Major blow to vape industry

The Russian State Duma (the Parliament) has already enacted a bill tightening control over sale and promotion of vaping products.

Authors of the legislative texts are members of the Federation Council, Valery Ryazanskiy and Igor Chernyshev. They believe that there is an urgent need to tighten control over the devices and restrict their sales to minors, who may eventually shift from electronic cigarettes to tobacco products.

First of all e-cigs will be banned for use in public transport, governmental, educational and health facilities and other public places.

The officials also try to prevent any association of electronic cigs with tobacco products. In this regard they prohibited placement of logo or other design elements on e-devices, if company is also dealing with tobacco.

Favorite argument of businessmen in support of vaping, namely calling vape healthy alternative to smoking, is going to be banned as well.

Lawbreakers will be fined – from 500 to 1500 rubles. Moreover, if you decide to enjoy vape clouds on playgrounds, you will receive fine, amounting to 2000 – 3000 rubles. Punished will be also those engaging minors in vaping. In case of wholesale or retail sales the penalty is going to be from 5 to 150 thousand rubles.

It is unclear what researches were taken into account while making such a decision. Maybe the reason of the ban is the fact that a number of countries agreed that vaping is harmful. Perhaps Russia decided to join the trend and drafted the bill. Currently strict ban for vape device sales is applied in Denmark, Canada, Italy and other countries.

Certain difficulties for the authorities arise due to the lack of obvious links between tobacco and electronic cigarettes. Despite similar method of consumption, tobacco products are based on plant components - tobacco leaves. It is this component that determines the fact that the product requires certification, excise tax and control. Such list of products includes tobacco cigarettes as well as hookah, pipe and snuff tobacco. In their turn components for eliquids are commercially available and are the result of laboratory research and synthesis. Therefore, creation of almost harmless vape liquid became quite a feasible issue. However chemical compounds resulting from tobacco combustion are not fully studied yet. Thus we may conclude that when using proven liquids from well-known manufacturers you always know the composition of the inhaled vapor, but to check the origin and quality of tobacco in the cigarette is almost impossible.

Despite many disputes, there are almost no doubts that the bill will be promoted in the Parliament. Let’s hope that this will not lead to complete disappearance of the industry in Russia. Today vape community has the potential to withstand the letter of the law and we fully support it.