On April 19, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev signed the Law «On Amendments and Additions to Some Public Health Legal Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan». The Law imposes a ban on the sale of vapes and vaping products, Zakon.kz reports.
The amendments and additions were introduced to the Criminal Code to add the articles providing for penalties for the sale of vapes and vaping products. The penalties for the sale and distribution of vapes, vape flavours and vape liquids include a fine of up to 200 monthly calculation indices (738,400 tenge in 2024), corrective labour, community service or restriction of freedom for up to 50 days. The tougher penalties are set for the importation and production of these goods, including a fine of up to 2,000 MCI (7,384,000 tenge), corrective labour, community service, restriction of freedom for up to 2 years, or imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The Law provides for the tougher penalties for those who committed these crimes on behalf of a criminal group, yielded large profits from this activity or repeated these crimes. In these cases, the penalties include a fine of up to 5,000 MCI (18,460,000 tenge), long terms of community service or corrective labour, restriction of freedom for up to 5 years, or imprisonment with confiscation of property.
