https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/07/928807/health-minister-withdrawal-nicotine-poisons-act-not-akin-gambling
Firstly I'm so sorry it's an NST link - their news portal is infested with annoying ads that affects readability.
Secondly, I wish our journalists did the work to provide more context. Why is this an issue? What was the objection??
It is just a move to gain popular votes from the people that are benefits from it, the Tabacco industry, the thousands of vape SME.
Maybe the government or the Ministry of Health should consider to impose law that if you are a smoker and or vaping on nicotine, you are not entitle for free/subsidized health care for life. The implementation can be as simple as using existing infrastructure like MySejahtera to register your smoking habit, you show your ID and scan every time your purchase a pack or any amount of nicotine, it aggregates the data and show the projection of the probability of your life expectancy, the more transactions the more less likely the government gonna lay eyes on you.
You made your decision to smoke, right ?
Thanks for the added context, that's useful! I'm of a different opinion on the function of public healthcare though, thank you
Some additional contexts from Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye [1].
NO one said vaping is a safe alternative to smoking.
So why are we now legitimising vaping when we are taking steps to introduce an anti-smoking law?
Currently, the law regarding the possession, distribution, and advertisement of electronic smoking devices (ESD) is too loose, allowing underage citizens to freely buy the products either at physical stores or online platforms.
Youths and children are easily attracted to ESD, commonly known as vapes, as they perceive the device as “the lesser evil”, cool and “harmless”.
Long story short, the move is viewed as a giant-ass obvious eyesore trojan horse for the Generational Endgame Bill which aims to stop and prevent smoking and vaping among children and teenagers, our future generations.
[1] https://www.thesundaily.my/opinion/support-the-generational-endgame-bill-GK10927515
For healthcare related news, to go Code Blue: https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2023/07/03/in-historic-lawsuit-health-minister-sued-for-delisting-liquid-nicotine/
Basically aside from opening up nicotin gel to be taxed, it also opens up the possibility of openly selling it to minors. This is in direct conflict with efforts put forward by the GEG bill.
Ok, back. I'll have to reread closer. Full disclosure: I (personally) don't trust boo su lyn - she's known right-wing NRA (yes, gun rights of America ppl) supporter and basically a Malaysian Republican imo. And her articles on code blue all come from the pov of ultimately a privatised healthcare system ala USA is the most efficient solution. So I'm gonna have to parse thru what's actually going on vs her presentation of the facts.
(What's the diff between her and Ian Miles Cheong? She's actually been to the US.)
This report should shine some light
Yeah, its confusing. What I understand after reading this is that this allows liquid nicotine in vape juice to be taxed just like tobacco. However, nicotine itself is still in the Poison Act.
thank you so much! if that's the case, then i'm not sure what's the exact phrasing/grounds for the objections from the 'health ngos'.... is it the ratio/volume? hmm...
Probably because the delisting is not follwed by any effort to make it a controlled substance at least? Just my guess.