re: "Actress' vaping case sparks debate" (BP, February 3, 2023)
Dear editor,
Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, executive secretary of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation is doubtless sincere in his convictions. He is also wrong in his conclusion that Thailand is "on the right track by banning e-cigarettes." Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn is right that vaping should be legalized for adults.
That there are very likely or most certainly health risks to vaping, or any other product that they enjoy using, is not a sufficient reason to ban it for adults. It should be fully legal for adults and regulated the same way alcohol, cigarettes and the host of other unhealthy lifestyle choices are regulated.
Such legalization would be a serious hit to the income streams of those esteemed members of the Royal Thai Police about whom we have read so much in recent weeks, as usual. It is not, however, obvious that such a reduction in incitement to extortion and other corruption is so terribly undesirable a collateral outcome of just law.
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 February 7, 2023, under the title "Review vape ban" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2499781/review-vape-ban
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