work due to high prevalence of illegal cigarettes in the country, said a local think tank.
This came in response to the Health Minister’s (MOH) announcement earlier this year that it is looking to introduce a ban on the use of tobacco and vape products for those born after 2005.
In addition to this ban the MOH also stated its intent to introduce plain packaging and ban on display for tobacco products – measures that will be included in a Bill to be tabled in Parliament in July this year.
“The market dynamics will be very challenging if these measures are put in place, both from an economic and social perspective,” opined Datametrics Research and Information Sdn Bhd (DARE) managing director Pankaj Kumar.
“The fact is that Malaysia’s smoking prevalence has stagnated at over 20% in the past decade, with a majority of smokers purchasing illegal cigarettes. Currently, more than half of the cigarettes sold in the country are cheap illegal products.”
Pankaj said that the real issue here is the illegal cigarette trade, and that reducing smoking prevalence in Malaysia will not be solved with plain packaging, the display of products at retail or banning the use of products by future adults.
“In the past decade, the Government has already introduced various tobacco control measures such as price controls, comprehensive ban on advertising and promotion, multiple high tax increases, health warnings on packaging, and yet, all these measures have not reduced smoking prevalence as the high incidence of illegal cigarettes has hampered any efforts to curb smoking,” he pointed out.
According to Pankaj, countries like the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand on the other hand have taken different paths to achieve their objective of reducing smoking prevalence, and the key difference has been their approach in tobacco harm reduction, which among others encourage smokers to switch to products that are less harmful, such as vape.
“The UK has one of the lowest smoking rates in the Europe currently and New Zealand is also seeing a decline in its smoking prevalence,” Pankaj elaborated.
“This is due to the approach of these Governments in adopting policies to encourage smokers to switch to vape which is less harmful.
“Statistics from these countries show a rise in the use of vape and a decline in smoking incidences, which clearly show that the tobacco harm reduction strategy is working.”
However, Pankaj acknowledged that in order to achieve this, regulation is key.
“Regulations for vape products need to be differentiated from tobacco products. It cannot be too restrictive, and the law need to strike a balance of encouraging smokers switching to less harmful products to quit smoking while at the same time impose controls to ensure these products do not fall into the hands of the underaged,” he noted.
“Through this approach, Malaysia will naturally see a reduction in smoking prevalence similar to other countries as smokers, regardless of whether they smoke legal or illegal cigarettes, will quit smoking by switching to vape.”
Pankaj went on to urge the Government to move fast to introduce regulations for vape products as an unregulated market creates multiple downsides for the country.
“Last year, the Malaysian Government has announced a taxation regime for vape products during Budget 2022 which has suspended since beginning of this year, pending regulations,” he remarked.
“A year on, we are now preparing for Budget 2023 and yet there is no positive progress on vape regulations.
“This is a lose-lose situation as consumers continue to use unregulated products, the industry remains unregulated, while the Government is unable to collect tax revenue despite these products being available in the market.” – June 17, 2022
