Travellers to Vietnam are used to seeing cigarette packs stacked openly behind counters at corner shops and mini-marts. That could soon change. During National Assembly deliberations on 21 October, Vietnam's Ministry of Health pushed a draft law that would ban tobacco displays at every point of sale, outlaw online cigarette sales, and, if one delegate gets his way, lift the legal smoking and purchasing age from 18 to 21.
The display ban is the part most visitors would actually notice. Right now, retailers may show up to one pack or carton per brand variant, even though advertising is prohibited. The Government argues that shelf displays work as stealth advertising, hammering the message home to children and teenagers. Under the draft, packaging, images and any brand-identifying signage would vanish from view entirely. The Committee on Culture and Education backs the idea and wants graphic health warnings expanded to at least 85% of each pack face, with a roadmap towards full coverage.
The more contested proposal came from delegate Nguyen Hai Long, who wants the minimum age raised to 21. His case rests on the numbers: Ministry of Health data show smoking rates among Vietnamese men leap from 5.46% at ages 15-19 to 32.6% at 20-24, with about half of daily male smokers starting at 19 or later. A 2024 survey of over 1,000 students at Phenikaa University found that having smoking friends raised the risk of taking up the habit 7.6-fold. Long cited a 2015 US Institute of Medicine model estimating that an age-21 threshold could cut smoking rates by 12%, and pointed to Singapore as a regional precedent, where tobacco purchases require you to be 21 even though alcohol is legal from 18. At least 15 countries already use a 21 limit.
The draft also hardens Vietnam's existing stance on vaping. The nationwide ban on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, ordered under Resolution 173/2024 and in force from 2025, would be written directly into law, covering the products, their components and devices. Long additionally suggested vendors verify buyer age through electronic ID on the VNeID app.
Further debate is scheduled for 9 November, with passage targeted before the legislative session ends. For travellers, the practical takeaway is simple: if it passes, expect cigarettes to be hidden from view in shops, no online or delivery options, and a hard line on vapes. Anyone planning to smoke legally in Vietnam should assume age checks could tighten, and that the rules will be enforced more strictly than the current, loosely policed regime. Smokers should also note that smoking is already banned in most indoor public spaces, air-conditioned venues and on public transport, with fines that apply to visitors as much as locals.
