The controversy created by the order to run after those using electronic cigarette (vapes) in public must be addressed.
Several officials, including those in local government units and even members of Congress, do not know whether there is legal basis to implement the action, although there have been documented orders in the national level to implement it.
Dr. Ashley Lopez, head of the Vices Regulatory Unit of the city government, said it is hard to curb the use of these smoking instruments because there is no law, either local or national, that regulates its sale or even use.
Just to be sure, both bodies of legislature, be it Congress or those councils in the local levels, must formulate comprehensive policies to cover the issue.
But even without these policies, health officials both in the local and national levels, must also come up with comprehensive information programs to educate not just those using these alternative cigarettes, but also the public in general about the hazards of using these instruments.
The reason that smoking, despite its dangers, and to great extent using of prohibit drugs, has become a big problem, because the campaign to arrest the problem was way, way late. In fact, because cigarettes are taxed, government has not even totally banned these products from stores even when manufacturers are ordered to put on their levels the dangers that they bring to human body.
Knowledge on the danger of using these instruments, not policies, will push users to stop using them.
