A vacationing American who arrives in Cancun this year with a vape in his bag is now considered a criminal. He is not viewed as a smoker, or a nuisance of any description whatsoever, but an actual criminal, guilty of illegal importation under a federal health law that took effect in January. It makes no difference whether the device he is bringing through contains nicotine or whether he means to sell it. Possession in the bag constitutes the whole offence, with seemingly no mitigation entertained by the Mexican authorities.
The going rate is a fine of two to five hundred dollars, payable to a customs officer who has probably spent the morning shaking down a queue of confused tourists in shorts, all of whom were almost certainly completely unaware of this new legislation. The Mexican Senate passed the reform in December, and the airports have been enforcing it rigorously ever since, as they are designated federal zones where the rules are taken seriously.
Six miles away, on a beach popular with tourists, these same laws are not taken seriously in the slightest. It’s not uncommon to see someone walking up and down the sand at Medano, selling the exact same product from a tray, and nobody bothers him. Oddly, he seems to be the only person in the country that the new law has actively helped – he and all the other hawkers and vendors peddling vapes in tourist areas.
Spare-Charger Felony
The law has a feature that probably warrants wider appreciation, so we attempt to explain. First and foremost, it never says how many vapes a person is allowed to carry. This is relevant, as it is not an oversight so much as a gift to the enforcing officer: a traveler with one vape is a fined tourist, and a traveler with two is potentially a trafficker. Bringing a spare, arguably the very thing a normal person does with anything that runs out of charge, can be read as intent to distribute, and intent to distribute is not a fine but an actual felony.
Whether the second device makes a man a smoker with a backup or a potential cartel distributor is a matter of interpretation, and that interpretation is made by whoever happens to be on shift.
Secondly, medical excuses are not accepted. A note from a doctor confirming the vape is how the man quit cigarettes is worth nothing, because the law refuses to see a difference between a quitting aid and a toy. It recognizes a battery joined to a heating coil, and it bans that. The reformed smoker trying not to relapse on holiday and the teenager after a cotton-candy cloud are, in the eyes of the statute, the same menace. You can see how that could be deeply problematic and unfair.
Mystery Devices of Unknown Origin
The strangeness only deepens once the tourist gets past customs (presumably a little poorer and now quite rattled), and reaches the resort strip. The vape confiscated at the airport is on open sale in the Zona Romantica, under the counter in the smoke shops, and out in the sun on the tray of the beach vendor, who has read the same federal health law as everyone else and concluded, quite correctly, that it does not apply to him. All of these sales are illegal, too. None of them are being stopped, because stopping them on the strip would mean leaving the arrivals hall, where the work is easy.
The few who are aware of this new law and left their vape device at home must now buy a mystery one of unknown strength and quality from a stranger on the beach within an hour of checking in. It’s either that or take up smoking cigarettes again.
Mexico is not being singled out here. Thailand declared similar laws a few years ago. Either way, the end result is always the same: vapes keep selling, and the state spends its energy on the one group guaranteed to comply, which is tourists who read the entry requirements. The country’s actual smuggling problem – the one involving substances that kill people after decades of failed enforcement – continues undisturbed.
Somewhere Sensible
It is worth acknowledging that other countries manage nicotine without any similar theatrics. Britain decided years ago that vaping gets people off cigarettes and simply left them to it. A person there buys his device and his refills from a vape superstore the same way he buys aspirin, and no one frisks him for it at the airport. The product is regulated, taxed, and sold to adults, who are treated as adults. As you might imagine, British public health did not, of course, collapse. It got much better, with smoking rates at their lowest ever, which is the part Mexico appears to have overlooked while confiscating pods from Idaho pensioners or Floridian spring breakers.
In summary, the advice for Americans flying south is really quite simple. Leave the vape at home, because the airport is the one place this law works, and the uniformed officer is not interested in your doctor’s note. Just buy a worse one off the beach when you land, like everyone else does. The beach vendors will be delighted, at least.
