Proposed Thai Laws for Vaping in Thailand

What a bunch of crap, and he calls himself a doctor, he should feel ashamed of himself seriously.

I encourage everyone to spam his tweeter here :

Prakit Vathesatogkit (@Prakit_ASH) | Twitter

He desserves it.

 

"Doctor" is a title here, and some are very proud of this title.
it's even in the traditional way of speaking: doctor massage: mo nuad, doctor fortune teller: mo do, dentist: mo fan
I know for sure that some members of TV, who will merit the honorary title of "doctor vape"

 

From 2013

"ASH Thailand once considered calling for a ban on the use of menthol in cigarettes but halted the plan after opposition by local and international tobacco companies.

Prakit said menthol made smoking more popular because it eased irritation while being inviting to young smokers".

We wouldn't want to upset the tobacco companies now would we Dr. Pakrit

Oh and the young...we need to protect them, heaven forbid what they would do if they didn't have access to vaping.

Thai Teens Get High On Cow Dung, Mosquito Coil Ash - Thailand News - Thailand Visa Forum by Thai Visa | The Nation


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

It is clear that this (not so) good Doctor is on big tobacco payroll, let's hope that the REAL Doctors will be able to get their voices heard.

 

Hello again, I just quickly read through the last pages. There are some points I'd like to deepen and also correct (I hate rumors)
1. Someone here wrote that the Swiss guy was a trader for e-cigs and definitely must have brought a lot more gears/e-cigs/mods with him for trading purpose, otherwise he wouldn't have been arrested and had to spend so many days in prison and would still be waiting for his trial and fine! - Sorry guys, but I know all the SQ-people personally (they live in my neighborhood) and I'm currently in touch with them.
Even if he is working with the SQ-guys, he was aware of the strict bans in Thailand, like all of us, and he definitely took only one vape gear with him, and just got cought on the street while vaping, like the other member here from UK. Why it was just him being punished and treated in such a heavy way in compared to others with "light" punishments, thats the big question, nobody has an answer on that, not even his closest friends.
The worst thing of all, he is not allowed to leave the country until verdict... he is stuck there for nearly two months now. I'm sure he would have gladly payed whatever sum they wanted, just to get home at last.

2. According the exact definition of "Importing" a product, which really does mean "bringing something into a country for the first time" (even if it was already in use) - other countries as well, like Germany, has the same definition of "import": to "bring something into the country for the first time"
I had a lot of mail correspondance with Thai authorities like airport customs, tourist offices and police stations and "argued" with them about this definition of "import". They all answered the same: "You are not allowed to bring any e-cigarettes, either new, used or for your personal use, into the country" - basta!
So my advice to future visitors: Leave your mods, e-cigs at home, don't even risk that they find something in your luggage when entering Thai customs... You can still by gears there and according to my next point, even take them home again, so you're not at all forced to go back to tobacco while staying there, only because of this law.

3. Somebody here even wrote, that when leaving LOS, he had so many electronic stuff with him, and a lot of e-cig stuff, he had to show customs - and had no problems.
I assume that there is no problem "exporting" (taking e-cigs OUT of the country) because there isn't one paragraph in this terrible anti-vape law, mentioning a ban for carrying e-cigs out of the country, right?

sorry for my bad english and the long text

 

I think you made valid points here.

For the Swiss guy, if you have contact with him, you should let him know that he needs to get his visa in order, even if the authorities are keeping him until the verdict.

If you go to prison in Thailand as a foreigner and your current visa runs off in the meantime, once you get out you will have to pay the 20k fine for overstay (true story) plus any punishment for overstaying (like banned from re-entering the country).

My guess is anyone experiencing Thai legal system on its bad side (is there a good one, I wonder sometimes...) won't probably care about the ban from coming back to LOS but the extra 20k might sting.

Note that bringing your own laptop, phone or anything purchased abroad for that matter is not considered as imported goods. For the vape gear I think they just don't have the balls (yet) to brand them illegal hence why they use this false illegal importation law that says that it was imported without taxes, neither is your phone, laptop, clothes etc...

When a tourist comes in this country for hollidays the goods are not meant to stay here so they are not imported per say, if you carry any prescription drugs for personal use in your trip nobody will see them as imported goods either, yet you will not have paid taxes in LOS for them. (imagine if each time you entered a foreign country your suitcase was stripped down and every item taxedd with the tax scheme of the country...)

All in all, the only thing we can do as farangs is wait and see how it will go. There is always hope as the Thai vaping community is here and growing but I yet to have witnessed any Thai national arrested for possession (unless they ran a business of some sort linked to e-cigs) so it might also stay as is for us foreigners. Easy money is easy money at the end of the day.

 

I've heard from a reliable source, who pays the bib to sell his wares as well as supply to them that next month is either going to be a full on go with it, as in opening up vape shops etc or a full on NO, which means serious underground stuff he said everyone will know, once the king has been laid to rest, this is coming from my local well-known supplier

 

Knowing the Thai lack of willingness to listen to others and change minds, I expect it will be a big NO!

 

I just got a reliable piece of information from a German homecoming that he was caught while vaping and had to pay before release from police station, but no more consequences, and when he left the police station he saw a store full with e-cig stuff right next door. I remember having read about this before already, could have been here even, don't remember.
How can this be?

 

That's probably passing on all the confiscated stuff to make some money and creating new e-cig "addicts" to fleece tomorrow! Typical here, you don't think all that perfectly good vape gear actually gets destroyed? Police have to make money for their mia-noi somehow!

 

BiB - LOS - TiT sorry I didn't know all these abbreviations yet, at least now I got TiT Thx

 

BiB = Boys in Brown/police LOS = Land of Smiles