MALAYSIA’S legalisation of vape sales remains on the cards after some unexpected twists in Parliament this week before it was adjourned for the country’s imminent general election so to speak.
Local advocacy group Malaysian Organisation of Vape Entities (MOVE) president Samsul Kamal Ariffin is elated that the proposed Generational End Game (GEG) anti-smoking bill has now been referred to a parliamentary special select committee for further scrutiny.
“We were concerned that vaping was lumped into this anti-smoking bill which would’ve seen draconian rules for vaping, criminalising both consumers and retailers,” he told the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates (CAPHRA) which is a regional alliance of consumer tobacco harm reduction advocacy organisations.
“MPs on the select committee now have the opportunity to take vape and non-combustible products out of the legislation and treat them quite differently as harm reduction tools.”
The date of Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15) has yet to be confirmed. However, if the next parliamentary session takes place beforehand, the select committee will swing into action, tasked with preparing a statement on its suggestions to improve the bill.
MOVE would have a representative as one of the select committee members, according to Samsul Kamal.
“If Malaysia is to reduce its overall smoking rate four-fold to below 5% by 2040, banning vaping is not going to achieve it,” he projected. “New Zealand’s smoking rate is less than half of ours because they’re getting tough on smoking while they’ve regulated retail access to vape products for adults only.”
As such, New Zealand is set to hit smoke-free at least half a generation before Malaysia because the country is treating smoking and vaping very differently. If Malaysia wants to save lives, the country has to do the same, according to Samsul Kamal.
He further recalled how tobacco harm reduction (THR) advocates were heartened in April when the regulation of vaping devices was announced to take effect on Aug 3. It was assumed the move would precede the legalisation of vape sales – something that MOVE and other THR supporters have been advocating for years.
“When the Health Minister tabled the GEG bill on Aug 2 with the intention of bulldozing it through before Parliament adjourned, we were very nervous,” revealed Samsul Kamal.
“Fortunately, enough MPs fought back and the select committee or the next Parliament can now regulate vaping under separate legislation. That’s what needs to happen, and I’m convinced that it will.”
He added: “As 70 countries have already proven, a THR approach works. Banning vaping only kills smokers. Regulating vaping will give smokers a viable and less harmful alternative, not to mention provide much needed tax revenue for Malaysia. – Aug 5, 2022
