India Plans to Ban E-Cigarettes, as Global Backlash Intensifies

New York Times report (Maria Abi-Habib and Shalini Venugopal Bhagat, with reporting from Beijing) on India’s planned ban, situating it within the global vaping crackdown and Juul’s regulatory troubles. Quotes Samrat Chowdhery, named as director of AVI, at length: comparing the ban to India’s long-ineffective marijuana prohibition, arguing vaping products function like nicotine patches or gum for smokers trying to quit, and warning a ban would just push e-cigarettes onto an unregulated black market — “we won’t know what’s actually inside these products.” Ran in print on page A4 of the New York edition, 20 Sept 2019.