Let’s be honest, 5,000 baht, or approximately SGD$216, is a lot of money.
Especially if you a a cigarette-toting person making his/her yearly pilgrimage to Chatuchak (CTC) in search of basement bargain deals.
For which SGD$216 may actually amount to your entire day’s budget going towards 47 dresses, 3 coconut ice-cream to fight the thirst, 2 bowls of boat noodles (there’s only two noteworthy ones in CTC; one chicken and one pork), 2 massages and maybe one miscellaneous snack of your choice ranging from Moo Ping to some of em’ quail eggs.
If you don’t know what is CTC, here’s an image of it that will light(en) up your life.
Anywayly, Thailand commercial aside, let’s get back to the issue at hand.
The 3 Feb smoking ban in Thailand.
First reported (or at least to me) by Thaiger in November last year, the ban has now been effected as of 3 February, and if you’re caught smoking in no-smoking zone, you can say goodbye to 47 dresses, 3 coconut ice-cream to fight the thirst, 2 bowls of boat noodles, 2 massages and maybe one miscellaneous snack of your choice ranging from Moo Ping to some of em’ quail eggs as the fine is 5,000 baht.
In a nutshell and according to World of Buzz:
“According to Thaiger, the Thai Public Health Ministry has announced that smokers cannot simply light up anywhere they want starting from February 3. This new rule means that smokers will have to be at least five metres away from any entrances or exits of any public buildings.”
Some of these non-smoking areas include (this is an in-exhaustive list):
- Condos
- Rental establishments
- Pubs
- Hotels
- Religious buildings
- Restaurants
- Salons
- Karaoke buildings
- Laundries
- Parking lots
- Cinemas
- Spas and Thai massage areas
- Hospitals and clinics
- Swimming pools
- Schools
- Fitness parks
- Markets
- Bus stops
According to Thaiger, the regulation also specifies “precisely where internal smoking areas in buildings may be located.”
Same Same but Different and also Different Time
If this sounds familiar, there should be three reasons contributing to this sense of deja-vu.
First up would be the ban on smoking eateries in Malaysia that took place on January 2019.
According to ST:
“Those caught smoking in prohibited areas will be fined up to RM10,000 (S$3,300) or face two years’ jail, while eateries found to have allowed customers to light up will be slapped with a maximum fine of RM2,500.
Smokers are, however, permitted to light up 3m away from the establishments. Besides tobacco products, vape and shisha with nicotine have also been included in the ban.”
While Malaysia’s one was a specific ban on smoking in all eateries, it may be considered a mere wet blanket ban considering Thailand’s way more expansive blanket ban which includes eateries and restaurants alongside way more establishments and building types.
But really, deep at heart and as a Singaporean, you would already have been living this reality of a blanket ban for as long as you can remember.
Because this was essentially under the purview of the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act which was introduced in 1970.
And the reason why we would have thought it offensive if we were to smell smoke in certain buildings elsewhere (not Singapore) which would inevitably draw comparison to the antiseptic, surgical room smell that most local malls and buildings have.
Yes, despite the legislation being a whopping 49 years old, we are still actuating it today.
Third and lastly, apart from Malaysia and Thailand, Singapore had in recent times too, updated of its smoking ban.
In 2017 and 2018, smoking was banned in universities and within 5 metres of educational compounds, while in 2018, the 5 metres rule was extended to include from bus stops and this:
Chim…
Yup, I’ll call it. That this “metered” rule can be credited to us.
And really, point 3.5 out of the 3 reasons would be our most recent smoking ban facelift which was the 1 Jan Orchard smoking ban.
It comes replete with 40 yellows boxes to smoke in, an exhaustive map to navigate with, a cool QR code thingy that gives you the locations of the smoking boxes and many NEA officers patrolling the street.
If you still don’t know about this ban and intend to smoke in Orchard later, be warned or just read our damn article on it here lah.
No smoking in Orchard, no smoking in Malaysia makan places, no anyhowly smoking in Thailand?
Maybe smokers should just quit altogether.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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