The Health Ministry jumped the gun in its series of raids targeting vapouriser shops over the past week, said Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

He said the cabinet had earlier decided that the Health Ministry is to formulate new rules to regulate the vape industry, and until then there should not be any bans or raids against it.

That decision, he said, should be respected.

To a question on whether the raids had been rash, Khairy, who is also Umno Youth chief said: “I believe so.”

“I don’t want to comment too much about other ministries, but that is my personal view and this matter has been conveyed to the cabinet meeting.”

This comes after Umno Youth exco member Armand Azha Abu Hanifah asked if “ hidden hands ” were behind the raids, which is hurting the half-a-billion ringgit industry.

Khairy said vape entreprenuers should be consulted before the government resorts to a crackdown.

This is because they had made large investments when there was no regulation in place.

Seizing their stocks places excessive strain on the businesses, he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

'Both unhealthy, but let people decide'

Previously, the government’s stance on vaping had been incoherent.

He hopes there will be no further raids against vape sellers until the special committee arrives at a decision.

In the meantime, he said he hopes the vape sellers would be patient despite the setbacks that they had suffered.

Nevertheless, Khairy stressed that he does not encourage vaping nor smoking.

“As a sports minister, I don’t want youths aspire to vape or to smoke, although the (health) risks of vaping is lower compared to smoking, there is still some risk.

“But I am talking about (regulating) the industry itself.

“We can’t stop people from making their own decision on whether to smoke or not.

"We can run a campaign to explain the dangers of vaping and smoking, but in the end they can decide,” he said.

Breach of Poisions Act, Food Act

On Oct 28, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam reportedly said that his ministry is looking into regulating or banning vaping before it becomes a major issue.

On the following day, however, Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob reportedly said that the cabinet had decided against imposing a ban on vaping.

Nevertheless, Subramaniam announced that the ministry would crackdown on vape fluids that contain nicotine on Tuesday last week.

This was done on grounds that nicotine is regulated under the Poisons Act 1952 (revision 1989) and Food Act 1983, those who manufacture, distribute, sell it needs to be licensed.

Most, but not all vape fluids, contain nicotine.

Malaysian Organisation of Vape Entities president Samsul Kamal Arriffin was quoted by The Star on Nov 5 claiming that some 300 vape shops had been raided in Selangor alone.

Earlier today however, Bernama quoted Subramaniam saying that a special committee has been formed to address issues related to vaping, and any statements on this would come only from the committee itself.

It is chaired by director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and has representatives from, among others, the Disease Control Division and General Health Division, the report said.

Noor Hisham reportedly told reporters that the committee will meet tomorrow, before starting engaging stakeholders.

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