Consumer protection advocates on Tuesday issued an urgent call to revise regulations for tobacco and other products after it found that e-cigarettes and date-rape drugs can be easily purchased on Shopee.
An investigation by the Consumer Protection Association in Taiwan found multiple vendors on the Singapore-based site selling colorful candies as a cover for e-cigarettes.
Through these vendors, it is possible to buy an e-cigarette cartridge for only NT$150, or a full set with a heating element for NT$800, the association said.
Sellers have been adapting their tactics as the government debates the best way to regulate novel cigarette products through the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法).
Meanwhile, e-cigarette use among young people is on the rise, association president Grace Yang (楊月雲) told a news conference.
Between 2014 and 2019, the percentage of high-school students who use e-cigarettes rose from 2.1 to 5.6 percent, she said, citing a Ministry of Health and Welfare survey.
This works out to an estimated 36,000 students across Taiwan, she added.
The US Food and Drug Administration restricts underage people from buying e-cigarettes, but Taiwan has yet to set any regulations, Yang said.
The Legislative Yuan had planned to discuss an amendment to the tobacco hazards act in June, but it was postponed to the next session, she added, stating the urgency of the matter.
Apart from e-cigarettes, the association also discovered date-rape drugs such as gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) labeled with their formal names for sale on Shopee for only NT$399 each.
GHB is a potent central nervous system depressant that can cause memory loss, grogginess, nausea and other symptoms, association medical committee member Liu Li-fen (劉麗芬) said.
As it is colorless and odorless, it is a often used as a date-rape drug that can be surreptitiously added to a person’s drink, she said.
This issue requires strict investigation, the association said, calling on central and local governments to pressure platforms into taking down inappropriate products or blocking vendors.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS