Vaping Import/Export Ban Clarified

I’m intending to visit Thailand within the next couple of months and expect to take an e-cigarette starter kit and a significant quantity of nicotine liquid through Suvarnabhumi as a gift for my girlfriend, who is trying to give up smoking. I don’t personally smoke, but it sounds from this thread as if I ought not to have any problems going through customs if I pretend the gear is for my own use. Is that a reasonable assumption?

What seems to be less clear is whether following my return to the UK I can send her further supplies of nicotine liquid by post without customs intercepting and confiscating it. What is people’s experience of doing this? It may be that if even supplies marked as “gift” are liable to be seized, I may have to take her enough of everything she is going to need until my next visit.

 

People send as baking flavours. Of course no way packing together with gear. Don't know if that works for Thailand, too.

 

Thanks for your rapid reply. It looks as if the interpretation of the law has changed considerably even since March, when Lyss suggested in post#53 of this thread that according to section 10 of the Tobacco Products Control Act B.E.2535 (1992) only import for sale was banned.

Unfortunately I think I’m going to have to put the lithium ion batteries in hand baggage as most airlines won’t allow them in checked baggage for fire safety reasons. Hopefully customs won’t get too nosey about what they’re for.

The penalties for getting caught using e-cigarettes are truly scary and represent a huge change in police attitudes to public vaping. I’ll discuss with my girlfriend whether she wants to take the risk of vaping at home, but she may feel she has no choice. She has a number of serious smoking-related health issues and has been told that she faces an early death if she cannot stop. So far nothing she has tried has worked, and e-cigarettes were very much her last hope.

 

There is always the option to buy everything you need here in Thailand!

There are a lot of online shops here and they mostly send it through EMS which only takes a couple of days. You can even buy it from abroad here in Thailand if you tranfer the money to their account.

So she can already start vaping before you arrive here!

 

Great find...

I wonder if the guy who was arrested and fined for vaping,
should contact his lawyer, and show the BIB ,this clip, and get an apology AND a refund...

 

@Siam Diesel

I am going to Thailand soon, and I use ecig too. I spent hours to find info about it's banned or not, and your video gave me a hope. But, today I have found article on Russian site. Can't create link because I am new here. But if you want to read it via google translate for example, delete all spaces in the following
goo . gl / 92QWQK

It's in Russian language, but in short, he was driving and was stopped near by police department. As a result of the search ecig was found. He was taken to the police station where the law about forbidding ecig was showed. In result, he paid about 21 thousands bahts.

The artcle was published yesterday. I have found the simillar and they are 2-3 days old. Therefore, the case is new. Maybe the police just cheated him to earn some money.

 

Nothing has changed. The police will take any opportunity to scam money from farang. When I drive if I approach a road block, and there are many, I simply put the mod under my seat. I have never heard of police going through the trouble of doing a complete search of a vehicle unless they have reason to believe something is wrong. That is really very rare. I do not take my vaping equipment into public places. I know people who do but that is risky at the moment. Basically I vape at home or in my car. If they get to the point of crashing into peoples homes on this issue I will be reluctantly moving even though I have been a resident for more than 20 years.

 

@Chodi Yeah, you could put it under seat or another place in a car. But, a lot of tourists use bikes. And, bikes are stopped very often by police. I was in Phuket in the beginning of the year for 3 months, and I believe I was stopped 3-4 times. I usually spent winter in Thailand because it's very cold in my contry . I think I should consider another conuntry for my wintering.

 

I used Bikes in Thailand for years both big and small. I also always owned a car. Now I would not consider driving a bike in Pattaya it is far too dangerous. Things have changed completely here in the many years I have lived in Pattaya. If you drive a bike here now you are taking a serious risk. If you are on holiday rent a car.