Venezuela has become the third country in South America to completely ban e-cigarettes

The Venezuelan Ministry of Health recently issued a resolution prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, distribution, circulation, commercialization, import, export, use, consumption, advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS, also known as e-cigarettes) within the country.
In addition, the resolution also prohibits zero nicotine products and related accessories. According to relevant reports, this move makes Venezuela the third country in South America to completely ban e-cigarettes, following Argentina and Brazil.
Two months ago, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro requested the government's medical science team to consider this ban. The Venezuelan Ministry of Health stated that this move is a response to the WHO warning (as is well known, the WHO has always been unfriendly towards e-cigarettes).
However, Alberto Gomez, community manager of the World Federation of Smokers, stated that Venezuela's ban on harmful products is a public health setback. He said that thousands of Venezuelans have successfully quit traditional tobacco and improved their health through e-cigarettes. Now they will find it difficult to purchase these products, and more smokers will find it difficult to switch to using less harmful alternatives.
Gomez believes that the ban has unexpected consequences, as users will turn to illegal markets or return cigarettes, and smokers will not be able to switch to low-risk products. This will lead to a deterioration in public health and an increase in medical expenses caused by smoking. In addition, illegal markets do not regulate underage sales, products do not undergo safety and quality control, and the government does not receive taxes. The ban will not solve any problems.
The attitude towards e-cigarettes in South America and its actual e-cigarette market have always been in a very contradictory state.
On the one hand, the Latin American market tends to be conservative in terms of e-cigarette regulation as a whole, with most of the major economies in the region implementing e-cigarette bans; On the other hand, due to inadequate enforcement of the ban and rampant smuggling, an extremely prosperous black market for e-cigarettes has also emerged, such as in Brazil.
The important reason lies in the different regulations on e-cigarettes in neighboring countries and the thriving import and export trade. For example, as one of the few countries in the Latin American region that clearly defines the legality of e-cigarettes, Paraguay is currently the main source of e-cigarettes in the Brazilian market:
Electronic cigarettes enter Paraguay, where they are legal, and then enter Brazil through ports bordering the states of Mato Grosso and Parana in a form similar to "ant relocation". They are concentrated in the central Brazilian state of Goas, which serves as a warehousing and logistics center, and are distributed to various parts of Brazil through highways connecting the northwest, northeast, and southeast regions.
According to data from Ipec Intelligence, only about 500000 adults in Brazil tried e-cigarettes in 2018, exceeding 940000 in 2020, and further increasing to over 2 million in 2021, an increase of over 300%;
Overall, Venezuela has indeed banned e-cigarettes from a regulatory perspective this time, but it remains to be seen whether its ban, like Brazil's, will become empty talk.