4 hours ago, webfact said:

In the UK, a travel agent, Pat Waterton, says the law is clear but that more tourists need to know about it. It comes after her nephew had been threatened with time in prison for smoking an electronic cigarette in Bangkok. In the end he was only fined the equivalent of $150.

Really? The law for vaping in public is clear? Could someone provide a link to that law and the official penalties associated with it? There has been a lot of talk about this and alarmist articles written, but to date I have never seen the law as written.

 

In 2014 it was deemed illegal to import vaping equipment. They did this because they hadn't got their act together as to how to tax it. However, since then i have purchased, in Thailand, several e-cigs and liquid from well recognized brand names without a problem and without importing them. I have e-cigs still from before 2014.

 

Where do I stand with this 'clear law'?

50 minutes ago, Eligius said:

I can't stand vaping - that huge amount of steam/smoke that is emitted by these things is positively anti-social, and it annoys me hugely (as a total non-smoker). I am often exposed to young Thais blowing all this stuff in my face.

 

BUT the draconian punishments threatened for vaping are stratospherically ridiculous - utterly laughable; but then, the whole of Thai officialdom and 'rule-making' (and coup-making - for which no one is even fined a single baht, let alone gets imprisoned!) is beyond a joke.

 

So: for me, vaping is an annoyance - but the Thais should immediately get rid of these ludicrous (corruption-inviting) threatened punishments.

This. Ten years in prison? What for? Health reasons? Jumping in front of a train isn't going to do you any good either, and is pretty antisocial if you ask me, but the penalty for doing so is what? The whole thing is completely mental.

2 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

how many have been locked up for 10 years for vaping ?

 

That's not the right question.   A better question would be how much tea money has been extorted from naive tourists, and how many very expensive holidays have been ruined by officials threatening a 10 year sentence if payment isn't forthcoming?

 

Unless you want to risk being the unlucky guy caught vaping on the day that a government official decides to make an example of some poor schleppe who doesn't pay up.

 

I have heard that there are vested interests involved regarding tobacco companies and those on the pay roll. In Thailand, everything ultimately is about money, money, money!

Except for work!


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It is all about protecting the Thai tobacco monopoly, at all costs. If you do not buy Thai cigarettes, or cigs that are officially sold and taxed in Thailand, you are outside of the law. Anything, and everything to insure cash flow, at a great cost of human life. The government has no business selling tobacco to begin with. Wrong, just plain wrong, on every level. The laws and the sales. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

ten years in a Thai prison

It's better to drive a car with a brake failure....you don't risk any time in prison.

2 hours ago, Kieranmc said:

I totally agree with the law but i also believe smoking in general should be banned. 

You are as entitled to your opinion as anyone else but come on, don't you think 10 years in prison is just a little drastic?

Makes me wince when I hear expats say how they hate their nanny state country of origin

then see things like this

However, back on Sukhumvit in the afternoon when vendors set up (probably illegally)....vaping devices are clearly on display for sale in all shapes and sizes!

i vape and have done for a couple of years. buy my stuff online from a well known website here in thailand that if the bib really wanted to, could have shut down a long time ago. office block where i used to work had more thais vaping than smoking. still not really being enforced as far as i can see buy i try to be discreet now just to avoid being fined by some thieving copper. at the end of the day it's better than smoking. thailands not alone in banning it to protect the tobacco monopolies and will one day legalize it along with phillip morris' IQOS which still uses tobacco and is as expensive as smoking cigarettes but far less harmful. i would have thought so anyway. everyone knows it's all about the money here and everywhere really. the UK allows them i believe as the NHS would be less stressed with smoking related illnesses. this place as we know is a little backwards and that's the way i like it really. posted this before but since it's on the subject again https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/promote-e-cigarettes-widely-substitute-smoking-says-new-rcp-report

1 hour ago, robertthesculptor said:

Don't do it, but this is just plain reactionary and not supported by the current best studies...it is just being heavy handed for no rational reason

Theres a perfectly rational reason for it if you're a shareholder in the Thai tobacco monopoly, & put greed before morality, which is pretty normal in the country that worships the great god Baht...   

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

I hope all vapers stop coming to Thailand until the law is changed. It will be changed, it's just a matter of when.

 

Ouch ! that will really hit the tourist industry and teach the Thai's a lesson 

No need to smoke here anyway. Just go up north and inhale absolutely free of charge (and fines). I wonder if the influentials burning down forests and endless corn fields already have a strategy to fork in on the smoke they provide.

I can see an awful lot of election candidates in the coming months suddenly found to have vapes on them !

5 hours ago, petedk said:

 

 

Correct: Most tourists don't know about the law, but they forgot to add that many Thais don't know about the law either.

 

I think on a daily basis I see more Thais vaping than I do foreigners.

 

Maybe I should take a photo and post on Facebook like they do when foreigners do something wrong. 

My thought exactly...

 

Why again the tourists.. If they are serious and arrested the vapers, Thai prisons would be full in a day with the locals...

2 hours ago, Eligius said:

I have heard that there are vested interests involved regarding tobacco companies and those on the pay roll. In Thailand, everything ultimately is about money, money, money!

"In Thailand, everything ultimately is about money, money, money!"  

Only in Thailand??????????????????????????????????????????????

22 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

"In Thailand, everything ultimately is about money, money, money!"  

Only in Thailand??????????????????????????????????????????????

prolly in these banned countries as well.

 

Argentina

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Brunei

Cambodia

Columbia

Egypt

Indonesia

Jordan

Malaysia

Mexico

Oman

Panama

Singapore

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Thailand

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

Uraguay

Venezula

12 minutes ago, Techno Viking said:

prolly in these banned countries as well.

 

Argentina

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Brunei

Cambodia

Columbia

Egypt

Indonesia

Jordan

Malaysia

Mexico

Oman

Panama

Singapore

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Thailand

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

Uraguay

Venezula

All the countries listed (except Austria, Belgium and Singapore) are among the most backward and corrupt countries in the world.

All countries where the leaders (few of them elected) are expecting kickbacks from the tobacco industry....

2 hours ago, chrisinth said:

Really? The law for vaping in public is clear? Could someone provide a link to that law and the official penalties associated with it? There has been a lot of talk about this and alarmist articles written, but to date I have never seen the law as written.

 

In 2014 it was deemed illegal to import vaping equipment. They did this because they hadn't got their act together as to how to tax it. However, since then i have purchased, in Thailand, several e-cigs and liquid from well recognized brand names without a problem and without importing them. I have e-cigs still from before 2014.

 

Where do I stand with this 'clear law'?

Clear law?? the law is what the big cheese says it is and depends on what day and his/her/its frame of mind..or  how  much cash you have.

They can save thousands of lives and they get banned!

3 minutes ago, JOC said:

All the countries listed (except Austria, Belgium and Singapore) are among the most backward and corrupt countries in the world.

All countries where the leaders (few of them elected) are expecting kickbacks from the tobacco industry....

They may be banned but are still generally tolerated in privacy.

 

Nowhere is there the same draconian law as in Thailand.

 

Australia is set to allow them now that they are known to be safe.

14 minutes ago, kannot said:

Clear law?? the law is what the big cheese says it is and depends on what day and his/her/its frame of mind..or  how  much cash you have.

And therein is the problem. How can you justify a judicial system if the only references are made up ones, on the spur of the moment, and not written into the constitution? 

 

How does that get even close to being legal?

 

And just for clarity, I do still use e-cigarettes but only at home or at my place of work. I am seriously interested in where these laws, that can lead to a 10 year prison sentence, are written down.

There is a large bar area in Jomtien where sheesha pipes are handed out to customers who like them. Quite openly.

Whatever about it being illegal but who in the name of Christ comes up with the penalties?

 

Someone guided by the TTM perhaps.....

5 hours ago, jvs said:

I wonder what vaping on the beach can get you.

10 years in jail, apparently

9 hours ago, ukrules said:

This situation is pathetic.

 

I hope all vapers stop coming to Thailand until the law is changed. It will be changed, it's just a matter of when.

Well, that would be one way of not being compelled to avoid the bonfire smoke they produce. The other, of course, would be for vapers to not vape on holiday. Hardly a major challenge I should have thought.

6 hours ago, Kieranmc said:

I totally agree with the law but i also believe smoking in general should be banned. 

Believing in the law is one thing... and ok... no problems

disliking smoking is ok too... no problems

but....  what about the penalty... do you believe that to be appropriate... and/ or in line with other punishments for various offenses?

i ask, because that’s really the big issue here

Was in Savannakhet, Laos, Mon-Tues, the long haired locals, musicians, students et al, are all right on it.

Seems vaping is popular here. But then Laos, as a country, and it's leadership and people, seem a bit more sane and sensible compared to their Thai brothers and sisters.

we all know the tobacco companies are behind this BS...how about sending irresponsible drivers to jail instead of worrying about vapors

8 hours ago, geronimo said:

That would be when the Tobacco Monopoly stops crying and mans up!

The logical step would be for the Tobacco Monopoly to start selling e-cigarettes and the liquids that go with them.

 

Of course this dumb law prevents them from doing this.