VAPING AND THE TOBACCO BAN

[Mr. B]

Hi all,

I've had a thought lingering in my mind for about a week now and thought I would share on the forum.

Disclaimer: whilst this content of this post is legal in nature, I by no means purport to be a legal expert. I do dabble in bits of legislation for my work but do not have extensive formal legal training.

Ok.... here goes:

The tobacco ban was implemented with the start of the nationwide lock down following the declaration of COVID-19 as a national disaster. Sales of vape related products containing nicotine were lumped into this ban and vape retailers have observed this by not selling any e-liquid containing nicotine.

My question is: are vape retailers truly obliged to adhere to this tobacco ban? Tobacco products are currently controlled by the "Tobacco Products Control Act" of 1993. In this existing legislation, vaping is not considered (for obvious reasons) and is therefore not classified as a tobacco product. On 9 May 2018, a draft bill was released titled "Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems" which includes vaping and electronic cigarettes, but given that this draft bill hasn't been promulgated into law it cannot be relied upon.

In conclusion: can vape retailers not commence selling e-liquid containing nicotine on the grounds that vaping is not a tobacco product and therefore is not included the tobacco ban due to the draft bill not having been promulgated into law?

Perhaps some forumites with more legal knowledge can weigh in on this? Or maybe some big retailers can can pool together and get a legal opinion from an attorney?

 

[Christos]

Hi all,

I've had a thought lingering in my mind for about a week now and thought I would share on the forum.

Disclaimer: whilst this content of this post is legal in nature, I by no means purport to be a legal expert. I do dabble in bits of legislation for my work but do not have extensive formal legal training.

Ok.... here goes:

The tobacco ban was implemented with the start of the nationwide lock down following the declaration of COVID-19 as a national disaster. Sales of vape related products containing nicotine were lumped into this ban and vape retailers have observed this by not selling any e-liquid containing nicotine.

My question is: are vape retailers truly obliged to adhere to this tobacco ban? Tobacco products are currently controlled by the "Tobacco Products Control Act" of 1993. In this existing legislation, vaping is not considered (for obvious reasons) and is therefore not classified as a tobacco product. On 9 May 2018, a draft bill was released titled "Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems" which includes vaping and electronic cigarettes, but given that this draft bill hasn't been promulgated into law it cannot be relied upon.

In conclusion: can vape retailers not commence selling e-liquid containing nicotine on the grounds that vaping is not a tobacco product and therefore is not included the tobacco ban due to the draft bill not having been promulgated into law?

Perhaps some forumites with more legal knowledge can weigh in on this? Or maybe some big retailers can can pool together and get a legal opinion from an attorney?

Hi @Mr. B, your argument does indeed make a whole lot of sense and I do agree with it, if i recall correctly, there were about 17 000 submissions made for the lifting of the vaping ban when we were moving from lvl5 to lvl4 and the announcement on what would be banned under lvl4 explicitly included vaping in the text.

 

[Mr. B]

Hi @Mr. B, your argument does indeed make a whole lot of sense and I do agree with it, if i recall correctly, there were about 17 000 submissions made for the lifting of the vaping ban when we were moving from lvl5 to lvl4 and the announcement on what would be banned under lvl4 explicitly included vaping in the text.

Wait. I see I missed something after reading your post.

Vaping is explicitly mentioned in the lock down regulations in the Government Gazette; so my argument is invalid.

if it were "tobacco products" only then my argument could have made sense but vaping it is a separately listed item so the regulations do apply.

 

[Adephi]

When the lockdown got extended the President and NDZ mentioned e-cigarettes specifically.

You can only buy it for medicinal reasons, hence why CBD now has to ge bought.

 

[Darius1332]

NDZ would probably ban braais if she could, anything that looks like smoke she hates.