People have not stopped using e-cigarettes eight months after India’s ban on e-cigarettes came into effect, vapingpost reported. Although there are no longer official and premium brands like Juul, people are buying cheap, low-quality products from local tobacco stores.
A 23-year-old seller told business insider that he bought his products from Mumbai and sent them to customers via the Indian post service on instagram.
“I’ve been in this business for three years. The only change in the ban is that regular brand products have been withdrawn from the market. I can also sell Chinese products that I usually buy from the Mumbai black market. “
Last summer, the Federal Department of health formulated the electronic cigarette ban regulation 2019 for review, and passed a bill to replace it in leshaba in January 2020. The latter officially banned production, trade, transportation, storage and advertising throughout India.
Now, offenders face up to one year’s imprisonment, or a fine of up to 100000 rupees, or both, and, in the case of the first violation, up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 5 million rupees.
At the same time, in line with numerous arguments from anti smoking and public health experts around the world, local doctors point out that governments should do more research before banning smoking. “The UK has data on e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device, so the research in India should be carried out by the government and the who,” said Dr Bharat gopal, senior pulmonary physician and director of the Delhi National Chest center.
To make matters worse, the latest report from India shows that since the ban came into effect, people can still buy e-cigarettes from any paan (local tobacco) store or online. The only difference is that official and high-quality brands are no longer available, so young e-cigarette users are turning to cheap and low-quality versions.
In line with the arguments of several public health experts, they insist that the inability to provide anything will only take people to the black market.
Samrat chowdhery of the e-cigarette Association of India said that all countries that banned e-cigarettes, including Mexico, Brazil and Thailand, saw a booming black market.
“Since all other forms of nicotine are available, it is difficult to enforce the regulations. Formal participants in the production of e-cigarettes are withdrawing from the market. Once the black market industry has a foothold, it is impossible to control it. The government has missed an opportunity to regulate these products. ” He said.
Source link
