Colombian bid to regulate vaping as smoking tied up in political numbers

A new bill proposed in Colombia’s senate is paving the way for the country to begin regulating e-cigarettes on a par with tobacco – though the plan is tied up in the country’s complex political arithmetic.

Senate leader José David Name of the Partido de la U party presented the proposal to modify the country’s 2009 tobacco law to include electronic cigarettes, with or without nicotine, and heat-not-burn (HnB) devices.

It is to all intents and purposes the same as the bill proposed by the centre-left Green Alliance (Alianza Verde) party which received support from non-governmental health organisations but was set aside after legislative elections in March.