Starting Sept 1, Singapore to impose increased penalties on vape users, etomidate suppliers

Singapore, Aug 28 (PTI) Singapore will impose increased penalties on vape users and etomidate suppliers while foreigners caught vaping risk having their passes revoked, being deported and banned from re-entering the city-state from September 1, it was announced Thursday.

The stricter drive against the menace also includes issuing nicotine test kits to schools across Singapore amid a sharp rise in vaping among students.

Foreigners caught with e-vaporisers will have their vapes seized, and they will be fined, and Short Term Visit Pass holders who re-offend will be banned from re-entering Singapore, said the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Home Affairs.

There will be some leniency for young vape users and also for foreigners if they are on long-term passes for the first time. However, for the second-time offenders, the foreigners will have to leave the country, said a press release by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The ministries specified the increased monetary fines for first time and repeat offenders and said, the subsequent offence will also include different rehabilitation programmes case wise. Failure to complete the programme will result in prosecution, the press release added.

For a third or subsequent offence, the offender will be prosecuted in court under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act (TCASA) and may be fined up to SGD 2,000, it added.

The new framework also stated fines and punitive measures for the first-time Kpod offenders and second-time abusers and said, offenders who do not complete the rehabilitation programme will be prosecuted.

Apart from the users, the suppliers of etomidate will also receive higher punishment from September 1. The ministries' statement specified the mandatory jail term, monetary fine and even caning for those who import, sell or distribute etomidate.

Explaining the harsher penalties for traffickers, Minister Shanmugam said this distinction between abusers and traffickers mirrors Singapore’s broader drug policy, according to a Channel News Asia report on Thursday.

“They want to make money and profit from the misery of other people,” the Channel had Shanmugam as saying.

Meanwhile, schools across the island state have been issued nicotine test kits amid a sharp rise in vaping among students, the Channel News Asia said in another report on Thursday.

The number of students caught vaping has jumped to an average of 3,100 a year between 2022 and 2024, according to figures from the Ministry of Education (MOE).

In the institutes of higher learning, about 800 students were caught per year during the same period, the Channel report said. PTI GS NPK NPK