Radio Panama Writing
Panama ranks third worst among the countries with the poorest performance in terms of access to innovations to reduce smoking, including electronic cigarettes, vaporizers and heated tobacco products.
Due to the poor design of its public policies related to smoking, Panama is located in position 47 – only surpassed by Australia (49) and Uruguay (48) -, among the countries that have prohibitionist regulatory frameworks for devices considered as alternatives to cigarettes. according to the Global Index of Effective Anti-Tobacco Policies developed by the We Are Innovation Network (Global Index of Effective Anti-Smoking Policies – We are Innovation – The Future Calls (somosinnovacion.lat))
Other Latin American countries analyzed by the index include: Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, among others.
The study carried out between 2021 and 2022, analyzed public policies and access to information that consumers from 59 nations have at hand, including Panama, 49 of which have regulatory frameworks and 10 whose governments maintain no regulatory frameworks related to smoking. or smokeless alternatives.
In addition, as part of this index, the public policies of each country were analyzed in 10 categories: regulatory framework, prohibition, taxes, advertising, packaging, retail sale, online sale, display, flavors, and promotion of harm reduction.
Available scientific evidence regarding regulations for reduced-risk devices in countries that participated in the study was also evaluated. With this, it was possible to elaborate a world ranking that measures the openness towards these nicotine consumption tools without combustion, based on the existence or not of a specific regulatory framework.
On June 30, Law No. 315 came into force in Panama, which prohibits the use, importation and commercialization of electronic nicotine administration systems, electronic cigarettes, vaporizers, tobacco heaters and other similar devices, with or without nicotine, which which seems to affect the location of Panama in position 47 out of 49 nations with regulatory frameworks evaluated, for preventing smokers’ access to innovations to reduce smoking-related harm
global reality
According to this study, Switzerland leads the ranking with a regulatory framework for all products, along with the United Kingdom and New Zealand, where both stand out for their openness to vaping products and recommend their use as an alternative to quit smoking.
The study concludes that intelligent legislation open to innovation is necessary. This regulation must incorporate the costs and benefits of policies based on scientific evidence. The high bureaucratic and tax barriers nullify positive future transformations and the most extreme prohibitions generate black markets for contraband, with the serious health, fiscal and economic consequences that illicit trade creates.
