Vaping Hungary: a blog primer

So many of you asked me at GFN16 in Warsaw about what is going on in Hungary, I decided to dedicate a blog to such news and updates. I outline the current situation and a bit of its background below. Any future events and updates will come as additional posts.

2012

The local association consisting of happy vapers is being founded, in a calm vaping-neutral time.

The under-secretary of PH sends a fax to the head of customs expressing his opinion on e-liquids containing nicotine being a medicinal product, therefore requiring medicinal licence to be sold. No such law ever existed here to back his claim. Suffice to say, witch-hunting against vendors commence, seizing goods and launching prosecutions. Most of the vendors stop selling juices with nicotine, some of them open sister companies across the border to circumvent the problem.

I send a petition to the EC asking them to put an end to the unlawful practices of local authorities (Petition 1813/12).

Full disclosure: back then I had a tiny vaping business with my girlfriend, importing products from one US brand, because we liked their liquids. Customs started a case against us as well, but dropped it soon after. Our seized batch and company were probably too small, hence the luck. We decided to let the vaping business go, and I turned to advocacy.

In the meantime the registration of the local association completes and the group finds itself in the maelstrom of a war against vaping.

EVP 2015 Budapest. Photo: Balázs Bebek

2013

The Penal Code is being updated, treating the sales of unlicensed medicinal products as criminal offense, vaping vendors with nicotine products therefore now face the threat of criminal prosecution and 3 years of jail-time.

The EC closes the investigation of my claims and reaches the conclusion that everything is fine in Hungary. This is all based on the word of one undisclosed Hungarian authority (probably one I accused of unlawful practices) claiming that everything with more than 1.5mg of nicotine is treated as a medicinal product by law. Again, no such law ever existed in Hungary. I am shocked by the incompetence of the EC, but I don't file a complaint, to avoid making enemies in the Petition Committee, they might come handy at a later point.

The government revokes all rights to sell tobacco products from everyone, and re-partitions the market with a non-transparent application process for permits to open National Tobacconists. Surprisingly most of the permits land in the hands of government friends and relatives.

News about the looming TPD gets more and more scary, so I start preparing the ECI European Free Vaping Initiative.

2014

We visit the National Institute for Health to talk some sense into the head of tobacco control about e-cigarettes. Lack of success, mountains of ignorance, and he is surprised about our 3rd gen devices being e-cigs.

EFVI kicks off, enthusiastic vapers from around Europe take national campaigning into their hands.

PH tries to sneak in a stealth bill to classify e-cigs as medicinal products. According to ECP (an independent, non-registered vaping advocacy group) their members notice it and successfully lobby at the then current under-secretary and manage to sink the bill. My hands are so full I do not even notice the bloody stealth bill.

The first vendor witch-hunt court case concludes, the vendor is acquitted, but the judge does not dismiss PH's claims on nicotine products being medicinal. Virtually there are no expert witnesses in this field in Hungary without ties to PH or Big Pharma.

EFVI concludes with about 181.000 signatures.

Protest at the Parliament, Dec. 2015. Photo: Zoltán Matula

2015

The remaining vendor witch-hunt court cases conclude, the verdicts acquitting the vendors, as well as classifying e-liquids with nicotine as consumer products, and rejecting PH's claim that products with nicotine content are automatically medicinal products. The first expert witness to break the tide is Dr Farsalinos, the second is Dr Miklós Angyal, who turns out to be the odd-one-out of local expert witnesses. The Hungarian legal system is not precedent based, so the authorities claim these to be isolated cases and they don't officially back off. Unofficially the harassment of vendors seems to be lightening up after these.

We join the European Vapers' Protest with a demonstration next to the main offices of the PH ministry, media does not give a damn. I prepare a 20 pages long speech, people cry. In exhaustion. ;)

In October the bill comes to implement the TPD into local law, they give the public about 1.5 days to comment on it. All comments are ignored.

In November PH starts its full-scale smear campaign against vaping in the media. PH bodies publish a 16 pages long official report on vaping, full of blatant lies, twisted and cherry-picked evidence. The local association publishes a 40 pages long essay debunking and disproving PH's report, no one seems to care.

I file a Whistleblower Complaint with the Ombudsman detailing all the horrific errors and problems in PH's official report. The Ministry of Human Resources sweeps it under the rug, and investigates none of the reported issues. I file a complaint with the Ombudsman against the practice of the Ministry of Human Resources, case pending.

I file numerous Freedom of Information Requests with PH bodies to obtain answers and documents to investigate the background of their horribly awry report on vaping. They reject every single one of them with bogus excuses (except for one who decides to stonewall instead).

In a surprising turn of events the leftmost and the rightmost opposing parties stand up in defense of vaping in the Parliament. Their amendments and the hearing of independent experts (us) get rejected at the meeting of the Committee on Social Welfare. The bill goes on unchanged.

We organize a huge demonstration beside the Parliament building before the day of the final voting, with speeches on stage and a video wall playing videos sent by vapers all day long, the media does not care. Next day the bill passes and becomes law.

Although we beg him not to do so, the President of the Republic signs the law without sending it to the Constitutional Court to check it for possible conflicts with the Constitution.

For the victims of TPD, Dec. 2015. Photo: ecigitesztek.hu

2016

The opposing parties in support of vaping request a post-vote conflict check and annulment of the vaping related clauses of the new law from the Constitutional Court, case pending.

Me and the local association exercise our constitutional rights and go to court to sue PH bodies for unlawfully rejecting our Freedom of Information Requests, cases pending.

On 20 May, the new law comes into effect (details below).

Vendors prepare a Constitutional Complaint for the annulment of the clauses banning online sales and the prohibition of independent vape shops.

I prepare a Constitutional Complaint for the annulment of the clause prohibiting vaping where smoking is prohibited.

The state of vaping in Hungary today

• Full TPD implementation, plus some forward-thinking (their words, not mine) additions.
• Vaping is prohibited where smoking is prohibited, violation comes with the same fines.
• I campaign amongst the vapers who are forced to designated smoking areas to be kind to smokers and act as vaping ambassadors instead of being sour victims.
• The legal vacuum around juices with nicotine is now over, probably the only positive outcome of the TPD.
• Vaping vendors had to close shop, only a selected amount of National Tobacconists are allowed to sell vaping products. Some vendors managed to change their business model and supply said tobacconists with proper products. Thanks to this the availability of products is somewhat scarce, but not dead.
• No one is sure what will happen to the product range after the six months transitional period.
• Online sales are banned. No one knows yet whether it is cross-border or local only.
• The minute details of the regulation are declared in an accompanying government decree, so it might be changed anytime without being voted on.
• There seems to be a spike of interest in vaping amongst smokers, apparently bad press is still press. Not sure yet whether it is a pattern or a temporary phenomenon.
• Over the past year whenever the Luddites of PH appeared on screen, most of the time we also had the opportunity to tell a few sentences about the facts. Despite this, the scaremongering with junk science still covers the majority of vaping related journalism.
• Rumours: a looming threat of banning flavours, future extra sin-taxes, and the cannibalization of the vaping supply chain under a government agency.

Preparing for the TPD, May 2016.

Famous quotes from our local 'experts'

'It smokes without nicotine due to theatrical fog machine parts.' - a lung specialist on e-cigs

'We don't want it to spread any further.' - the under-secretary on harm reduction

'It can only be consumed safely anally.' - a lung specialist on VG

'While there is debate the government will consider it to be equally harmful.' - the under-secretary on vaping vs smoking
'Nicotine is a known carcinogen.' - a lung specialist recommending NRT to smokers