Mexico has brought into force one of the world's strictest anti-tobacco laws by enacting a total ban on smoking in public places.
The step, which was first approved in 2021, also includes a ban on tobacco advertising.
Several other Latin American countries have also passed legislation to create smoke-free public spaces.
However, Mexico's legislation is considered to be the most robust and wide-ranging in the Americas.
It amounts to one of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world. Mexico's existing 2008 law - which created smoke-free spaces in bars, restaurants and workplaces - is now extended to an outright ban in all public spaces. That includes parks, beaches, hotels, offices and restaurants.
There will also be a total ban on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, meaning that cigarettes cannot even be on show inside shops.
So, 2008 is quite late on to be enacting an indoor workplace ban, and if I'm reading this right, the current legislation is the first ban on advertising. That is very late. I've checked; there were less wide reaching advertising bans at least as early as 2008 (presumably part of the same reform package).
However, as far as I know, no-one's actually banned smoking in public places like parks before. Auckland wanted to do it eleven years ago... which would bring it in line with alcohol bans in most public parks... but did not. NZ recently outlawed selling tobacco to everyone born after 2008 (as in, they will never be old enough to buy it), but this won't be the same as a use ban for, what, another 80 years? Bhutan had a sale and production (but not import) ban, though seems to have got rid of it due to smuggling, while Turkmenistan might have? Wikipedia is not sure. The Pitcairn Islands have also walked back a sale ban. So, despite being relatively slow to get going, Mexico now has some of the toughest anti-smoking policies in the world.
It is heartening to see that there's a healthy scepticism of vaping embedded in this current reform package. It is totally crazy to me how wholeheartedly some countries have embraced vaping without first establishing whether it's safe. Have we not learnt from, for example, smoking?
Now, there are some practical concerns with this kind of control. If you see someone smoking in a public place, what do you do? Nevertheless, its heart is in the right place.
So, what's the counter-argument to banning smoking outright? The ethical case is, obviously, predicated on the ability of an individual's smoking being unable to influence or affect other individuals. Since we know this is a set of false premises, the arguments against smoking regulation have tended to be entirely practical. As the Bhutan example demonstrates, it can be the case that anti-smoking policies fail because of bad actors being too numerous. On the other hand, there is a wealth of evidence that most regulations actually succeed.
Now, I should point out that there is maybe some point to distinguishing between "grow your own" tobacco consumption and the tobacco industry. It quite simply should not be legal to sell products that kill your customers even if the customers use your product correctly (e.g. driving a car off a cliff is an improper use, buying a gun and shooting yourself with it is an improper use). However, cultivating your own tobacco plant and smoking it or whatever is different on a fundamental level. Yes, there's still concerns about other people, but if you lived by yourself on a 100 hectares, then that's evidently different to smoking in a public place.
Anyway, what say ye, NSG? Is it racist to suggest that Mexico's police forces are too corrupt to enforce this new legislation?
Others have raised questions about the practicalities of enforcing the law.
With police corruption so rampant in Mexico, many fear that rather than issuing real fines or punishments for smoking in public, some officers will use it as a pretext for taking bribes.
Or is there no real difference between getting caught smoking and the cop pocketing the fine, and getting caught smoking and the cop sending the fine to the taxman? I guess they could take the bribe and continue to let you smoke...
