▲ The regulation of liquid e-cigarettes

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the halt of selling liquid e-cigarettes on October 23. The government said that these kinds of liquid e-cigarettes cause serious lung diseases. However, the response of consumers to this regulation was certainly different from what the government expected.

▲ The selling products in Korea are different from the USA

First, the government said that the policy that halted the selling of liquid e-cigarettes was announced because of the serious lung diseases. However, some people think that the policy was announced because liquid e-cigarettes were issued in the USA. Because of that, there are problems. First, the selling products are different between the USA and South Korea. In the USA, the liquid e-cigarettes have THC which is abstracted from hemp, and there is vitamin E acetate. Consequently, 1479 people suffer from serious lung damage, and 35 people died. However, there is no exact damage case because of the liquid e-cigarettes in South Korea. Second, in South Korea, the liquid e-cigarettes entered 15 years ago. However, at that time, there was no certain regulation yet. People said that the government just created anxiety. It is because the government has not revealed any exact research about liquid e-cigarettes. Also, they said that this policy just made the life of businessmen difficult. In South Korea, the e-cigarettes were made by small businesses, and those are sold in small stores or convenience stores. However, because of this policy, the small stores and convenience stores run by the elderly went difficulties.

▲ The repsonse was different from the expectation of the governent

However, there are many negative perspectives on the government's policy announcement. The government said that they changed the tax rate of liquid e-cigarettes. The reaction to this statement of people was they just wanted to impose more tax on e-cigarettes. The experts pointed out that the hasty regulation of e-cigarettes just increased the consuming of regular cigarettes. So, they need more data on the suspected patients of liquid e-cigarettes.

Other countries, such as China and the Philippines, started to regulate the selling of liquid e-cigarettes. However, South Korea needs different policies. Drug regulation is strong enough, so the government needs to make a careful and exhaustive decision.

November 8th, 2019

by Jang Eugene