The Thai Tobacco Association believes that legalizing e-cigarettes will help the government strengthen regulation and provide better protection for consumers by strictly defining the age of purchasers, thus better preventing young people from using e-cigarettes.
Under Thailand’s current regulations, even the mere possession of e-cigarettes can result in confiscation, heavy fines and even five-year prison sentences. But even so, Thailand remains one of Southeast Asia’s major e-cigarette consumer markets, and corruption in its enforcement process has made it controversial.
Some believe the root cause is that Thailand has banned the possession, sale and importation of e-cigarettes since 2014. But these strict penalties have encouraged extortion by law enforcement officials. This year, for example, during an enforcement operation in Bangkok, six officers routinely demanded a 27,000 baht ($800) bribe from a tourist to help him avoid detention for possessing e-cigarettes.
Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society Thanakamanusorn recently confirmed that decriminalization (of e-cigarette-related behavior) will be part of the People Power Party’s (PPRP) general election platform. And this initiative has recently gained considerable traction in Thailand’s public opinion environment. The minister has publicly expressed support for legalizing e-cigarettes in 2021 against pressure from anti-e-cigarette advocates.
However, there are also strong anti-e-cigarette forces at the top in Thailand. For example, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul and leaders of the Pride of Thailand Party have consistently reiterated their position that e-cigarettes will pose health risks and encourage more people to smoke, and that previous bans on e-cigarettes must remain in place. On the other hand, the Organization for the Control of Tobacco in Thailand (ECST) has called for the e-cigarette ban to be lifted.
According to ECST, the sale and use of e-cigarettes is illegal in Thailand, which has led to the emergence of an unregulated black market in e-cigarettes and increased exposure of minors to e-cigarettes. Instead of banning e-cigarettes, it should legalize them and bring their sale and use under regulation.
Its head, Asa Saligupta, says the anti-e-cigarette stance is backed by powerful interest groups: “There are many anti-e-cigarette groups in Thailand that support the e-cigarette ban, and they have a lot of financial power.” They believe that Thai anti-e-cigarette groups are funded from overseas. For example, the Bloomberg Charitable Foundation, the funding arm of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a representative of anti-e-cigarette groups in the United States, supports a number of anti-e-cigarette groups operating in Thailand.
But e-cigarette legalization appears to be gaining momentum in Thai politics, says Asa Saligupta: “Recently, one of the most popular and prominent political parties, the Forward Party, also announced legalization (of e-cigarettes) as their campaign policy.” Asa Saligupta also mentioned that the so-called e-cigarette ban does not really ban e-cigarettes: “Walking down the streets of big cities like Bangkok, you will see many people with heated tobacco products or atomized e-cigarettes. An economics professor studied and estimated that the value generated by the underground economy of e-cigarettes is about 6 billion baht (about 1.2 billion yuan).”
Asa Saligupta said it is “very common” for Thai police to use the e-cigarette ban to extort money. While the news focused on cases related to foreigners, “this is a widespread problem for the Thai people”; pointing out the incomprehensibility of current regulations: Thailand has fairly strict drug laws, but legalized the cultivation and possession of marijuana in 2022 on the grounds that it has medical value. However, the harm reduction value of e-cigarettes is not recognized by the Thai medical community.
By all accounts, this e-cigarette ban may eventually come to an end if the Thai election results in a pro-legalization force.