If the health ministry gets its way, Hong Kong may soon outlaw the personal use and ownership of vapes and heated tobacco devices. Since 2022, the nation has outlawed the import and sale of vaping goods.
According to French news agency AFP, health secretary Lo Chung-mau said during a press conference yesterday, "We will fully ban all alternative smoking products." Government authorities refer to nicotine items such as vapes, which don't produce smoke as "alternative smoking products."
Lo expressed his expectation that legislation enacting the ban would be proposed this year. A "blanket ban," including restrictions on the possession and use of the drug by common people, has "become a consensus in society," according to deputy health secretary Eddie Lee.
Hailing from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) situated a short distance south of Shenzhen, the global hub of the vaping industry.
Even China's rigorous internal vaping laws aren't as severe as Hong Kong's, despite China's recent moves to take closer control over Hong Kong. (Vape sales are outlawed in Macau, another SAR in China.)
According to AFP, anyone who is found importing vaping items may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison and fines of two million Hong Kong dollars, or around $256,000 in the United States. Sellers on the black market may get a six-month prison sentence.
It's unclear whether the health ministry intends to impose additional sanctions on vapers who are found using them or if it wants to apply the same penalties that apply to commercial offenders on individuals.
Seventy-four million people call Hong Kong home, crammed into an area just 400 square miles to the south of mainland China. Since 1997, China has maintained authority of it.
While a number of nations have banned e-cigarettes in some capacity, few have made possession illegal, as Hong Kong intends to do.
