No, this is common sense. Prohibition does not work, it just creates black markets. Proof? Almost every large criminal enterprise since the 1920s has been born of prohibition. From the Mafia to the South American drug cartels, prohibition has ALWAYS failed to curb drink / drug use and abuse. Proof? The vaping situation in Thailand! And yes, hard drug use and abuse should not be a criminal matter. It is a matter of public health and requires education. No mentally healthy, well informed adult would deliberately cause themselves harm - ask yourself why so many people do cause themselves harm by abusing drugs. See my many, many past posts on the subject beforehand if you disagree and want to argue. I applaud the Thai authorities for having a rethink on their vaping policy. The current, absurd situation has gone on long enough - countless people are using unregulated products that can poison or even explode. At best, only super high strength, fruit and menthol flavours are available on the black market; so there is no option for users to wean themselves off by slowly reducing the nicotine strength, the fruit flavours are the ones that appeal to kids and the menthol flavours are of questionable toxicity. Thus, prohibition is causing unecessary health risks and harming public health by leaving vapers with only the worst choices of products. This product range is chosen by criminals who profit enormously from finding countless ways to circumnavigate naive laws that, whilst intended to protect, actually cause more harm. It is high time the reality of the situation was addressed. Vaping is a less harmful than cigarettes (fact) and nictotine addicts should not be denied the choice of nicotine delivery system, pure and simple.
