Brazil Federal Highway Police: Easing E-cigarette Ban Won't Reduce Smuggling

Sep.18.2024
Brazil Federal Highway Police: Easing E-cigarette Ban Won't Reduce Smuggling
Brazil's Federal Highway Police (PRF) believes lifting the e-cigarette ban won't reduce smuggling activities, expressing concerns to health authorities.

According to Uol on September 17th, the Brazilian Federal Highway Police (PRF) believe that even if Brazil lifts the ban on e-cigarettes, it will not reduce smuggling activities.


During a meeting in September, Robinson Barreirinhas, the director of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service, expressed concerns to Antonio Barra Torres, director of the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), about the ban on e-cigarettes. Barreirinhas believed that efforts to combat smuggling would be futile.


The PRF's opinion was signed by the then acting operations director Jeferson Almeida Moraes, and was cited in the vote by Anvisa director Antonio Barra Torres and board member Meiruze Sousa Freitas in April of this year to maintain the ban on e-cigarette sales.


The document provides a detailed account of PRF's actions in combating the smuggling and internal sale of e-cigarettes, emphasizing the department's consistent belief in the importance of maintaining the ban on e-cigarettes.


Barreirinhas wrote in the article,


In forums addressing border security and combating transnational crime, we also maintain that maintaining the ban is the best choice for the nation of Brazil.


There is no reason to believe that smuggling of e-cigarettes would decrease once they are regulated in Brazil. On the contrary, if e-cigarettes are regulated like other banned products, we can expect smuggling activities to increase sharply.


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