Mexico to ban 'vaping'

Mexico's parliament approved in principle on 9 December a reform of the country's General Health Law to ban "the production, distribution and sale" of all forms of vaping and electronic smoking devices. The reform contemplates fines of up to 226,000 pesos (over U.S. $10,000) or jail terms of between one and eight years for infractors, Spain's El País newspaper reported. The administration of President Gloria Sheinbaum is already enforcing strict anti-smoking laws but critics in parliament protested that the new law would unfairly criminalize users who are often youngsters. That led the head of parliament's health committee, from the governing MORENA party, to clarify that new norms would be tweaked to ensure consumers would not face punitive measures and the reform would protect youth from a harmful practice that had been insidiously promoted as harmless. A member of the opposition Citizen's Movement party, Irais Reyes, said this was "the most prohibitionist, authoritarian and absurd reform this country has seen in decades. In which world is vaping more dangerous than hitting, humiliating and carrying firearms?"