I don't smoke, vapes or otherwise. However, I do hang out in places where smoking is allowed and cigarette smokers get on my nerves. While the rest of the world bans smoking indoors Vietnam seems to actually embrace it. If you are a smoker than this country would seem like a wonderful place but for those of us that don't smoke, and don't like to be around smoke, this absolutely sucks. If I go to my local pub for a few hours when I get home my clothes stink and I don't like it at all.
Vapes on the other hand tend to smell like candy if they have any odor at all and sometimes I actually quite like how it improves the smell of the area that I am in.
I was enjoying how most of my smoker friends had transitioned to vapes because now I didn't have to be stinky just because I went to a public place to socialize.
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Just like I think the rest of the world, vapes or e-ciggies have exploded in popularity and since I prefer to be around them, I was really happy to see this happen. Well unfortunately for all the vapers and for people like me, the Vietnamese government is going to ban the sale of them starting next year.
They do this under the guise of looking out for public health, but I don't believe that for a second since cigarettes are available everywhere for less than a dollar a pack and you are allowed to smoke almost anywhere. I don't think the government, especially a government that doesn't have any public health service, actually gives a damn about the health of the people. They haven't said a lot about their reasoning to the public and because this is a communist country they aren't obligated to do so. When something like this is passed down by the government in Vietnam, you don't ask questions or complain because at best the government isn't going to care, at worst they are going to silence you by force.
I think the real reason why they are banning vapes is because they have become more popular than cigarettes and therefore the giant tobacco companies in Vietnam are losing money and well, we can't have that now can we?
I have no idea what health risks vapes carry along with them but I am sure they are not good for you because how can a liquid that is heated up and inhaled possibly not be bad for you? I don't like corruption though and this to me is clearly what this ban is all about.
I feel bad for the vape shops that have recently opened up here locally as well as the girls who travel around to bars selling vapes for a tiny bit of money. These people will all be forced out of business.
Not only will they ban the retail sale of vapes but they are also going to make a task force to punish anyone that imports or sells them illegally, which would be at all.
And I suppose the really bad side-effect for non-smokers like me is that now all the pubs are going to be loaded up with ciggy smoke instead of the air-freshener that is a strawberry vape pen.
While it may irritate some smokers, I wish that the government here would tax ciggies more. In this day and age having cigarettes be less than $1 a pack shows that the government truly isn't interested in curbing the habits of people and perhaps their buddies who own the cigarette industry are giving a ton of money to elected officials to insure that they never do.
I like freedom, but that is not what this is when you ban something that is essentially the same thing as something that you don't ban. It's all a pack of lies!
So just be warned if you are traveling here in the near future that the airports are probably going to be on high alert for anyone traveling in with a vape of some sort, then in about 5 months or so they will go back to not giving a damn.