Without ruling in favor of the commercialization of electronic cigarettes, the Court annulled the absolute prohibition of these articles.
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared this Tuesday unconstitutional the absolute prohibition of electronic cigarettes and vapers because “it violates the freedom of trade”, although it did not order to regularize their commercialization.
The plenary session of the high court amended article 16 of the General Law for Tobacco Control, which “prohibits trading, selling, distributing, exhibiting, promoting or producing any object that is not a tobacco product, but that contains an element that identifies it. with tobacco products ”.
Since May 2008, the marketing of this type of device has been prohibited in Mexico and in 2019 its import from other countries was prohibited.
According to a statement from the Court, the article declared unconstitutional “establishes an absolute and categorical prohibition that violates the freedom of commerce.”
However, the high court clarified that with this decision “it did not rule in favor of allowing the commercialization of electronic cigarettes”, since it only analyzed the constitutionality of its absolute prohibition.
Some 60,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases in Mexico each year, according to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Official figures indicate that in Mexico, 938,000 adolescents have ever tried the electronic cigarette, of which 160,000 use it regularly, a fact that alerted the Government of Mexico since it represents the gateway to nicotine addiction.
It is estimated that between 5 and 7% of young people between 13 and 15 years old who started on nicotine did so after having tried electronic cigarettes.
Source: forbes.com.mx
