Brazil’s public health agency, ANVISA, has been consulting on whether the long-standing policy of prohibition of vaping products should be retained or lifted. The consultation questionnaire seeks comments on a technical document.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Brazilian authorities have allowed too much tobacco control prohibitionist rhetoric and pseudoscience to influence their posture.
The basic options are:
- Maintain prohibition
- Maintain prohibition but with enhanced communication and education
- Legalise and regulate the manufacture, import and sale of vaping products.
The fundamental issue is that the Brazilian authorities are not recognising the interaction between smoking and smoke-free products – i.e. tobacco harm reduction. This plays out in the market and beneficially affects public health. Nor are they adequately addressing the perverse consequences of prohibition – black markets, unregulated supply, denying law-abiding smokers better options. Instead, they appear to believe that people just need more education (i.e. to be fed with anti-vaping propaganda and falsehoods) in order to support the prohibition and to reduce the demand.
Clive Bates – The Counterfactual – 2022-05-10.
Want More Investigative Content?
