KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) chairman Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj today said that a ban on the sale and use of vape products in Malaysia would amount to criminalising personal habits.
Dr Jeyakumar said the government’s proposed ban represented an over-reach of state authority.
“Put bluntly, an individual should have the right to engage in an activity even if it is bad for his/her health, as long as that activity does not adversely affect others,” he said in a statement.
“The state can advise, cajole and persuade him or her but it should not coerce the individual to live ‘healthily’ by criminalising that activity,” he added.
He also said that a ban on vape products could set a precedent for criminalisation of other harmful consumables such as sugar and alcohol.
“If vaping can be criminalized, then why not the consumption of alcohol? It too has significant adverse effects on a person’s health. And what about sugar consumption? Or being obese?” he said.
Dr Jeyakumar said whenever a habit like vaping, alcohol consumption or smoking is criminalised, it is rarely eradicated but instead driven underground, allowing criminals to profit from supplying it.
“The banned product will be distributed ‘illegally’ and probably at higher prices,” he said.
“Youth ‘rebelling’ against the status quo will be attracted to vaping as it then becomes an expression of anti-establishment sentiment,” he added.
He urged those pushing for coercive legislation — such as banning vape products and the proposed generational end game policy that seeks to ban tobacco sales to anyone born after 2007 — to reconsider.
“Criminalising unhealthy personal habits should not be the way to go, unless we do not mind steering our society towards an Orwellian ‘1984′-type situation,” he said, referring to George Orwell’s novel on authoritarian control.
On August 23, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said a Cabinet memorandum on banning electronic cigarettes and vaping would be tabled before the Cabinet by the end of this year at the latest.
