Mexico’s President has determined that a ban on vapes and heated tobacco products should not only be an absurd law but become an absurd part of the constitution. Obviously, this is a terrible mistake on multiple levels.
I write to Members of the Chamber of Senators of the Honourable Congress of the Union, Mexico, with five points for legislators to consider.
Letter in PDF format
Formal letter in English & Spanish here
Carta formal en inglés y español aquí
Video
Also, I recorded a video on YouTube: Five brief arguments against Mexico’s constitutional ban on vapes and heated tobacco
Letter text in English
9th December 2024
To: Members of the Chamber of Senators of the Honourable Congress of the Union, Mexico
My name is Clive Bates. I am the former Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), a former senior civil servant, and I now run a consultancy independent of tobacco and nicotine interests.
I would like to suggest five main reasons for you to consider opposing the proposed constitutional ban on e-cigarette and heated tobacco products. There is no doubt that these products are far less harmful than cigarettes, and to ban them would do more harm than good.
- Supporting the cigarette trade. A ban on far safer alternatives to cigarettes makes no sense while cigarettes are available everywhere. A ban will increase smoking, nourish the cigarette trade, and make it harder for Mexican citizens to reduce their risk of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease. There is no case for supporting the tobacco industry in this way.
- Criminalising supply. A ban on vapes does not make the products somehow disappear. It means they will now be supplied illegally through opportunists, criminal networks, and cartels. That also means more violence, extortion and corruption.
- An unregulated market. A ban means the regulator becomes powerless, and the market becomes wholly unregulated. Dangerous and poor-quality products will enter Mexico illegally and may include products used for illicit drugs such as fentanyl. A ban is not about getting tough; it means walking away from responsibility.
- Closing businesses and turning young people into dealers. Prohibition allows only criminal supply and will close law-abiding, pro-health Mexican businesses, drawing in young people as dealers as well as consumers.
- A foreign interference operation. Mexican politicians and the media should be aware of foreign influences on these decisions via the American billionaire foundation pushing a well-funded ideological prohibition agenda while opposing pragmatic solutions. Based in New York, Bloomberg Philanthropies recently offered grants to support the ban in Mexico and a similar policy in Brazil. Why would anyone welcome highly funded American interference in Mexican politics and policy?
My closing message to Mexico’s political and public health leadership: don’t do this. It will do far more harm than good. It is not hard to predict what can and will go wrong (see above). A policy like this should be easily reversible in the light of evidence and experience.
Yours sincerely
Clive Bates
Director
Counterfactual, London
