Advocacy group criticising anti-vape laws in Singapore linked to tobacco company: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE – An advocacy group claiming Singapore’s tough stance on vaping is fearmongering is linked to a tobacco company, the Government has said.

Hitting back at critics who claimed enhanced measures introduced in the wake of a spate of etomidate cases would drive vaping underground, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said the argument is the same one used by those who push for the legalisation of drugs.

The New Zealand-based Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (Caphra) had said in a statement on Aug 18 that Singapore’s anti-vaping policy is regressive and that it “abandons science for fearmongering”.

Speaking on Aug 30 on the sidelines of a Chong Pang grassroots event, Mr Shanmugam said: “They (Caphra) say our approach will make the situation worse, by pushing the market underground. 

“These are the same old, tired arguments – which have been used all along to push for legalising drugs. They are usually made by companies which profit from legalisation or their proxies.

“We take a tough line on drugs, and has that kept our society safe? Now you have less murders, less serious crime. Thousands of young people saved from drugs.”

Mr Shanmugam, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security, said Caphra’s members promote the use of electronic smoking devices such as vapes and heated tobacco products “under the banner of tobacco harm reduction”.

“You can put whatever label you like, but they are basically pushers of tobacco.

“And they seem to be a lobby group for a tobacco company called, most people know, Philip Morris International,” said the minister.

“And they say these ESDs (electronic smoking devices) – electronic way of passing on nicotine – are a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes.

“This is a kind of snake oil that these organisations peddle, and they avoid saying it is harmful in itself,” added Mr Shanmugam.

At the multi-ministry press conference on Aug 28 to

announce a slew of new measures to tackle the vaping scourge

, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung had said that tests showed that one vape pod contains as much nicotine as four packs of cigarettes.

Caphra had issued its statement shortly after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said

in his National Day Rally speech on Aug 17

that vaping, which has been banned since 2018, will be treated as a drug issue, with much stiffer penalties to be imposed.

The advocacy group called the blanket criminalisation of vaping a backward step, saying that adult smokers deserved access to e-vaporisers.

It claimed that vapes have the “potential to save lives”.

Mr Shanmugam noted that the group had also campaigned against the World Health Organisation’s treaty for tobacco control.

He said the group claimed that “vaping is dramatically safer than cigarettes”, and “e-cigarettes are around 95 per cent less harmful”.

“Nicotine-based vapes deliver four packets of cigarettes in one vape. And now, if you have a vape, you can lace it with all sorts of other stuff.

“Can you actually say that is good for you? So you see, essentially they are a tobacco lobby.” 

Citing a United States research paper involving over 16,000 young people, Mr Shanmugam said the studies quoted showed that vape users were three times more likely to become smokers as compared with non-users.

Singapore had enhanced measures after a spate of cases involving young people and vapes laced with the anaesthetic etomidate. Tests conducted here found that

one in three vapes seized was laced with etomidate

.

Caphra’s executive coordinator Nancy Loucas said the move to

list etomidate as a Class C drug

will drive the vaping market further underground in Singapore.

She said: “Whilst we understand concerns about etomidate-laced products, treating all vaping like dangerous drugs flies in the face of successful harm reduction strategies that have transformed public health outcomes worldwide.”

Mr Shanmugam said harm reduction is not for Singapore, and noted that cities in the US are also shifting their position.

He cited a recent New York Times report which stated that some cities and states in the US are moving away from harm reduction programmes.

“This reversal is happening for them after thousands and thousands of lives have been lost. We were saying all along, harm reduction was not the right approach, certainly not for us, and we refused to go down this road,” said Mr Shanmugam.

“I would say to Singaporeans, just because somebody else says it, we don’t need to be colonised in our mind. Just look at the evidence, open your eyes, read.

“Look at what’s happening around the world, look at what’s happening in Singapore.”