Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing vaping in Thailand. For those who are unaware, we are talking now about the activity, a lot of smokers prefer to use these vaping or e-cigarettes where it doesn't actually produce smoke, it produces this vapour. There are other folks who just like the flavour of it and enjoy it. I never really thought I would sort of get into the high weeds if you will on the issue of vaping here in Thailand but we did a video a while back. We were discussing basically "hey it's illegal in Thailand, and look to some extent and I will get into the nuances here in a minute when we get into the article but I am always happy to stand corrected and this is kind of one of those situations where yeah I was basically sort of passing along the prevailing information at the time as best I understood it.

I have now run this past folks here in the firm; we've all kind of looked over it and yeah we decided to go ahead and make this video based on a recent article from Coconuts, that's coconuts.co, the article is titled: No, vaping and vapes are not illegal in Thailand, here is why. Now again, there's a lot of nuance to this. We are going to do some deep diving around on this but I want to get into the article first. I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article in detail, a lot of information in there, a lot of good insight in there. 

Quoting directly: "Importation remains illegal under the under the Customs Act. That has not changed. However, the 2015 announcement from the Consumer Protection Board that established the ban on sales," (that is sales of vapes) "and set harsh penalties - relied on sections of the law that were removed four years later in the 2019 update to the Consumer Protection Act, or CPA. But don't take our word for it. Quote: "There is no law prohibiting possession," Attorney Sukhprem Sachdecha, a partner at Bangkok legal firm WSR International, told Coconuts. Sukhprem, who has studied the issue in depth, cited specific sections of the CPA - 36, 38, and 56 - repealed in 2019 to explain. The ban was based on sections 36 and 38, and their repeal invalidated it, he said. The original ban on importation however remains in the Customs Act. "There is a Law saying you cannot import them", Sukhprem said. "But the Customs Act says nothing about possession." Sukhprem added that the change had, to his knowledge, gone unnoticed by the public," (it went unnoticed by me) quoting further: "This has never been brought up in the media he said "he cautioned that while people should be armed with this knowledge, it would be unwise to argue the final points of law with the citing officers that are better made in Court. In fact, he said he is aware of two people who have cited this change to successfully defend themselves from prosecution.” So a lot going on here; interesting stuff. So first of all, importation of these devices, it continues to be illegal under the Customs Act according to this Attorney. Again, this is Sukhprem Sachdecha, an Attorney here in Thailand. Again we quoted Coconuts, coconuts.co. I urge those who are watching this video, again go check out that article in depth. There is a lot of nuance.

If you are a foreigner here, again, it is a violation under the Customs Act so if you come into Thailand with one of these devices, you could see yourself in a real problem. Meanwhile though, once in Thailand, it gets into a bit of a gray area. Now if you did bring it in, then again it remains a violation of Customs Act it appears to me and I have discussed this with other folks here in our office and that seems to be our consensus. Now those who come to Thailand and then end up buying one sort of off the street or something because again I guess there is kind of like a black market for these products under certain circumstances, that may be a different story. They kind of get into the nuance further in this article. Again I urge those who are watching this video, go check it out. I think that the fiber points of that are, again it's probably not something as a foreigner you are going to want to do a deep dive into as a practical matter. Do you really want to come to Thailand and be trying to pick apart the finer points of the Customs Act and vaping and did you bring it in and all of this stuff. So again, best advice in my opinion for now is to refrain from purchasing or possessing or certainly refrain from bringing any vaping devices into Thailand.

That said, the law is not as clear-cut as it first appears. This Attorney in here who has done this analysis I think it is really good, and again there's even more in there. There is a lot more insight in that article but it is interesting. I find it interesting, there is more nuance to this than first appears and we will certainly keep folks updated on the issue I guess. I mean this wasn't really something I particularly thought we would be sort of following and I don't really intend to make it something to follow day to day but it is kind of interesting and if there is further nuance that we find out there, we will certainly let you know via this channel.