Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act
(CHAPTER 309)
Prohibition of imitation tobacco products16.
(1) No person shall import, distribute, sell or offer for sale any confectionery or other food product or any toy or other article that is designed to resemble a tobacco product or the packaging of which is designed to resemble the packaging commonly associated with tobacco products.
[17/2010 wef 01/09/2010]
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 and, in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $10,000.
Well, any PV kit I have seen does NOT resemble a tobacco product. So that's okay then, isn't it?
And it refers to importation, distribution, sale and offer for sale. Not use. So use is okay then, isn't it?
The reality is that this law was written to stop candies and toys that resembles cigarettes. A long time ago. Quite right too. And yes, the statute has been hijacked for use against ecigs (= the type that look like cigarettes). No issue there, ecigs suck anyway. And it has also been stretched well beyond its original intention by certain bodies under pressure from cartain conglomerates, to try to "control" PV's.
You may have seen a very long post from a US member today on this site. And in that, you may have noticed that the US banned all this stuff in 2009, but the ban was overturned by the courts as being unlawful. Respect for the people for fighting back.
Where I come from, the role of the court is to uphold laws (aka statutes). And the statute says "designed to resemble a tobacco product". No one in their right mind could say that a provari or a vamo or a kayfun/kanger/aspire/iclear/CE4 is "designed to resemble a tobacco product". Well maybe a blind person, but probably not even them if they felt it! We all know what the word "resemble" means, right? Ditto the packaging. Ergo, PV's don't contravene Section 16.
So then. I am left with two feelings from this region. Either (1) Courts don't uphold the law (not such a shock for this part of the world, have lived in thailand and indo so I know the score, but I expect more from this particular region) or (2) People in this region are scared of their own shadow: paranoid and fearful of fighting their cause. Or both of the above.
Where is the voice of the people here? Okay, going through the courts make cost a bit. But my experience of this region is that there are a lot of seriously rich people around. Its not my place to pick a fight in another country - luckily where I come from, there is no issue at all at the moment.
But as I see it, a statute designed to stop mock cigarettes being exposed to young children (clearly a good thing) is being used (or rather abused) to prevent something beneficial to society (clearly a bad thing!) due to misinformation by the big cigarette manufacturers and pharmaceuticals. The only way to stop propaganda is to bring the truth (ie facts) into the public arena. Not hiding in the shadows and spreading paranoia. There is not enough data to answer all questions, but there is already enough data to disprove most of the reasons cited by the health and safety authority of this region.
No govt wants to lose duties (even despite the detrimental effect of smoking on the citizens of the state). That's a different issue, and one with a simple solution. Allow nic-containing ejuices to be sold, and tax them sensibly if necessary. Everyone is happy. That said, the govt of this region already has too much of it's citizens money in the govt bank coffers (according to a recent global audit) and so perhaps, dare I say it, it could afford to postpone taxation for a while, and see how things pan out. If it had its peoples best interests at heart.
