PENANG will follow the Federal Government’s strategy of carrying out the vape ban in stages to avoid creating demand in the black market.
State youth, sports and health committee chairman Daniel Gooi said Penang would follow the Health Ministry when implementing the Control of Smoking Products under Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852).
“It’ll be risky to put an immediate stop to vape sales.
“If banned immediately, it will then push all demand to the black market.
“Other issues may subsequently crop up because of the ban.
“The Act looks into regulating the situation, which is why we are looking forward to its full enforcement coming into effect on Oct 1 this year,” he said when contacted by StarMetro.
The Act, enacted on Feb 2, 2024, provides comprehensive regulation of tobacco and vaping products, including registration, sale, packaging and labelling.
Enforcement was carried out in phases.
Gooi said the main issue when dealing with vape now was that it was laced with synthetic drugs.
“Kpods or the ones that contain etomidate are a major challenge now,” said the Padang Lalang assemblyman.
Etomidate is a short-acting intravenous anaesthetic agent.
“It will be tricky and difficult to control black market sales, especially when dealing with Kpods that contain etomidate.
“We do not want the situation to go out of control and then deal with the aftermath.”
Gooi said under the Act, the vape industry was one of the most highly regulated industries.
He said since October last year, the state Health Department’s enforcement team had checked on 15,825 premises in Penang for various violations under the Act pertaining to smoking.
In ensuring compliance with smoking control regulations and protecting public health, Gooi said 14,911 notices with a total compound value of RM2,379,050 were issued between August 2023 and July 2025, under Act 852 and the Control of Tobacco Products for Public Health (Sales Control) Regulations 2024.
A vape shop owner in George Town, who wished to be known only as Peh, said some of the steps he had taken to comply with the regulations were not selling vape products online and not marketing the products.
“I make sure my business complies with the regulations as I want to run it without any issues,” he said.
“Despite no longer selling products online, my business has not slowed.
“This is mostly due to the majority of my customers being foreigners from China, Thailand and Indonesia.
“They make up 80% of my sales and tend to buy many products to take home.”
Peh said his customers from China preferred the fruit- flavoured vapes as they were unable to get those in their home country.
Peh, who has been running his shop for six years, said local customers were his regulars.
“They are mostly people in their mid-30s, so we know they are not underaged,” he said.
“What we need are just clear guidelines that we can abide by.
“It is difficult to keep up and run a business when the regulations keep changing.”
Peh said business owners needed to stay informed if the government planned to completely ban the sale of vape.
