Despite country’s total ban, candy-flavored vaping is rapidly gaining popularity among the young
7 May 2026
By Terry Friel – UCA News
More than a decade after Cambodia banned e-cigarettes on public health and safety grounds, it is still struggling to stamp out the threat, which is getting worse as the country’s urban youth increasingly take up this “cool” habit.
The government is steadily taking tougher and more targeted action to get young adults to kick the habit — or, better still, never take it up in the first place. And civil society groups such as the Catholic Church have joined the fight.
In a major crackdown last October, and in a sign of the government’s growing alarm at youth vaping, Prime Minister Hun Manet personally announced tougher measures, including banning even possessing an e-cigarette.
And in the latest move, an April 29 directive from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport ordered schools and other educational institutions, such as vocational training centers, to step up policing and student education, including running special awareness programs.
The government considers e-cigarettes and Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) an urgent “social order” threat because it sees them as a potential gateway to illicit drugs, addiction and crime.
It also considers vaping a threat to the future of the nation’s youth, not just their health.
“Please don’t think it’s cool to smoke or vape,” Hun Manet said in launching a five-year anti-cancer campaign last May. “Instead, focus on your studies and strive to become someone recognized for your achievements.”
Catholic Church leaders are concerned about the alarming spread of vaping among young adults, says Saroeun Sorn, the youth minister for the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh.
“Young people are easily led astray,” he told UCA News, “they follow their friends, do what they do, without knowing [the risks]. After school, they go off with their friends, and many bad things can happen to them.”
Sorn is in charge of Church youth services covering ages five to 30 in the diocese in southern Cambodia, stretching from Phnom Penh to the Gulf of Thailand in the Southwest and Vietnam in the Southeast.
He says Prime Minister Hun Manet and his government are showing strong leadership on the issue, but that the Church also has a key role to play.
“It is a big concern,” he says. “We in the Church are helping to educate them about the dangers, the problems with health and study.
“Sometimes, they have faith in God and the Church, but they still go astray. We help them and their families.”
By the very nature of his flock, Sorn does not deal with many active users. But he is aware of the social dangers for impressionable young minds.
While less harmful than normal cigarettes, e-cigarettes still involve inhaling toxic nicotine, cancerous chemicals, and heavy metals, and carry all the same health threats as smoking.
Battery-powered e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco, but instead use heat to vaporize liquids containing nicotine and harmful chemicals.
They are easy to hide or disguise — a useful feature for students. They can look like a pen, a highlighter, a toy figurine, or other everyday items that every student carries. Like candy and soda, vaping liquids also come in many sweet flavors, including gummy bear, pink guava, and watermelon ice.
Added to the challenge the government faces is the fact that Cambodia’s population is relatively young — about half the people are 26 or younger.
Like smoking, vaping is especially harmful to young, developing minds, which is why its growing popularity among the young is particularly alarming to the government and health professionals, and people like Sorn.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that, like smoking, vaping is especially harmful to young adults.
“Using nicotine during adolescence can harm parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control,” the CDC warns. “Adolescents who use nicotine may be at increased risk for future addiction to other drugs.
“Scientists still have a lot to learn about the short- and long-term effects of e-cigarettes.”
They are not only dangerous to public health, but they are also dangerous to the environment. Increasingly, they are disposable, and the plastic takes lifetimes to degrade.
Like many other social and public health issues in Cambodia, progressive and sound government policies far outpace its ability to enforce them.
Despite e-cigarettes being illegal since 2014, they are still sold openly in shops in Phnom Penh — including specialist vape shops — and on a plethora of specialist online sites.
E-cigarettes and supplies are also traded on hundreds of private channels on Telegram, the most popular social media communication tool in the country, as well as other platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
Pa Chanroeun, president of the Cambodian Institute for Democracy, says the biggest problem is not a lack of laws, but weak implementation.
“If the laws are strictly enforced without interference, e-cigarettes can be eliminated, as seen in some other countries,” says Chanroeun.