MORE than 120 shops selling electronic cigarettes received a rude shock in the new year when the Health Ministry launched a nationwide raid against vape retailers and liquid processing factories earlier this week.

Merchandise and processing equipment were seized in the raids, resulting in losses of tens of thousands of ringgit for the business owners.

The affected retailers and producers have slammed the raids and seizures as unfair, especially as the authorities have yet to issue the guidelines and regulations on the production and sale of e-cigarettes.

“We are not stopping the authorities from doing their jobs, but there aren’t even guidelines for vape sellers to follow,” said E-vaporisers and Alternative Tobacco Association (Mevta) president Rizani Zakaria.

He said the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism (KPDNKK) Ministry was in the final stages of drafting guidelines for the selling of vape and electronic cigarettes.

Rizani said members of Mevta have reported losses of up to tens of thousands of ringgit as a result of the raids, believed to be the largest such operation since 2015.

“We understand that the Health Ministry is just doing its job, but we were promised there would be no more raids until the guidelines are released,” said Malaysian Organisation of Vape Entities (MOVE) president Samsul Kamal Arifin.

“This move is unfair; they just seize without any warning,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Unclear guidelines

One of the business owners affected by last week’s raid said he had lost hundreds of thousands of ringgit as a result of the recent and 2015 raids

“The industry is still waiting for the guidelines from the ministry, and the Ministry of Health launches this raid before the guidelines are even out,” said the retailer, who wished to be known as Shahrom.

“We just want justice, not this kind of enforcement,” he said.

Shahrom claimed to have lost merchandise and vaping liquids worth hundreds of thousands of ringgit when the liquids were confiscated on suspicion they contained nicotine.

In last week’s raid, Shahrom said his losses amounted to only aboutn RM4,000 as 200 imported vape flavours were seized by the Health Ministry officials.

“The market is only just picking up, but whenever a raid like this is launched by the ministrys, it will scare off consumers and business will continue to suffer,” he said.

Shahrom claimed individuals who identified themselves as Health Ministry officials from Putrajaya and Selangor raided his premises at 2.30pm on Monday.

“The ministry didn’t give us a chance at all. The least they can do is put up a warning notice and take action only if retailers flout their guidelines.

“If it’s cosmetics products containing poisons, the ministry will list them out and businesses must recall the products. Whoever does not comply will have action taken against them.

“Not in this case – they just raided immediately,” he said.

Another vape vendor in Petaling Jaya said he lost about RM12,000 when 214 bottles of imported vape flavours were seized by the Health Ministry early this week on the suspicion that they contained nicotine.

“There are still not guidelines on the sale of liquid nicotine. We were waiting for the final say before deciding on how we can continue running our business,” said Bryan Mohamed. 

“When we met KPDNKK, they said they will release a warning and promised not to conduct raids and seizures, so we were quite surprised when they turned up and starting seizing our merchandise,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The Malaysian Insight’s attempts for confirmation from Health Ministry officials was unsuccessful.

The vape industry enjoyed a boom in mid-2015, with shops selling the equipment and vaping liquids doing brisk businesses thanks to increased demand.

However, the mushrooming of vape businesses led to complaints that some vendors were using banned substances such as marijuana in their vape liquids.

In December 2015, an anti-narcotics division from Bukit Aman intercepted large quantities of vape liquids containing banned substances meant for the Klang Valley market.

States such as Johor and Kelantan responded to the discovery by banning vaping. – February 3, 2018.