Vapers have lived a decade of freedom in Spain. The honeymoon ends

Spain is about to set the ten years of ambiguity. The vopemers, which were sold in the early last decade as the “intelligent” version of tobacco, will be treated exactly the same as the lifelong marlboro.

Why is it important. The New anti -tabaco law that prepares health normatively equate electronic cigarettes, Heated tobacco and vapers to conventional tobacco. The regulatory limbo is over. That liminal space is over in which it seemed acceptable to vap but not smoking.

Health wants to prohibit the use of cigarettes, and also of vapes, in terraces, marques, labor vehicles, university campuses and external leisure areas. The same restrictions that conventional tobacco already had.

The context. During a decade, vopes users have enjoyed a kind of undeclared privilege. Technically they did not smoke, but “vapeed.” It was steam, not smoke.

A semantic difference that translated into real freedoms: vaping in places where smoking was prohibited, avoiding – not always – the social reproach looks, maintaining the perfect alibi being “leaving tobacco.”

The final blow. The prohibition of flavorings marks the end of that golden age. Not only lose spaces: they lose their identity.

• The flavors were what most differentiated the vaping of traditional tobacco.
• Without mint, fruits or sweets, vapes are reduced to simple nicotine dispensers with USB-C load.

Yes, but. The resistance is real. CNMC (National Commission of Markets and Competition) has challenged the prohibition of flavoringssomething unthinkable already with traditional tobacco.

The classic tobacco companies have stopped fighting for years: they know they lost that war. Vapes still have faith in which they can win.

Between the lines. This comparison says something deeper about how Spain manages this type of innovations. The vapes followed the classic pattern:

1. Technological grace period.
2. Social normalization
3. Regulatory awakening.
4. Total comparison.

It is the same route they made (saving the health distances) VTC with the taxitourist apartments with hotels or cryptocurrencies with traditional currencies.

The threat. For Vaper industry, this is more than a regulation: it is a declaration of war against its business model. Without flavoring and no differentiated spaces, what competitive advantage is left to the traditional tobacco? Technology, perhaps. But that seems insufficient to maintain the growth of an industry that grew precisely because it was not “real tobacco.”

Deepen. The draft must still go through the Council of Ministers and subsequently through Congress, where you will need agreements with other political forces. Restrictions can change, but direction is irreversible: vapes have lost their special status.

Outstanding image | Stephen Noble in Unspash

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