You may or may not agree with this, but things are better enjoyed when they are legal. I know we all want to freely experience the comfort and happiness that our heated tobacco products give. Sad to say, countries and organizations limit where and how we enjoy these favorites of ours.
The HTPs Edge
Our diverse community of smokers have tried and switched gears from old-school cigarette sticks to alternatives like heated tobacco products. No matter your reason, I’m pretty sure all of us heating device users have become real-life testaments to its promise of better health and sleeker user experience.
Not to mention, the community we have built of fellow heated device users who appreciate style, play, and innovation in this digital age. How we do smoking has been transformed for the better.
These heated tobacco products which are smoke-free alternatives, has played an important role in helping countries and organizations with their smoking reduction agendas.
It developed a system in which “smokers” can have their fix in most public places, all the while respecting the body autonomy of nonsmokers who don’t want to get secondhand smoke.
Despite this wonderful compromise, heated tobacco products are still subject to bans and regulations in many countries. As well-traveled individuals and socially-aware citizens, we need to keep these rules in mind whenever we travel for visits or for a more long-term stay.
What We Mean When We Say HTPs
When I say Heated Tobacco Products, I have to define them clearly before we proceed with the policies. It’s important to know the products that fall under this category because it can be quite confusing with the labels and jargons that the markets use.
What I will list in the table is only policies for Heated Tobacco Products. If your device doesn’t fall under this category then you can check out our other blog entries for other policies like the ones for e-cigarettes.
So, when we talk about Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs), we are talking about devices that produce aerosols when a tobacco or tobacco-containing product is heated. The technology and mechanism behind the device is low temperature heating below 600 degrees. The aerosols that are generated are inhaled by sucking.
Depending on the compatible insert like specially designed cigarettes, pods, or plugs, they may or may not contain nicotine. Popular HTPs are iQOS from Philip Morris International (PMI), Ploom from Japan Tobacco International, glo from British American Tobacco, and PAX products from PAX Labs.
Whether you have an IQOS, Ploom, glo, PAX, or a indie-brand HTP device, they all follow under the following policies:
| The policy | Which means you | Country where it is imposed |
| Where heated tobacco products are banned | Can’t purchase them online, can’t purchase in local stores, can’t be caught using by authorities, possibly can use those inserts that don’t contain tobacco | Panama, Ethiopia, India |
| Where import of heated tobacco products are banned | Can’t buy them online, can’t buy in local stores, can bring in from from your country of origin and use it for personal use | Mexico, Turkey |
| Where heated tobacco products are banned because they fall under the prohibition of all new nicotine products | Can’t purchase them online, can’t buy in local stores, can’t be caught using by authorities, can possibly use the non-tobacco/ nicotine versions | Australia, Brazil, Norway, Singapore |
| Where heated tobacco products are banned because it falls under the prohibition of smokeless tobacco or e-cigarettes | Can’t purchase them online, can’t purchase in local stores, can’t be caught using by authorities | Finland, Malta, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Qatar, Thailand, Cambodia, Uganda |
| Where heated tobacco products are regulated because they are covered by advertising bans, smoke-free laws, and packaging laws | Can purchase online,Can buy in local and specialty stores, can freely buy and use | Canada, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Israel, South Korea, Portugal, Sweden |
| Where flavored heated tobacco products are banned | Can’t purchase, bring in, and use any heated tobacco products that are flavored, can purchase and use the non-flavored ones | European Union |
Why HTPs Continue To Be Legal
Typically, what manufacturers are doing about these limiting policies is that they circumvent the law. The laws covering heated tobacco products are usually under existing tobacco control laws. So they would just release heated products that don’t contain tobacco.
Also, another angle, is that in most countries such heating devices don’t belong in the legal definition of a “tobacco product” hence the use of tobacco-free products is made possible.
When we also look at it in the area of smoke-free laws, because heated tobacco products are not “lit” and don’t produce any smoke, it dodges that clause in most countries.
Any rule by any country that bans, limits, and regulates the use of Heated Tobacco Products should be dissected well. The choice of words and the definition given to products determine whether a product can ultimately be used or not.
We have already provided a concise, summarized version of the laws in the table above. It details what and what you can’t do in a specific country. The penalties vary, but if you violate the law, normally you would get fined, be imprisoned over a certain period of time, or both.
Moving forward, expect countries to get more and more tighter with their laws. They change them every couple of years so we have to be vigilant. What they think are sensible actions would only lead to severe loss of the vulnerable tobacco farmers.
The big-time manufacturers have the financial capacity and social reach to disrupt their systems every time and somehow still sell well to their loyal followers and consumers.
In my opinion, tightening these restrictions would only strengthen the desire of the people. A person would always act out of his or her personal beliefs, desires, and conditioning. The world today needs more respecting of an individual’s choice for his or her self and not get in the way of his personal decision as long as it doesn’t affect the community negatively.
What do you guys think? We definitely had a lot to unpack today. Share your thoughts and knowledge in the comment section. We are curious to know about your personal HTPs experience. If you want to read more entries refer to our articles list to see our other articles.