Press conference in Q4 of 2026: the launch of the MOVE website and the publication of our commissioned research. Media only. Event details
Press conference in Q4 of 2026: the launch of the MOVE website and the publication of our commissioned research. Media only. Event details
Research
An organisation that only publishes what suits it is a campaign. One that also publishes the case against itself is a source. MOVE wants to be the second. We have not softened any of the criticisms below or paraphrased them into something easier to answer.
The criticism · SEATCA
The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) profiles MOVE in its Tobacco Industry Monitor, which is a database of organisations it treats as aligned with tobacco industry interests. The framing is that advocacy for tobacco harm reduction functions as an extension of tobacco industry lobbying.
Read it in full: SEATCA Tobacco Industry Monitor, “Malaysian Organization of Vape Entity”, April 2020
Our answer
MOVE does not represent any commercial interest. We do not sell any products, nor own any shops and there are no commission arrangements. We are an independent, non-profit organisation. This website carries no advertising, no brand and no price, and no product is offered for sale on it.
Our arguments may align with some of the tobacco industry arguments because a consumer who wants a legal supply and a retailer who wants to sell one arrive at the same policy from different places. Alignment is not employment.
The criticism · Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control and Malaysian Health Coalition
In a Straits Times report dated 7 April 2023, The Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control and the Malaysian Health Coalition contended that the move to tax nicotine e-liquid, which required removing nicotine from the Poisons List, stripped away the legal mechanism that had made sale to minors an offence, and that this was done before Act 852 was in place to regulate vape. The criticism is that revenue was prioritised over a gap that left children and youths unprotected.
Read it in full: The Straits Times, “Outcry in Malaysia after tax move makes vaping legal for minors”, 7 April 2023, as republished by the Malaysian Paediatric Association on its site. This records the objection at the time of the 2023 tax decision.
Our answer
The gap they describe was real. Between the Poisons List delisting and Act 852 coming into force there was a window in which the clearest legal bar on selling nicotine products to children was weaker than it should have been. Nobody advocating for this product should be comfortable with that, and we are not.
Act 852 closed the gap on 1 October 2024 and the under-18 prohibition has been in force since. The current legal position is on our tracker.
The criticism · Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy
The Galen Centre, a Malaysian health policy think tank led by Azrul Mohd Khalib, welcomed the Government’s decision to ban as reflecting national urgency. It commends a phased ban beginning with open-system devices, which it says are easily modified, misused and spiked with adulterated liquids. Its reasons are the protection of young Malaysians, liquids mixed with drugs such as etomidate, Malaysia being out of step with neighbouring countries that have banned vape, and display bans it says have been largely unobserved or ignored.
Read it in full: Galen Centre, 11 September 2025 · CodeBlue coverage. The Galen Centre’s position has developed since. On 20 August 2026 its chief executive called the Government’s withdrawal of its Poisons List appeal “the right decision and an important course correction”, and asked whether retail sale of vape containing liquid and gel nicotine is now banned. CodeBlue, 20 August 2026.
Our answer
We agree about the urgency to protect young Malaysians but disagree about the instrument.
Our position is that a ban removes the ability to control what is in the product and that legal prohibition does not remove demand. A ban does not remove the product, but moves it into underground markets.
Kelantan has refused to issue a vape retail licence since 2013 and Johor has restricted sales since 2016. Neither is a state without vaping. Singapore enforces hard and vape is still obtainable there.
The two harms that worry us most, minors getting hold of product and liquids laced with illicit substances, both get worse in an unregulated market.
Both sides are making a prediction. Ours is that prohibition displaces supply, driving it underground, rather than ending it.
Source: Ministry of Health, Singapore, 11 August 2026. Also see the state-level record.
The criticism · Thomas Eissenberg and colleagues
Researchers argue that the estimate that vaping is around 95% less harmful than smoking has no solid evidence base. It originated in a 2015 expert elicitation exercise rather than in outcome data, and the panel that produced it has been questioned.
Read it in full: Eissenberg and colleagues, American Journal of Public Health, 2020 · VCU News on the critique
Our answer
This 95% safer than cigarettes figure is attributed to Public Health England and dated 2015. The follow up 2022 Office for Health Improvement and Disparities review has more cautious wording. While it did not reaffirm the previous 95% safer than cigarettes figure, the UK Government in the 2022 review concludes that in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking.
The Cochrane living review reports high-certainty evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes help more people stop smoking than nicotine replacement therapy.
Questioning the precision of the 95% figure is not the same as disproving the conclusion that vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking.
The debate over the “95% less harmful” figure should not distract from the wider body of evidence on the relative risks of vaping and smoking. The evidence supports the conclusion that vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
At the same time, MOVE acknowledges that vape is not risk-free and that its long-term effects remain uncertain.
The criticism · Members of Parliament
After the Government discontinued its Poisons List appeal on 18 August 2026, Lee Chean Chung (Petaling Jaya) and Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi (Kuala Langat) called for nicotine vape to be declared an illegal scheduled poison, for excise collection to stop, and for the more than RM354 million collected since 2023 to be refunded.
Lee’s argument is that a tax is a declaration of legitimacy, and that the State cannot at the same time tell the courts a product is an illegal poison and tell the market it is a taxable good. The MCA president made a similar point.
Both statements were given to CodeBlue on 1 September 2026 and published the following day, rather than made in the Dewan Rakyat, which was not sitting. Read them in full: CodeBlue, 2 September 2026 · CodeBlue, 2 September 2026, on MCA. Reporting as at 11 September 2026 notes that Customs was still collecting the duty (CodeBlue, 11 September 2026). On 19 October 2026, during the Budget 2027 debate, Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi asked the Government in the Dewan Rakyat to explain the legal status of the excise collected (Dewan Rakyat Hansard, 19 October 2026, pages 80 to 81). As at 23 October 2026 we have seen nothing in which the Government acknowledges that the taxes were unlawfully collected.
Our answer
We stated publicly on 8 September 2026 that “Malaysia has already taken an important step by enacting the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852). What is needed now is clarity and consistency in how the law is implemented. A regulatory outcome that removes compliant businesses without addressing existing demand could simply push that demand into an unregulated market.”
On what we believe the better route is: “A regulated market gives the authorities clear standards to enforce and gives consumers a legitimate channel subject to oversight. Our position is straightforward: protect young people, protect consumers and give regulators the tools to regulate effectively.”
The criticism · FOMCA, Smoke Free Malaysia Initiative
The consumers’ association federation welcomed state-level vape bans as progress towards ending tobacco use in Malaysia altogether. The argument is that harm reduction still encourages continued nicotine use rather than an exit from it.
Read it in full: Twentytwo13, 28 April 2025, reporting FOMCA’s statement. This is the most recent FOMCA statement we have been able to find.
Our answer
MOVE advocates for fewer people harmed by combustible tobacco, and adults keeping the right to choose a less harmful alternative.
We would ask the endgame case to account for the roughly 1.5 million Malaysian adults already using this product (Global Adult Tobacco Survey Malaysia 2023, 5.8 per cent of adults). An endgame that removes regulated supply and leaves the demand does not end anything; it relocates it to risky underground markets.
Every source that argues against our advocacy is listed in our evidence library.
The criticism · Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health’s case for prohibition rests on the number of young people using vape and on liquids adulterated with illicit substances, including tetrahydrocannabinol, which is illegal for recreational use in Malaysia. The Ministry points to 402 recorded synthetic-drug vape cases (to April 2026) and 76 National Poison Centre poisoning cases (2020 to 2024).
It cited a Regulatory Impact Analysis putting costs at RM244.8 million already and at RM300 million to RM400 million by 2030. In a written reply to the Dewan Negara reported on 29 July 2026, the Ministry estimated the health and economic cost burden of vape-related disease at about RM369 million a year. Its position is that a product reaching schoolchildren and carrying drugs is not a product that can be made safe by better shelving rules.
Read it in full: Malay Mail, 7 October 2025 · CodeBlue on enforcement gaps, June 2026 · Berita RTM, 20 June 2026, on the 402 recorded cases · Bernama, 4 June 2025, on the 76 National Poison Centre cases · Bernama, 29 July 2026, on the RM369 million annual cost estimate
Our answer
We do not dispute the concern of youth uptake and the threat of drug-laced liquids. It reinforces our belief that Malaysia needs strong regulation for vapes.
MOVE calls youth access a crisis. We do not think the Ministry is inventing a problem.
Our disagreement is about easy access. Licensed retailers must train staff to do mandatory age checks at every point of sale for vapes: “Jika Sangsi, Minta IC”.
We believe many retailers would rather be compliant, including convenience stores. They would rather sell approved products and comply with the law of not selling to minors. That is why regulation is critical.
On drug-laced liquids and adulteration, this is a criminal supply problem . We have proposed traceability to the Ministry of Health: a code on every bottle that points to the manufacturer and the ingredients. The proposal was received well and has not been implemented. We continue to advocate for it.
When it comes to youth uptake, education and awareness is also a crucial part of the equation. Harm reduction for smokers looking for an alternative, is not the same as vaping being completely risk-free. MOVE believes that protecting children is non-negotiable.
The criticism · Two Universiti Malaya medical lecturers, writing in Bernama
Writing in Bernama on 1 September 2026, Dr Chong Karleen and Dr Mohd Hafyzuddin Md Yusuf, medical lecturers at Universiti Malaya and fellows of the Nicotine Addiction Research and Collaborating Centre, argued that vape products are “increasingly being used as delivery devices for illicit and psychoactive drugs”.
They point to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports of synthetic cannabinoids, ketamine, methamphetamine and synthetic opioids found in mislabelled liquids, and they cite the Home Ministry’s figures of July 2026: 718.43 kg of vape and e-cigarette products suspected of containing prohibited substances seized since 2023, across 585 arrests and 400 cases, with up to 267 arrests in the first five months of 2026, which they describe as almost twice the total for the whole of 2025.
On young people they cite current use among Malaysians aged 13 to 17 of 14.9 per cent in 2022, up from 9.8 per cent in 2017, and 23.3 per cent among boys, and they point to sweet flavours, packaging and social media as the reasons.
Nicotine, they write, is not an innocent flavouring: it is highly addictive and particularly harmful to children and adolescents whose brains are still developing. Their prescription is education first, through training of trainers, young advocates and responsible media, with consistent enforcement and the measures in Act 852 alongside, which they call essential.
They write that whatever the debate over vaping for adult smokers, there should be no debate about protecting children, non-smokers and young people from nicotine addiction and drug-laced products.
Read it in full: Bernama, “When Vaping Becomes A Drug Delivery Device”, 1 September 2026, an opinion column in Bernama’s Thoughts section. The adolescent figures are the Ministry of Health’s, from the National Health and Morbidity Survey Adolescent Health Survey 2022, analysed in Mohd Yusoff and colleagues, “Trends in e-cigarette use among adolescents in Malaysia, 2016-2022”, Tobacco Induced Diseases, 26 May 2026.
Our answer
We agree with the authors that adulterated liquid is harmful, and that nicotine is for adults and not for the developing brain.
We agree with much of their prescription as well. Consistent enforcement and the measures in Act 852 are what we ask for too, and we support education that keeps young people away from nicotine.
What we call for is set out under Keep it away from minors: rigorous age verification at every physical point of sale, and training for retail workers.
On adulteration itself we have proposed a traceability code on every bottle, described under the Ministry of Health’s criticism; it has not been implemented.
Sources for the recorded case figures: Berita RTM, 20 June 2026, on the 402 recorded synthetic-drug vape cases · Bernama, 4 June 2025, on the 76 National Poison Centre cases.
Youth access is a crisis. Too many young Malaysians can get hold of this product too easily.
Drug-laced liquids are a serious harm. We can propose traceability, argue for enforcement and tell people how to check a product.
We do not have independent Malaysian data on youth uptake. The current national measurement is the Ministry of Health’s own Adolescent Health Survey, most recently in 2022, and there is no independent Malaysian study of youth uptake beside it.
If you think we have got a position wrong, let us know.
MOVE, Malaysian Organization of Vape Entity, "The case against us", last reviewed 23 October 2026, move-malaysia.org/case-against-us.
That is a legitimate place to end up. We invite you to join the list anyway to stay informed on vaping in Malaysia.
Name and email only, used only for MOVE updates. Unsubscribe anytime.
