Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Senate approved a reform Wednesday night banning the production and sale of electronic cigarettes or vaping devices, part of a new effort by authorities to curb their use they have unsuccessfully tried to curb for more than three years.
With this ban, Mexico joins other countries that have imposed restrictions on e-cigarettes, including United KingdomAustralia and Belgium.
Senators from the ruling Morena party and its allied forces supported – by 76 votes in favor, 36 against and one abstention – reform of the health law, which calls for penalties of one to eight years in prison and fines that could reach $11,300 for anyone who makes or sells e-cigarettes or vaping devices.
The approval came a day after the ruling majority in the Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of the initiative proposed by President Claudia Sheinbaum in September. It will now be sent to the executive branch for publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation so that it comes into force.
The regulations apply throughout Mexico and expressly prohibit “the acquisition for the purposes of marketing, preparing, preserving, producing, manufacturing, mixing, conditioning, packaging, transporting for commercial purposes, storing, importing, exporting, trading, distributing, selling and supplying electronic cigarettes, vapers and other similar systems or devices.”
The reform also restricts all advertising or propaganda activities by vapers through any print, digital, television, radio or any other means of communication.
This week, Sheinbaum noted the progress of his initiative in Congress and said that vapers have “a lot of substances and materials that cause a lot of harm.”
For more than three years, the Mexican government has declared war on vapers. In May 2022 former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) issued a decree restricting the import, marketing and export of e-cigarettes, stating that they are “harmful to health.” But the decree did not restrict consumption or marketing.
According to the Mexican government's 2022 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2.6% of teenagers and 1.5% of people over 20 used vapes instead of tobacco cigarettes.
Opposition congressmen have expressed open opposition to the reform, saying it is aimed at prohibition but not at combating smuggling, counterfeiting or the black market.
In this regard, Senator Gina Campusano of the National Action Party (PAN) noted during the debate that Morena “signs a blank check for crime to poison young people with the sale of vaping devices… Thanks to this ban, they open up new businesses for organized crime.”
