“It has been a year since the Indian government banned electronic cigarettes, enough time to gauge its impact, whether it has served the intended purpose of preventing teen access and strengthened tobacco policy, and if there are any negative outcomes. Prohibition has rarely worked as a measure against preventing use, and comes with unintended consequences, which in the case of India’s e-cigarette ban is also the removal of safeguards to inhibit access for minors who are now being served by a black market and in the absence of self-regulation from a legal industry. Given the negative health and economic impact of the e-cigarette ban, and the growing tobacco epidemic in India, a course-correction is much needed. In India, where we face a much larger tobacco burden, our policies are galloping in the opposite direction. Bidis, the most used smoking product and by far the deadliest, which cause nearly a million deaths annually, are hardly taxed and were recently exempt even from pictorial warnings, while flavoured tobacco which is being weeded out across the world is being launched in new variants to attract more to take up smoking.”
ARTICLE LINK:
Can Banning E-Cigarettes Do More Harm Than Good?
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