An “electronic cigarette inspection team” is to target ports of entry, night markets and the Internet, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in response to police concerns and a media report of e-cigarettes laced with methamphetamine bought from a Chinese web site.
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday said that in Taiwan, e-cigarettes are pharmaceutical products that cannot be sold without registration of the product and are not permitted to be sold online in accordance with the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法).
According to the Chinese-language United Daily News, police tested an e-cigarette being smoked in Taipei after being alerted to its smell and found that it contained methamphetamine, a Category 2 narcotic specified by the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
The man, surnamed Wen (溫), denied that he was knowingly using the drug and was quoted in the report as telling the police that he purchased the “green-apple-flavored” e-cigarettes on a Chinese shopping Web site earlier this month, because he wanted to kick his smoking habit.
He found his urge for cigarettes decreased, along with acquiring an increased alertness, after using the device for a week.
Wen said he was shocked by the test result and joked that he expected to quit smoking by using electronic cigarettes, not by using narcotics. He was nevertheless placed under investigation as a drug suspect.
Police were quoted in the news report as raising concerns about similar online purchases leading to addiction and drug abuse.
The FDA said that nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes are regulated as pharmaceutical products in accordance with the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act and are required to be registered and approved before being put on the market, or else be banned as counterfeit or prohibited drugs.
Making claims about the product’s effectiveness in quitting smoking, or even lessening people’s urge to smoke, is equally outlawed by the act, the administration added.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
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