Tag: Jamaica

Jamaica to Pass New Rules for Vape Products

Credit: Daniel
Jamaica has supported an updated strategy to accelerate action to meet Tobacco Control targets in the Region of the Americas.
“Jamaica wishes to reconfirm our unwavering commitment to achieving these targets and thanks PAHO for their continued leadership and technical support in advancing tobacco control in Jamaica,” noted Minister of Health & Wellness, Christopher Tufton, addressing the 61st Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) Directing Council in Washington DC where the updated strategy was presented.
The Minister is leading the Jamaica delegation, including Chief Medical Officer Jacqueline Bisasor-McKenzie, to the meeting.
“We are concerned about the slow progress of member states in making environments completely smoke-free, which requires further assessment to close this gap. Of significant concern to Jamaica is the use of e-cigarettes and vaping among children, adolescents, and young adults, along with the general use of cannabis and the proliferation of hookah bars. The regulation of e-cigarettes is a significant step that will address this concern,” Tufton noted.
At the same time, he said it will be necessary to have an accompanying public education campaign, “especially to debunk the myths around e-cigarettes and the use of hookahs, that they are safe alternatives to smoking and not harmful to health”.
“We should also ensure that the Tobacco Control response is integrated into the NCD response,” the Minister said, according to Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness.
Jamaica is also promulgating new legislation that will regulate Government officials’ interactions with the tobacco industry, test and measure tobacco products’ contents and emissions, and promote communication and public awareness of tobacco control issues and the health risks of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.
Also covered, the Minister said, is “full and mandatory prohibition on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, including a ban on point-of-sale tobacco displays, and increasing the size of the graphic health warning from 60 to 80 percent of the principal display areas of tobacco products”.
October 11, 2024
Jamaica Set to Consider Passing Tobacco, Vaping Rules
Credit: Zabanski
Jamaica is set to consider comprehensive legislation in the House of Representatives that would address the devastating effects of tobacco and e-cigarette consumption in Jamaica, Minister of Health and Wellness, Christopher Tufton said.
The Tobacco Control 2020 Bill will, among other things, impose restrictions on the marketing of vaping and other tobacco products as well as prohibit sales to children, according to Tufton.
Tufton said the legislation is now at the committee stage “and I am happy to report that we are well advanced in that process,” according to Caribbean National Weekly.
“I expect over the next month, six weeks maybe, to table the comprehensive Bill, and I urge my colleagues to quickly pass this bill for the protection of the Jamaican people and to reduce the cost of treatment,” he said.
Outlining some of the provisions of the Bill, Tufton informed that in addition to curtailing the marketing of tobacco products and prohibiting sales to children, it will also prohibit the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes in public spaces.
More Jamaicans are embracing vaping to help quit combustible products, according to vape shop owners on the island.

May 7, 2022
More Jamaicans Embracing Vaping to Quit Combustibles
Credit: Luzitanija
Jamaica has seen a rise in e-cigarette sales. In a recent interview with the owner of local vape shops, a story in the Jamaica Observer states that increasing number of Jamaicans are turning to vape retail outlets across the island to curtail their smoking habit.
Ravn Rae, the owner the Mez Vape & Smoke Shop, which has been in operation since 2013, says they have received countless testimonials from its local and international customers, who have used Rae’s vaping products to help them successfully quit tobacco smoking.
The shop has locations in Kingston and Montego Bay and Rae told the newspaper that she prides herself on only selling “authentic, certified, quality-assured and proven products to buyers” that are over 18 years of age.
“I have even been visited by parents on numerous occasions seeking safer vape products to help their adult children quit smoking,” she attests. “The good thing about vape products is that they have been proven to be much safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes and the level of nicotine in vape products can be determined by the buyer.”
Flavors other than tobacco are also popular with adult Jamaican consumers, according to Rae. She revealed that some flavor profiles are also more effective than others “as these are not the generic flavors that smokers typically associate with traditional tobacco cigarettes.”
April 11, 2022
Jamaican Tobacco Company Warns Against Vape Rules
Jamaica’s largest tobacco distribution company Carreras Limited has cautioned the Government against an excessive regulatory regime for vaping and other tobacco products. Managing director of Carreras, Raoul Glynn, says the regulations will be tough to implement and enforce, and will impose provisions that will put the industry at a disadvantage.
Credit: Miro Novak
He stressed that the company took no issue with lawful, evidence-based regulation. However, excessive regulation will cause more revenue losses, pointing out that government revenue lost to the tobacco black market in 2020 was $2.1 billion.
“Jamaica is one of those markets that have a significant illicit component, not just on tobacco but other products [too],” Glynn told a joint select committee that is reviewing the country’s proposed Tobacco Control Act, according to the Jamaica Observer. “What we saw happening in 2017 when there was a significant increase in the excise, you had an almost immediate jump in the illicit volume, so consumption remains the same because of a proliferation of very cheap products that doesn’t pay the taxes.”
The company’s view is that new category products, such as e-cigarettes, and combustibles should be regulated separately. Lumping them with the same regulations for tobacco products would send an “incorrect and unhelpful message that both product categories have the same risk profile and perpetuate the misconception that tobacco and nicotine carry same risks,” according to Glynn.
The proposed legislation goes beyond traditional tobacco products to include prohibiting the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) in public spaces. This and other changes to the legislation is supposed to make Jamaica fully compliant with the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Glynn pointed to evidence that new category products have contributed to reduced smoking prevalence in countries with a more flexible regulatory landscape. It referenced the United Kingdom’s House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which found that e-cigarettes could significantly accelerate already declining smoking rate and are about 95 percent less harmful than conventional cigarettes due to the absence of tar and carbon monoxide.
He noted that the Canadian Government says switching from tobacco cigarettes to vaping products will reduce exposure to many toxic and cancer-causing chemicals. The tobacco company’s view is that e-cigarettes should be regulated proportionately on an evidence-based approach, taking into consideration freedom to innovate, dialogue and responsible marketing freedoms, according to Glynn, who said also that the legislation, technically, places a ban on the sale of cigarettes in all public spaces, despite arguments that it does not.
Glynn also cautioned that the law puts small businesses at a severe disadvantage by prohibiting retailer incentives and promoting discounted products.
July 6, 2021