If you live in most places in the world, it probably sounds a bit crazy that E-cigarettes aren't already legal but that is the case in Thailand. Although nobody really gets in trouble for it vendors can not openly sell them or even the oils. There are stories of foreigners having their e-cig devices taken from them by customs but this is something that I've only heard about a handful of times so it is difficult to determine if it is even true.
It seems ridiculous to me that the government would ever outlaw these things and their justifications for doing so were just as silly. Thankfully, it seems as though sensibility might be taking hold in the not to far in the future.
I don't smoke but for many years I did so. When I moved to Thailand it was very easy to get back into the habit because it is socially tolerated a lot more here than in the west and it also costs significantly less to have the habit. That was a strong motivating factor for me to stop when I lived in USA because it seems like every month or so the price was going higher and higher because of taxes.
I'm guessing that the tax on ciggies are quite low in Thailand because it is still possible to get a pack for less than a dollar and that hasn't been the case in the USA since around the 90's.
E-cigarettes are far less annoying than normal cigarettes in my opinion because they do not stink. The flavored ones actually smell really nice like watermelon, mint, or something other than burning tobacco. Even when I was a smoker I was a very polite smoker and would always stay away from people who don't smoke when I was doing so. With E-cigs, that isn't really necessary.
Now the jury is still out on whether or not e-cigs are really bad for your health, we likely won't know the answer to this for many years but from what I have read in studies, they are as far as we can tell at this point, significantly less harmful than regular cigarettes. Also, in a real market the amount of nicotine you are getting in your vape can be very carefully and exactly controlled and this isn't really possible with cigarettes.
Currently, you can technically still get in trouble for vaping although I haven't really heard of that ever happening to anyone. The issue for people that wanted to vape was finding the oils or whatever it is called for their machines. When they were available it was almost always done online and this is where the accusations of bogus products from China start coming into play. Since it is already illegal, there is nothing really there to prevent the people who sell them online from intentionally selling inferior products. It's not like you are going to find them because they don't have an address.
The government claimed that the ban was to "protect the children" as is commonly done whenever the government wants to do something. The only issue is that a lot of children who are going to smoke already do so. It's not like it is difficult to get your hands on a pack of smokes in a country that basically doesn't have any rules. As a test one day my friend sent his 13 year old son into a mom and pop liquor and tobacco store to get a bottle of whiskey and a pack of smokes "for his dad." They didn't have any problem selling it to him.
The government claims that they are protecting kids from e-cigs but we have always thought that the real reason that they did this was to protect the big tobacco companies that exist in Thailand. I mean the name of the cooperative is literally called the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly. The Thai government frequently protects big local industries with bans like this and this is why microbreweries are almost non-existent in this country because the government doesn't want competition for the two big breweries. They will claim it is for other reasons but come on now, we all know what is really going on here.
With vapes there were no Thai manufacturers of the gear or oils so therefore the government and the companies that they protect were not getting their part of the money. This is what I suspect the real reason is anyway but now that they have had an opportunity to change that, I think this is the main reason why there is talk about legalization. Now they aren't focusing on kids though, they all of a sudden are recognizing that this is a great way for people to stop smoking cigarettes which as I am sure you are aware, basically guarantees health problems later in life.
So as it stands now it looks like they will become legal very soon and I am sure it is just mere chance that Thailand is also starting to manufacture their own vapes and oils. I wonder what ones will be the first ones to be legal? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that only the ones made in Thailand will be legal... you know, to protect the children or something.