News Forum - Thailand’s Tourism Authority reminds visitors of current anti-smoking laws

[Thaiger]

Thailand’s government is reminding tourists of the nation’s current anti-smoking laws. The Tourism Authority of Thailand says travellers should be aware that electronic cigarettes, shishas, and electronic shishas are currently illegal. Furthermore, the TAT says there is no smoking in public areas as part of the broader Tobacco Control Law which aims to promote a …

The story Thailand’s Tourism Authority reminds visitors of current anti-smoking laws as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Skip]

Yet everywhere that one goes there are smokers lighting up and then littering the ground with cigarette butts and no one says anything... go figure

[Smiler]

Most bars in places like nana plaza allow smoking indoors with ashtrays on all of the tables I guess the law doesn’t apply to them? (Not that I have frequented these places)

[TWS60]

This no vaping brain fart began because the anti-tobacco/anti-smoking activists in the West felt like E-cigs were doing an end-run around all the progress they'd made against big tobacco and shaping the public's opinion against smoking over the past several decades. 

Suddenly, all the disgusting cigarette smokers the activists had told us it was ok to treat like sub-human scum unworthy of being alive, were taking up the less offensive Ecigs, and feeling like they could rejoin society, maybe, perhaps?  

ERRRR!  Not so fast, you evil scum bags! 

Queue the increasingly exaggerated commercials with dangerous sounding music demonizing Ecigs, but much was being debunked and dismissed, so the Crusaders defaulted to the oft used unimpeachable mandate - Save the Children.  Whenever you hear that one, hold on to your wallet, and while you're doing that, keep an eye on your basic freedoms and dignity as well. 

Enter Thailand..... generally unable to resist a virtuous looking bandwagon, and to prove they care about it more than the West does, quickly announce a new draconian law they (almost never) think through all the way, often with a laughable disconnect between the threatened prison time and the monetary fine amount, to wit: 

10,000 years in jail, or a 500 Baht Fine.

But it's For the Children, you see, so anything goes. 

And like most social fads and trends, it dies down after a while and we move on to....whatever Facebook tell us we should pretend to care about next.   But those half-baked brain fart laws remain on the books and become convenient platforms for rank and file Thai Police to harass and coerce tourists into paying them a backhander bribe to, you know, Save the Children.

[Mandy]

I'd much rather sit near someone smoking an electronic cigarette, a nice cigar or the sweet smell of cannabis than have to put up with and inhale disgusting stink of cigarette smoke that's damaging my health, I can't believe so many European visitors still smoke with all the knowledge available, you can smell them a mile off even when they're not chuffing away. So get with it governments and give us non smokers a break.

[Leo]

While Thailand, and especially Bangkok, is currently blanketed by PM2.5 pollution..............

You can escape a smoker and an e-cig smoke. How do you escape PM2.5? Maybe the ingenious TAT has an answer.

[Redneck12345]

But your allowed to smoke dope. T.I.T. This is Thailand. 

[MrStretch]

2 minutes ago, Redneck12345 said:

But your allowed to smoke dope. T.I.T. This is Thailand. 

You're not allowed to smoke dope or cigarettes in public.  Either can result in being charged with a crime.

Wanna smoke?  Smoke in private, regardless of what it is.

[DeChrisDeFrance]

On 2/3/2023 at 9:48 AM, Smiler said:

Most bars in places like nana plaza allow smoking indoors with ashtrays on all of the tables I guess the law doesn’t apply to them? (Not that I have frequented these places)

I would like to remember that places like Nana Plaza or Patpong are private adult venues, no underage gusts allowed. The non smoking law does only apply partially in the open. They are not sport activity place or a kids playground.  banning smoking inside the gogo bars will also ban the high spending customer from China and Japan. they are the big spender there not the "farangs" tourists. For those East Asian countries smoking + drinking = fun. Fun = spending money and counting as long as the fun in great and lasts long. The bar "employees" are professional in treating these guests very well and giving them a lot fun.

And btw it smoking or not in there does not affect you as you do not frequent those places 

 

[Soidog]

5 hours ago, MrStretch said:

You're not allowed to smoke dope or cigarettes in public.  Either can result in being charged with a crime.

Wanna smoke?  Smoke in private, regardless of what it is.

Or go in almost any bar and sit next to the sign saying “No Smoking. fine 2,000 Baht” and have a smoke. You can even use the ashtray on the bar table. 
 

The no smoking ban in restaurants and bars happened around 2014. Since then, the Thais seem to have got bored with it and more and more places simply ignore the law. Like most things in Thailand. They have the laws, the don’t have law enforcement. 

[BigHewer]

27 minutes ago, Soidog said:

The no smoking ban in restaurants and bars happened around 2014. Since then, the Thais seem to have got bored with it and more and more places simply ignore the law. Like most things in Thailand. They have the laws, the don’t have law enforcement. 

Spot on. I popped into Gulliver’s on Soi 5 last year to watch the football for the first time in maybe five years. All the ashtrays are back. What was that law again? 

As an aside, the whole place has also rebranded itself as a middle-eastern shisha hangout too, so basically smoke everywhere…

[Marc26]

23 hours ago, BigHewer said:

Spot on. I popped into Gulliver’s on Soi 5 last year to watch the football for the first time in maybe five years. All the ashtrays are back. What was that law again? 

As an aside, the whole place has also rebranded itself as a middle-eastern shisha hangout too, so basically smoke everywhere…

I've stopped going down that soi once it became predominantly Middle Eastern

 

We used to stay in the Amari there but I don't care for Middle Eastern guests in hotels

 

I tbink they are rude and also don't mind their children 

 

And I think they sucked the life out of Soi 5

 

 

I used to love Gulliver’s 

That was a great spot