Vapers Protest Mexican Congress
Hundreds of vapers have protested in the front of the Mexican Congress, calling for an end to the ban on vaping, according to the World Vapers' Alliance
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by Dave Cross
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The protesters demanded an end to the ban on the sale of vaping products - in force in the country since May 2020 - and a halt to the constitutional reform proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that aims to elevate the ban to the Constitution. They also called for the approval of a risk-based regulation that allowed adult smokers access to vape products to quit smoking.
The ban has previously been ruled as unconstitutional by the courts.
Alberto Gómez Hernández, policy manager of the World Vapers' Alliance, commented: “The ban was introduced in order to prevent underage vaping, however, minors now have full access to potentially dangerous products on the black market.
“At the same time, smokers who want to quit smoking have difficulty finding safe vaping products. The ban has clearly been a failure and must be reversed as soon as possible. Legislation cannot be based on whim or ideology; it must be based on scientific evidence and the experience of other countries that have had good results."
The World Vapers' Alliance says that despite the ban, products can be easily obtained both on the informal market from underground vape shops and on the black market controlled by organised crime groups. Unregulated, however, vapers now lack quality and safety controls, making them potentially dangerous.
Deputy Sergio Barrera commented: “It is very unfortunate that the federal government thought that the ban would prevent many young people from having access to vaping and does not give people who want to quit smoking the opportunity to use this option. We need to have clear rules. We need to know who can produce it, who can distribute it and who can consume it, and that is why we are pushing for regulation.”
Currently, smoking causes more than 40,000 deaths a year in Mexico, where there are still almost 15 million smokers.
All Vape México spokesperson Antonio Toscano commented: “The president sees a problem where there is actually a solution to smoking. His prohibitionist stance unprotects adult users, who are forced to buy black market products, where there are no quality controls, let alone controls on sales to minors. Prohibition is a danger to public health; good regulation could benefit public health enormously and save millions of lives.”
Photo Credit:
Image provided by the World Vapers' Alliance
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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