Plea for vaping

re: "Vaping ban fails to do its job" (BP, Editorial, October 30, 2022) 

Dear editor,

It is depressing to again see the Bangkok Post insisting that "The government must put a stop to this dirty business," the dirty business in this case being the thriving market for e-cigarettes, which are, as the Post reminds us, illegal in Thailand, as so many things are to the great benefit of criminal gangs and their loyal aids in law enforcement.

The Post's sole claim to an objective reason for seeking to ban Thai adults deciding for themselves how best to live their own lives is the claim that "the World Health Organization (WHO) says otherwise" of the common belief that "e-cigarette lobbyists insist e-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco and also help tobacco smokers quit the habit." Unfortunately, the Post failed to cite a specific source to check for the dubious claim it attributes so blithely to the WHO. But at least part of the that claim is certainly false; it is definitely not only e-cigarette lobbyists who hold such beliefs: both the UK's NHS and the US's CDC admit that whilst certainly not harmless, e-cigarettes are "less harmful than cigarettes" (NHS, "Using e-cigarettes to stop smoking", 2022; CDC, "About Electronic Cigarettes (E-Cigarettes)", 2022). The Post is pushing what seems dangerously like false claims that will harm the health of Thais, including Thai youth. 

More disturbing is the awful logic, the illogic, that the Post uses to justify even greater state interference in the private lives of Thai citizens. The editor's citing of the 2017 Constitution, currently the latest permanent constitution of the Thai nation, seems disingenuous. If the constitutional requirement that "the government must ensure citizens of their basic rights to good health and provide an effective public healthcare system that includes disease prevention and control" mandates a ban on e-cigarettes, then that same provision also mandates that the government ban or severely restrict high sugar foods, at least their sale or giving, to innocent children and teenagers, whose health is certainly harmed by regular consumption thereof. That will clear out the food floor at Paragon. And perhaps throw a few reckless parents into prison for allowing their darlings to daily pig out on cakes, soft drinks and other sweets. The salient point is that if that were indeed what that section of Thailand's deeply flawed constitution required, it would be but one more example of a section in urgent need of amendment. 

Even if e-cigarettes were more harmful than regular cigarettes as the Post dubiously claims, that would not be a sufficient reason to justify the ban. By all means regulate their sale to and use by those under 18, but if adults want to use them, a society that respects their right to decide personal matters for themselves must allow that. Along with Move Forward's principled politician, in this instance, the government's Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn is correct: "legalising e-cigarettes would enable the country to tax their sales and would provide a safer option for those unable to quit smoking regular cigarettes."  E-cigarettes should be legal, which would also respect the human right to decide how to live your own life.

The Post should retract and revise its stance on e-cigarettes. 

 Felix Qui 

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on November 1, 2022, under the title "Plea for vaping" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2427005/too-many-curbs