Tag: argentina

  • Argentina Asked to Repeal E-cigarette Ban

    Argentina Asked to Repeal E-cigarette Ban

    Image: simonmayer

    The Argentinean vapers’ association, Asovape Argentina, and the World Vapers’ Alliance have sent an open letter Argentina’s recently elected president, Javier Milei, calling for the repeal of the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology Provision 3226/2011 banning the commercialization of e-cigarettes.

    The provision banned the import, distribution, marketing, advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes. It went into effect May 6, 2011.

    The letter explains that numerous studies conducted since the ban took effect have demonstrated the significantly lower risk profile and the usefulness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation as well as the low health risk of nicotine. The signatories also argue that the ban is incompatible with respect for the individual freedom of Argentinian adults and the rights to free development of personality, information and health of users and smokers. 

    “The ban violates the rights and freedoms of Argentine adults and should be repealed,” said Juan Facundo Teme, president of Asovape Argentina, in a statement. “The state is not the one to tell Argentines how to consume nicotine and should respect the decisions of individuals who choose to vape in order to consume it in a less harmful way. Moreover, all the arguments on which the ban was based have been disproved.”

    Argentina has a smoking rate of 24.5 percent, the second highest in Latin America and one of the highest in the world.

    “Smoking is a huge problem for Argentina, and the ban has only exacerbated it,” said Teme. “It spreads the misconception that vaping is the same or worse than smoking, makes it difficult for millions of smokers to switch to a safer alternative and has pushed thousands of vapers back to tobacco. With clear information and proper regulation of vaping, we could reduce smoking rates quickly and significantly.”

    Argentina should respect smokers who choose to consume nicotine in a less harmful way.

    Alberto Gomez Hernandez, policy manager, WVA

    “Argentina is one of the most restrictive countries on vaping in the whole region and consequently has one of the highest smoking rates,” said Alberto Gomez Hernandez, policy manager of the World Vapers’ Alliance. “It is second only to Chile, which has just passed a law regulating vaping to allow adults to use it to quit smoking, as Brazil is also working to do. Argentina should not lag behind and should respect smokers who choose to consume nicotine in a less harmful way.”

    Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, added, “Argentina’s approach to vaping is outdated and irreconcilable with upholding the individual freedom of consumers. Argentina now has a great opportunity to take the lead and adopt the approach of countries like Sweden or the U.K., which respect users’ right to choose while improving public health. Sweden is on the verge of becoming the first smoke-free country thanks to this approach, and the U.K. is reducing its smoking rate rapidly. We encourage President Milei and his government to follow these examples. Vaping is not a crime and should be legalized immediately.”

  • Jujuy Province Eyes Cannabis as Cash Crop

    Jujuy Province Eyes Cannabis as Cash Crop

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Governor Gerardo Morales has suggested that tobacco farmers in Argentina’s Jujuy Province begin growing cannabis to offset declining tobacco sales, reports The Buenos Aires Times.

    “Cannabis is one of the most important projects that we have, and it’s going to generate more profits than lithium and solar energy,” said Morales, whose provincial government has worked to foster marijuana production in the region’s dry, sunny terrain for export. 

    “I hope that with this [growing cannabis market] we will begin a change in diversification and that 10 years from now we will stop planting tobacco and plant cannabis,” he said.

    Tobacco producers, however, were not undividedly enthusiastic. Pedro Pascuttini, president of the Jujuy Tobacco Chamber, said his group would fight to continue producing tobacco.

    He added, however, that the group was not completely closed to the idea. “We hope that it will be treated in a way in which they explain to us what it is about, and we are listened to,” he said.

    Ten years from now, we will stop planting tobacco and plant cannabis.

    Gerardo Morales, governor, Jujuy Province

    Last month, Argentinean lawmakers sent a bill to legalize the production of medicinal cannabis to Congress after a decree authorized personal cultivation for the same purposes last year. 

    “The global industry for medical cannabis will treble its turnover in the next five years,” Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez predicted in March.

  • Quitting with more nicotine

    Quitting with more nicotine

    Allowing smokers to determine their nicotine intake while they are trying to quit is likely to help them kick their habit, according to a EurekAlert story citing a study of 50 people led by Queen Mary University of London.

    The results of the first study to tailor nicotine dosing based on the choices of smokers trying to quit suggest that most smokers who use stop-smoking medications can easily tolerate doses that are four times higher than those normally recommended.

    Study author Dunja Przulj of Queen Mary University of London said that smokers determined their nicotine intake while they smoked, but that when they tried to quit their nicotine levels were dictated by the recommended dosing of the treatment. “These levels may be far too low for some people, increasing the likelihood that they go back to smoking,” Przulj said.

    “Medicinal nicotine products may be under-dosing smokers and could explain why we’ve seen limited success in treatments, such as patches and gum, helping smokers to quit. A change in their application is now needed.

    “Our findings should provide reassurance to smokers that it is okay to use whatever nicotine doses they find helpful.”

    When nicotine replacement treatment was first evaluated in the 1970s, low doses were used because of concerns about toxicity and addictiveness. Evidence then emerged that nicotine on its own, outside of tobacco products, has limited addictive potential, and that higher doses are safe and well tolerated. Despite this, stop-smoking medications have maintained lower nicotine levels in their products.

    The new study, published in the journal Addiction, examined 50 smokers in a tobacco dependence clinic in Argentina, and was the first to try a combined approach of ‘pre-loading’ nicotine prior to the quit date, and tailoring nicotine levels based on patient feedback.

  • Tax link questioned

    Tax link questioned

    Claims by the tobacco industry of a positive association between price/tax changes in respect of tobacco products and the illegal trade in those products are unsubstantiated, according to an article by Guillermo Paraje, PhD for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press.
    An abstract of the piece, Illicit Cigarette Trade in Five South American Countries: A Gap Analysis for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru, concludes that using simple statistical methods, ‘it is possible to assess the trend in tobacco illicit trend over time to better inform policy-makers’. ‘Getting reliable and regular population consumption surveys can also help to track tobacco illicit trade,’ the conclusion states. ‘Claims by tobacco industry of a positive association between price/tax changes and illicit trade are unsubstantiated.’
    Under the heading Implications, the abstract says, in part, that the evolution of ‘cigarette illicit trade in five Latin American countries show different trajectories, not in line with tobacco industry estimates, which highlight the importance of producing solid, independent estimates’.
    ‘There are inexpensive methodologies that can provide estimates of the evolution of the relative importance of illicit trade and can be used to inform policy-makers.’

  • Viceroy on way out

    Viceroy on way out

    British American Tobacco is due to phase out sales of its Viceroy Red cigarettes in Argentina and replace them with Rothmans, according to an M-Brain story relayed by the TMA.

    The story said that Argentina was the first Latin American country to which BAT had introduced Rothmans.

    BAT already sells Rothmans Click, a menthol cigarette, in the country.