SIBU: The Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth Wing has reaffirmed its firm support for the government’s escalating efforts to curtail the rising tide of vaping, particularly among young people in Malaysia and called on authorities to redouble educational outreach and enforcement, commensurate with recent tax increases on vaping liquids.
Chairman of SUPP Youth, Cr Kevin Lau Kor Jie voiced full backing for the government’s direction, asserting that the current strategy while welcome must be ramped up to meet the scale of the problem.
“We applaud the government’s recent increases in excise and regulatory measures on vaping liquids. This shows seriousness,” said Lau in a press statement on Wednesday.
“But tax hikes alone will not solve the crisis. We must increase by ten-fold our efforts in education, prevention, surveillance, and enforcement, or risk seeing Malaysia’s youth become the next generation harmed by nicotine addiction and long-term health damage.
“If we raise taxes on vaping liquid tenfold to discourage usage, we must raise our public education, inspection capacity, enforcement budgets, and prosecution readiness by the same factor. Anything less is a mismatch and a potential failure,” he said.
According to Lau, areas that require tenfold boosts include public education campaigns, schools and community outreach, inspection, surveillance, and monitoring, legal and judicial readiness and support for cessation programmes.
“We cannot treat young vapers merely as wrongdoers; many started unaware of the dangers. We need intervention, counselling, and safe pathways to quit, not just punishment,” he said.
“We support the government’s vision of eventually banning vaping, however, as they manoeuvre in that direction, the current emphasis would need to be focused on the foundational infrastructure of education, enforcement and public awareness. A sudden ban needs to be supported by groundwork otherwise pushing the trade fully underground and creating black-market chaos.”
He added that globally, health professionals are sounding the alarm. Numerous studies now signal that vaping is far from harmless, especially for adolescents and young adults.
Medical experts warn that nicotine exposure during adolescence can impair brain development, exacerbate risks of addiction, and lead to long-term cognitive and cardiovascular harm.
At the European Society of Cardiology Congress in 2025, doctors highlighted research linking vaping to increased arterial stiffness, elevated blood pressure, and a nearly 32 per cent higher risk of stroke effects especially worrisome for developing bodies and cardiovascular systems.
“When youth are armed with knowledge with the understanding of health risks caused by e-cigarettes and vapes, they would be less vulnerable to peer pressure and empower our youth to stay away from potentially drug-laced vapes protecting our future generations,” he said.
