Argentina has ended its prohibition of vapes and other safer nicotine products. Tobacco harm reduction advocates welcome the repeal as an overdue admission that bans do not work. But they still have some worries about the country’s new direction.
Since 2011, Argentina had banned the sale, advertisement, distribution and importation of vapes and related products, which many people use to quit smoking. Fifteen years of prohibition ended when the health ministry approved Resolution 549/2026 on April 30, publishing it in the government’s Official Gazette on May 4.
The repeal, which took effect immediately, ushers in a different approach: regulation. A new regulatory framework—the Registry of Tobacco and Nicotine Products—will apply to vapes, heated tobacco products (HTP) and nicotine pouches. This is intended to oversee product registration, marketing and standards.
Argentina has a high smoking rate, and advocates say the dramatic move will help reduce over 30,000 annual smoking-related deaths.
“For years, millions of Argentine adults using vaping, HTPs or nicotine pouches were left without consumer protection or quality standard,” Federico N. Fernández, an Argentine and CEO of We Are Innovation, a network of innovators and think tanks, told Filter.
“What the Ministry of Health has done is replace ideology with evidence.”
Argentina’s government acknowledged that prohibition of these products had not eradicated them—far from it. The Ministry cited a 2025 survey showing vape use was at 35.5 percent amongst secondary students, despite the ban. A substantial unregulated market exists, and unregulated vendors have little incentive to check ID.
“What the Ministry of Health has done is replace ideology with evidence,” Fernández said. “Argentines are already using them, and the state’s job is to regulate intelligently rather than pretend otherwise.”
Aylèn Van Isseldyk lives in Córdoba, Argentina, and is the founder of THR, Ethics and Sustainability, an international policy initiative. She told Filter the repeal signifies a transition towards public policies “grounded in evidence and rationality.”
“For years, consumers were exposed to products devoid of quality controls [and] traceability,” Van Isseldyk said. This created “unnecessary risks” for people, including the possibility of contaminated counterfeit products “frequently produced by hand or smuggled,” as well as the threat of criminalization.
“This initiative diminishes smuggling and the availability of hazardous products, prioritizing the authentic protection of public health through effective regulation rather than the mere facade of prohibition,” Van Isseldyk said.
Harm reduction advocates had long called for the repeal, and its confirmation is all the more notable when it runs counter to the direction of travel in many parts of the world. But not everyone is full of optimism about the new landscape, and much will depend on details of new regulations.
“It’s possible that the product registration standards … could be effectively a covert ban.”
Dr. Diego Verrastro is a general surgeon in Argentina. He formerly smoked, and is cofounder and former spokesperson of RELDAT (Latin American network for harm associated with smoking), and coauthor at Smoke-Free Sweden. While it is “great news” that the ban has been lifted, he told Filter, he doesn’t believe the decision to do so was steeped in harm reduction.
“Since the lifting of the ban is only an administrative provision and not law,” he said, “it’s possible that the product registration standards, besides being extremely expensive for the region’s economy, and the future standards for biochemical analysis, could be effectively a covert ban.”
If so, “None of the producers, and many international ones, will be able to comply,” Verrastro continued. “The same thing is happening in Chile with the ‘fine print’ of its regulations; a market that will be stillborn before it even sees the light of day.”
Moreover, he noted, major restrictions remain, which will hamper the effectiveness of safer nicotine products for harm reduction by limiting their visibility and attractiveness.
Since the new approach forbids shops from advertising the products or providing information on them, Verrastro said, vape shops will be “mere distributors,” rather than the harm reduction hubs they might have been.
Flavors will meanwhile be limited to tobacco and menthol, when a full range best aids switching—something Verrastro suspects is “ aimed at the tobacco industry” and which, he said, ensures that “the informal market will continue” to supply the flavors people want.
The influential United States Food and Drug Administration recently approved some vapes in other flavors for the first time—though the move came with significant caveats. “I hope [with] the change in leadership at the FDA, this will become more flexible, and that we can raise our heads and learn something from them,” Verrastro said.
Fernández accepts the validity of such criticisms, but said that “normal growing pains” should be expected in a major transition. “No regulatory framework arrives perfect.”
The restrictions on flavors need to be looked at, he continued, when “Evidence from Sweden and other innovative nicotine success stories shows that flavor diversity helps adult smokers make a lasting switch.” He added that product registration costs should be calibrated to avoid “picking winners.”
“Repeals carry a different weight than reforms. They are an explicit admission that a previous policy failed.”
Despite these concerns, Fernández hopes the repeal may lead to other countries with bans taking similar steps.
“Repeals carry a different weight than reforms,” he said. “They are an explicit admission that a previous policy failed. Brazil and Mexico, Latin America’s two economic giants, both maintain deeply hostile stances towards innovative nicotine products, driving thriving contraband markets in both countries. The governments would do well to look south since prohibition has not worked anywhere it has been tried.”
If Argentina now creates reasonable regulations, it could align itself with tobacco harm reduction success stories like New Zealand, Sweden and Japan, where access to safer nicotine products has led to rapid declines in smoking.
“I commend this advancement as it emphasizes individual autonomy; adults possess the right to select less hazardous options when adequately informed, without the state deeming them incapable,” Van Isseldyk said.
“For me, it’s progress after so much struggle,” Verrastro concluded. “But there‘s still a long way to go if Argentina truly wants to join the harm reduction movement.”
Photograph by Romain B via Unsplash