When Bans Fail, Regulation Becomes the Real Public Health Test

On April 11, 2026, Bangladesh’s Parliament passed an amended Tobacco Control Act, formally reversing its ban on next-generation nicotine products like heated tobacco and e-cigarettes. After a short period under the ban, Bangladesh adjusted its policy in a more open direction toward smokeless products, a significant shift in its tobacco harm reduction strategy. 

This isn’t just Bangladesh’s story. It’s both a warning and a lesson to us, that we should be paying attention closely to. As many countries like India and Thailand that maintain bans on smokeless products, illicit tobacco consumption continues to rise. India is perhaps the starkest example. A senior economic adviser to Prime Minister Modi argued that tobacco consumption in India has continued growing despite the ban, with approximately 5.5 million new households taking up tobacco use every year, bringing the total to around 180 million. More than a decade of prohibition has not reduced consumption. 

Banned products like gutkha continue to be sold openly through illegal channels, and e-cigarettes still hold a significant share of total consumption. The black market fills the gap every time. The Maldives, as a small island nation with porous borders and heavy reliance on imports, is especially vulnerable to exactly this dynamic.

Perhaps the most damaging consequence of an outright ban that rarely gets discussed, it doesn’t just fail to stop smoking it actively blocks people from quitting. According to a report by the Consumer Choice Center, more than 6.2 million smokers in Bangladesh could potentially quit if smokeless products were properly regulated and made available as cessation tools. When those safer alternatives are banned, smokers who genuinely want to transition away from cigarettes have nowhere to go. The result is that many go back to cigarettes the most harmful option because it’s the only one accessible to them. As we know, we have a significant smoking population. Without a regulated, lower-risk pathway, quitting becomes harder, not easier.

In the United States, through strict age restrictions and flavor regulations, youth tobacco use has fallen for the third consecutive year, reaching 7.5% in 2025 the lowest level since 2011, down from a peak of 23.3% in 2019. That’s what smart regulation achieves. It protects young people while preserving options for adults who smoke.

The data also shows that these products are not serving as a gateway to cigarette smoking contrary to arguments frequently made by WHO-aligned organizations. 

On the contrary, Bangladesh chose a more flexible approach adjusting its policy in time and drawing on international experience, particularly from the United States, to balance public health goals with practical effectiveness.  Globally, more than 100 countries now permit the circulation of smokeless tobacco products at varying levels. The Maldives is increasingly out of step with where the evidence and the world is pointing.

The question for Maldivian policymakers isn’t whether to act. It’s whether to keep doing something that isn’t working, or to take the more courageous step of designing a framework that actually protects people including those who are desperately trying to quit.