Mexico's smoking rates have stagnated, so why is the government insisting on amending their constitution to ban vapes? Tomás O'Gorman joins us to explain these latest developments in Mexico in this brand new episode of GFN News!
Chapters:
0:00 - Coming up on today's programme 0:45 - Mexico's vape ban explained 4:48 - Mexico amends constitution 6:05 - How is Mexico enforcing this ban? 9:39 - Is Mexico ignoring THR? 11:18 - Could safer products help shift Mexico's smoking rates? 14:00 - Misinformation impacts public perceptions 15:04 - Snus fails to break throughTranscription:
00:04
Joanna Junak: Hello and welcome! I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.TV. At the end of last year, Mexico's Congress approved a constitutional reform banning the production, distribution and sale of e-cigarettes. Tomás O'Gorman, a lawyer, vaping advocate and co-founder of the advocacy group Probapero Mexico, discussed this previously on GFN.TV. The new law came into effect in January this year. Shortly after this, we contacted Thomas to ask for an update on the situation in Mexico and the potential consequences this move could have on the use of safer nicotine products in the country. Hello, Thomas. First of all, can you tell us what changes did Mexico's president propose? And why did they create confusion in spreading these regulations?
01:14
Tomás O'Gorman: The former president, López Obrador, wanted to ban vaping. And for that purpose, he filed a bill in order to amend the Constitution last year. And during November, the Congress passed. and the ruling party, which has a supermajority in Mexico, they approved such a bill, but with some obscure amendments. The reform of the Constitution was published last Friday, and therefore it came into effect on Saturday. We just have this new ruling in our Constitution. But the thing is that during the process, the legislators changed the word prohibition of commercialization and they changed the wording of the reform in order to sanction any activity related to vaping. So the problem we are facing now, and that the same might be or might give us some light at the end of the tunnel, is that the word sanction can be understood as punishment and therefore they can even ban the use of these products. But at the same time, the word sanction in Spanish and I guess in other languages also means some way of approval or authorization of the use of something or of a custom or even a formal rule. So at the end, we are in an undefined situation. And this is because in Mexico, when a rule is introduced, is placed within the Constitution, the rule by itself does not generate the obligation of the people to do something. It needs to be implemented through secondary laws. So the Congress must issue the laws in order to implement the Constitution modification. the modification to the constitution and uh in in this regard and having such an obscure uh wording in the reform we don't know what the legislators will do next uh we understand that at the moment the ruling party wants to to ban vaping uh we don't know now the extent of such ban they might keep it as it was originally planned as a ban on commercialization But at the end, the reform of the Constitution itself does not include the word prohibition, does not include the word ban. As I was explaining, it uses the word sanction. And at least I'm trying to be positive At the end, it might give us the chance to, at some point, maybe not with this regime, but at some point, and if this rule stays in the Mexican Constitution, to obtain a better regulation, as the Constitution is not technically banning the commercialization of vaping. It is a very obscure, it's almost an... not understandable wording. It's a pretty bad result, the wording they used. But at the end, they still are talking about banning, at least in media or in interviews.
04:46
Joanna Junak: Okay, so which products are banned under the newly approved law?
04:51
Tomás O'Gorman: Yes, the wording is also not very clear. Of course, electronic cigarettes are banned. And regarding heated tobacco products, the amendment is not quite clear. So I guess it will depend on what the legislators want to do at the moment. They elaborate and issue the secondary laws. SNUS is not prohibited, but SNUS is not used in Mexico. And nicotine pouches are not prohibited, at least not under the wording of the amendment. That does not mean that they cannot try to ban them in the secondary laws, but they are being sold right now, legally, I guess. So... Basically, what the former president wanted to ban and the current regime wants to please this guy is to ban vaping.
05:59
Joanna Junak: And how could the constitutional change impact the future of the e-cigarette market in Mexico? And can we expect changes in the black market as a result?
06:13
Tomás O'Gorman: Well, regarding the black market, If you let me explain something. Actually, the commercialization of vaping products has been banned in Mexico since around 2010. So we have been dealing with this provision for the last 15 years. The thing is that before the current regime came into power six years ago, we had the provision, but the government did not enforce it very strongly. So that allowed... allowed us to have some kind of unregulated market with several vape shops. And as you know, most vape shops are run by vapers, which are great guys wanting to, yes, to make some money, to have a business, but at the same time, they want to help others because most of these guys quit smoking by vaping. The problem that we have been facing since six years ago is that the current government started to enforce more heavily the existing ban at the point that after the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico ruled that the ban was unconstitutional and that it affected human rights, particularly the freedom of commerce. The president in 2022, the former president, re-banned the commercialization of vaping by a decree. And because of this stronger or harsher activity from the government against the vaping stores, the vaping shops, and the vaping businesses, what happened is that the black market became stronger, I guess. And because we have a lot of problems regarding organized crime, It has been reported by vapers and by stores in the states of the country that the organized crime is taking this activity and they want to sell vapes. We have had some arsons in Tijuana last year. The kind of similar of the very sad situation that is happening in Australia. In another state, in Sinaloa, the members of what apparently is the Organized Crime Commission attack to university students that were selling vapes. And there have been some media or journal reports explaining how the organized crime is taking this activity. So for the moment, that is what it is being explained in newspapers and in the news. I guess that this situation might get more problematic if the current government insists on banning. As I was telling you, we have the window at least that under the constitutional amendment, it is possible to interpret the wording as an authorization in order to regulate and not to ban, but that will depend on what the legislators do.
09:38
Joanna Junak: Harm reduction, especially in the context of smoking and vaping, focuses on reducing health risks. So how is Mexico's reform perceived in terms of harm reduction in the country?
09:53
Tomás O'Gorman: The Mexican government historically has not accepted the possibility that the smokers can be held by implementing interventions and rules based on the harm reduction principle. So the thing is that in Mexico we have 17 million of people smoking. and 2 million of people vaping. Most of them, of course, are former smokers or people trying to quit smoking by vaping. And, of course, it is not only this amendment by itself, I guess, that it is all the activities and all the All the actions of the current regime are being directed towards banning and towards not allowing Mexicans to have access to safer nicotine products. So, of course, this reform, as I was telling you, is so obscure that at least what we can accept is that currently the government does not want to implement any rules or any laws in order to introduce the principle of harm reduction within our tobacco regulations. And at least for the moment, they just don't care if people keep dying by smoking or because of smoking.
11:19
Joanna Junak: Looking at what you've just said, doesn't the government see the need to give people better options to stop smoking?
11:27
Tomás O'Gorman: No, no, of course not. Just consider that in 2012, according to the NSUNNOT survey, the smoking rate in the adult population, adults in this survey are people considered from 20 years and above, was, if I remind correctly, 19.9% of the adult population. According to the NSUNNOT survey, the smoking rate in the adult population, adults in this survey are people considered from 20 years and above, was, if I remind correctly, 19.9% of the adult population. And currently, according to the Ensanut 2022, the smoking rate was 19.5%. So this reduction of 0.4% is almost nothing, actually, if you consider the growth of the population. What we can say with total... is that today we have more people smoking in Mexico than the number we had 12 years ago or 13 years ago. So if that is currently happening and the government insists on applying traditional anti-tobacco measures and avoid helping people by implementing harm reduction interventions and harm reduction-based rules, I guess what someone can understand from that is that they just don't care about the lives of smokers because people... still get diseases and still die from smoking. I mean, that problem persists, and especially in a country like Mexico, because we are a medium income country. We are within the LMICs and the problem that smokers face in Mexico is not only the diseases and the deaths that are produced because of the combustible tobacco, but the problem is that they don't have access to health services of quality or good health services. So in these kind of countries, and especially in Mexico, I guess, and in other countries, which is very sad, is that these people suffer twice. They suffer the consequences of smoking, but they also face the consequences of having really poor health systems and health services.
14:00
Joanna Junak: And what about misinformation around vaping in Mexico? Might this impact people's use of nicotine products?
14:08
Tomás O'Gorman: Yes, yes, yes. Not only from the anti-tobacco NGOs. Misinformation is created by the government itself, by Cofepris especially, which is like the health authority that authorizes drugs, etc. Like FDA, like the Mexican FDA, if you want to call it. They have been... insistent on misinforming people since forever, but in a more harsh way in the last six years. So yes, people in Mexico are pretty misinformed about the relative risks of vaping and heated tobacco products, especially because nicotine pouches are quite recent. They are still a very new product, and snus is not used in Mexico.
15:04
Joanna Junak: Do you know why snus is not used in Mexico? Is it due to a lack of information?
15:12
Tomás O'Gorman: Yes. I mean, it's a product from Sweden, as you know. And in Mexico, traditionally, the only way tobacco is consumed is by combusting it. So there is not really a tradition of oral products in Mexico, I guess. So snus is not known here. But now, in regards to other products, nicotine pouches, now you can find them in several convenience stores even. So I guess people will start finding this another option that is being put by the market in their hands. And they might use it in order to avoid smoking and make the switch towards a safer product.
16:04
Joanna Junak: Thank you, Thomas. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. You can also find transcriptions of each episode on the GFN TV website. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.