In modern, free-trading Mexico, the number of products that are impossible to find has shrunk considerably over the years: size 15 shoes and XXL shirts and underwear are still a problem; tobacco substitutes are a newcomer to the list.
Two decades have nearly passed since Mexico enacted a new law to crack down on the use of tobacco, securing smoke-free public spaces and buildings everywhere, and generating widespread awareness among smokers of the rights of non-smokers to be free from the toxic clouds exhaled by the users of the stuff when shopping, eating out, or waiting for a bus.
What it hasn’t achieved is to cut down on the number of smokers in the country, according to some reports. Whether that’s because not enough has been done to discourage smoking, or because people who smoke don’t really care to quit, is anybody’s guess.
Props to help those who do want to give up —including nicotine patches, nicotine gum, lozenges, etc.— disappeared from drugstores across the country a while ago, although a form of nicotine lozenges have been making a comeback.
Imports of electronic cigarettes (vaping devices) have been outlawed by presidential decree, citing World Health Organization data concerning the practice. Notices have since have been posted in customs halls and some travelers are having vaping products confiscated when their personal items are examined.
The ban on the —highly profitable, by the way— sale of loose cigarettes has been widely ignored. These are still openly available on thousands of street stalls, at markets, outside Metro stations, at traffic lights. In some districts where health inspectors have shown up to admonish vendors in breach of the ban, the sale stopped for a while and then resumed surreptitiously among trusted customers. But if the prohibition was aimed at keeping cigarettes out of the hands of minors, it could be said to have worked. At least you’d be hard pressed to find vendors selling tobacco to the under-aged, and this is true of local shops as well.
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I don’t see many people in Guanajuato City vaping or smoking for that matter. There are still smokers, but not as many as I’d see in the US.
Was taxed 620% tax on nicorette capsules, when entering Mexico. Yes 620%. Ridiculous as this is not a vaping product. It is over the counter nicorette. BEWARE!
Lorne,
How much did you take? I few a box of 170 per week. Yikes, I know. And I use nicotine pouches (non tobacco). I mean to be in Mexico a few months. Customs isn’t clear on this. But 620%?.. I might leave the overage with the guards and take the allowed on into the country. Any suggestions?