SINGAPORE – Adults who involve young people or vulnerable persons in smuggling or supplying Kpods will be jailed for up to 20 years and given up to 15 strokes of the cane.
And any adult who has a Kpod but does not try to prevent a young person from using it can be jailed for up to 10 years.
These are some of the new anti-vaping laws passed on March 6, which are expected to come into force from May 1.
The new Tobacco and Vaporisers Control Act was amended via the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) (Amendment) and Other Matters Bill.
Previously called the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act, the renamed Act strengthens enforcement against vaping and Kpods, which are vapes laced with the
anaesthetic agent etomidate
.
Under the new laws, entertainment venues such as
clubs and bars
must stop patrons from vaping and require them to discard their devices. These places can eject such patrons from their premises.
Those driving into Singapore and found with vapes in their vehicles can also no longer claim they did not know the devices were there to avoid legal responsibility.
Instead, the onus is on them to prove that they did not know about the devices.
Penalties for vape offences have
been raised significantly
under the Act, to five times for users, 20 times for sellers and 30 times for smugglers.
This means vape users face fines of up to $10,000, while sellers can be handed fines of up to $200,000 and six years’ jail.
Smugglers can be fined up to $300,000 and jailed for nine years.
Currently, vape users face a maximum fine of $2,000, while distributors, importers and sellers of vapes and their components face jail time of up to six months and a fine of up to $10,000.
banned in Singapore in 2018.
But for years, many people vaped in public with recent reports of Kpod users behaving like “zombies”, suffering from seizures and psychotic episodes.
