The Mexican Parliament on Wednesday adopted a law criminalizing the sale of electronic cigarettes and similar products, with penalties of up to eight years in prison.
President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party has said it wants to protect the health of young people and close legal loopholes that have allowed these products to be promoted as safe for health.
With this reform, “electronic cigarettes and other similar systems or devices” are prohibited, declared the President of the Senate, Laura Itzel Castillo.
2.1 million users
The number of users of these devices was estimated by an official survey carried out in 2023 at 2.1 million people out of some 132 million inhabitants.
Several countries, particularly in Latin America, have banned the sale of electronic cigarettes, but few, like Mexico, have introduced prison sentences.
Opposition elected officials considered the law “ambiguous” and said they feared abuses by the authorities.
Adopted by both houses of Parliament, the law will be applicable after formal promulgation by Ms. Sheinbaum.
At the beginning of October, the World Health Organization (WHO) was concerned about the “alarming” wave of nicotine addiction caused by electronic cigarettes among young people, with at least 15 million children aged 13 to 15 around the world now using them.
Electronic cigarettes are also often accused of being able to serve as a vector for the consumption of synthetic drugs.
In Singapore, which has one of the strictest laws in the world, the importation of electronic cigarettes is punishable by 20 years in prison and resale by 10 years.
