Vape shops across Malaysia have been raided and their e-liquid inventories confiscated in a joint operation conducted by the police alongside regulators from the Pharmaceutical Services.
The raid was carried out at around 3:00 p.m. (UTC+08:00) and may have hit every single independent vape store in the country.
Not only did the shops have their nicotine juices confiscated, the authorities also took things a step further and demanded that they handover all of their receipts for nicotine liquid purchases as well as the contact information of the vendors that supplied them.
Next in line could be the stocks of e-juice supplies carried by suppliers, however, at this time, there are no reports of vendors having been raided. Not yet, that is.
The move to raid the local vape shops carrying nicotine infused e-liquids comes over a year after the country’s government imposed new regulations on the vaping sector, effectively decimating vaping industry in the country.
Judy Gibson, the secretary general at the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations (INNCO), was quoted by Vaping Post as having said that the authorities “must have been planning” the raid for weeks because they managed to hit every single vape retailer in the country in one fell swoop.
In light of the regulations governing vaping in the country, those caught vaping could be hit with fines as high as $2,300 for a single offense and repeat offenders could wind up in prison for up to two years.
While vaping is not the same as smoking, lawmakers in the country have reportedly set a high goal for the country’s inhabitants: 100% smoke-free by the year 2045.
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