Pattaya Police Crack Down
The Pattaya police have conducted a crackdown on illegal vape sales – meanwhile warnings are being issued again the highly toxic air quality and cigarettes remain on sale
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by Dave Cross
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The Pattaya City Police says it worked in conjunction with other agencies to carry out a crackdown on the sale of illegal vapes on Pattaya-Naklua Road, Pattaya Beach Soi 6 and Pattaya Beach Soi 7. They say the action resulted from complaints by members of the public. Meanwhile, residents and tourists are being warned about the highly toxic air quality spreading out from Bangkok and cigarettes (mainly from the state-owned industry) remain on sale.
Thailand has banned the importation and sale of vapes. The ban was so effective, they implemented the ban again. And then again. Each iteration of the ban was accompanied by a crackdown and very public arrests and imprisonments – and warnings to tourists.
The police say they “discovered” vapes being sold by street vendors. They claimed these sales were being conducted “discretely”, but Planet of the Vapes uncovered how the sale of vapes is out in the open and vaping is a popular activity among tourists and Thai ex-smokers.
In total, the police raided three locations, seizing 278 fruit-flavoured vapes and 382 vape pods. Four vendors were arrested.
Pattaya Police say legal proceedings will be taken against the sellers, and officers pledged that enforcement will continue against anyone selling vapes in the region.
Last year, the Ministry of Interior pledged to implement an urgent policy aimed at “eradicating e-cigarettes”. The police’s action in Pattaya demonstrates that vapes have not been eradicated.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Anutin Charnvirakul declared vaping to be “a significant national problem”.
With the authorities in the UK saying vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking and that secondhand vaping is a myth, maybe a more significant national problem in Thailand would be that it had to close 352 schools across 31 districts in the Bangkok Metropolitan area due to air pollution last month.
Rather than address the annual air quality issue, last year Deputy Prime Minister Anutin stated: “E-cigarettes are just as harmful as traditional cigarettes.”
Attacking the reduced harm nicotine product rather than closing the state-owned tobacco company has opened up opportunities for the police in Pattaya other than conducting legal raids. Planet of the Vapes reported how corruption and extortion was taking place.
Rather than promoting vaping, the government and officials have promoted its tobacco industry and attacked ecigs. We reported ThaiHealth’s Dr Surachet Satitniramai saying: “E-cigarettes will have a widespread effect on tobacco farmers in the country. As the materials of e-cigarettes don’t consist of tobacco but chemicals, farmers will suffer income loss. It also affects public health and the government’s plan in steering the economy for agricultural groups.”
Consequently, the advice to holidaymakers is to exercise caution if carrying, using or trying to buy a vape in Pattaya.
Photo Credit:
Image supplied by the Pattaya Police
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
