Malaysia’s vape ban plan leaves 1.4 million users in regulatory limbo

South China Morning Post · Feb 22, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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The vapes used to be obvious. Bright displays of flavoured liquid, a shop just down the road, a transaction as unremarkable as buying shampoo. Batrisyia, 28, remembers how easy it was.Those days are gone. Or rather, in Malaysia at least, the trade has moved under the table.“It’s definitely less open now,” said Batrisyia, a Johor native who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for fear of backlash. “You don’t see big vape displays like before, and we can’t buy online any more. But it hasn’t disappeared. Some shops sell quietly behind the counter or in the back.”She paused, holding a slim, pen-like device in her hand. “You just have to ask for it.”A tobacco product and vape display at a convenience store in Malaysia’s Penang state in 2024. Photo: ShutterstockThe device is almost elegant in its simplicity: swap out the small pod cartridge, pick a flavour, inhale the vapour. It leaves no lingering smell on clothes or hands, none of cigarettes’ telltale signs. For Batrisyia, discretion was always part of the appeal.In her small town of Pontian, at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia, that discretion has taken on a new dimension.