Mexico’s Vaping Ban: A Gift to the Cartels

Jeffrey A. Singer

Last month, Mexico banned the sale, but not the use, of e‑cigarettes. As the Associated Press reports, Mexico’s vaping ban didn’t eliminate a $1.5 billion industry—it simply criminalized it. Legal businesses were shuttered, and drug cartels and other organized crime groups have moved in, using coercion and extortion to dominate production, distribution, and retail. What had been a regulated market is now a black market flooded with unregulated products, often assembled...