Opinion: Short-sighted and ineffective: Vape bans are not the answer

June 10, 2025

Healthcaretoday, Dato Adzwan Abdul Manas, Malaysia Retail Electronic Cigarette Association, vape products, vape ban, youth vaping, electronic cigarrete,

Banning vape products risks empowering the black market while penalising legitimate, regulated businesses, warns industry association.

By Dato Adzwan Abdul Manas
President, Malaysia Retail Electronic Cigarette Association (MRECA)

Across Malaysia, we’re witnessing a growing wave of state-led attempts to ban vape products, with Perlis, Terengganu, and Kedah - all governed by opposition parties - announcing prohibitions, with Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan reportedly considering the same.

Publicly, leaders and MPs are now echoing calls for a nationwide ban, citing concerns over vape products laced with drugs and growing concern over youth vaping.

Let us be clear: these concerns are real, but the proposed solutions are dangerously flawed. The reason we are seeing issues like underage use and contaminated products is not because of the legal vape industry. It is because irresponsible, illegal retailers and criminal syndicates continue to operate without fear of consequences. These bad actors have no regard for regulations, age restrictions, or product safety. They are the ones supplying unregistered products, selling to minors, and introducing dangerous substances into the supply chain.

Banning vape will not stop these criminals. It will only penalise legitimate, regulated businesses, whilst empowering the black market. The leaders now calling for a ban are reacting to the harm caused by illegal and unregulated players. But instead of focusing efforts on enforcement to eliminate these elements, they propose a blanket ban that would wipe out responsible retailers, many of whom are registered and comply with all current regulations.

If we take the easy way out and ban vape outright, we risk creating an entirely unregulated underground market. Everything will be black market. No age checks, no quality control, no accountability. This is the worst possible outcome for public health.

We must remember that the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852), has now been introduced. This is the very tool meant to bring vape into a regulated space, to ensure product safety, protect youth, and allow only legal players to operate. Why are we not concentrating our energy on implementing this law effectively, with robust enforcement to weed out the bad actors?

According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Malaysia 2023 survey by the Institute for Public Health under the Ministry of Health, the majority of vape users are aged 15 to 24 years. These numbers did not emerge under a regulated environment. They grew due the absence of a clear regulatory framework. This proves that prohibition does not work. What works is regulations, oversight, and the political will to enforce the law.

MRECA fully supports regulations. We support clear rules that keep products out of the hands of minors and ensure safety for adult consumers. But we cannot support a system where the actions of criminal syndicates are used to justify blanket bans that harm legitimate businesses.

With Act 852 already in place, the focus must be on moving forward: implementing it with urgency, investing in enforcement, and strengthening the regulatory framework so that only responsible, compliant players remain in the market.

Banning regulated products is not a solution, it is an abdication of responsibility that hands the market over to criminals. If we want to protect public health and consumer safety, we must stay the course, enforce the law decisively, and commit to building a legal, transparent vape industry that operates within clear and accountable boundaries.

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