Teens have taken a technology that was supposed to help grownups stop smoking and invented a new kind of bad habit, molded in their own image.
I am truly worried about today’s youth. Things weren’t this bad a decade ago but, with time, technology and the constant wave of social media trends, we began drifting back into new, lavish, and unhealthy habits.
A TikTok video by Gogglebox star George Baggs was once banned for breaking advertising rules. The video, which featured a shirtless Baggs dressing for the day and choosing a brightly coloured vape, included him smirking and saying: “Matching my outfit with my new HQD v@pe.”Another similar vape-toting video that was also pulled down featured a young man choosing a blueberry Elf Bar vape for breakfast, followed by a passionfruit vape for lunch.
Nowadays, Prime Minister Hun Manet has issued a nationwide ban since October on the import, sale, distribution, advertising, and use of e-cigarettes and shisha, citing growing concerns over their impact on public health and youth addiction. The directive also prohibits possession, production, and storage of electronic smoking devices and chemical substances used for vaping and shisha.The decision was made to protect public health, especially children, students, and youth, as well as to maintain social order, as authorities found a rapid increase in the use of these products among young people, which could lead to nicotine addiction and possibly, drug abuse.
Ministries and institutions have been instructed to enforce the ban through inspection, confiscation, and conducting awareness campaigns. In addition, the Health Ministry would educate the public about the health risks, while the Education, Youth and Sport Ministry (MoEYS) would enforce the ban in and around schools and educational institutions.
A report by the Cambodian Health Movement found that at least 688 social media accounts promote and sell electronic cigarettes and vaping products.More than 80% of users of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, a vast majority of whom are children and young people, ordered these products via social media, research by MoEYS showed in 2024.Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak told CamboJA News that they fully support the decision to ban the product and are committed to enforcing the order effectively, which would be carried out by the police and territorial administration.
The ministry will develop detailed guidelines for subordinate officers, including measures to tighten control at all entry points, by air, land, and waterways, he said, adding that the police would enforce the directive in accordance with established procedures soon.“We’ll thoroughly inspect storage and distribution [networks], and [investigate] collusion in sales and use. If officials in the ministry are found to be using or involved in any way, they will be subjected to disciplinary action,” Sokhak said. He also warned that traders who import, distribute, and sell electronic devices and chemicals for smoking and shisha to stop immediately, or risk facing the law.