Lawmaker apologizes after she’s caught vaping during health care reform debate in Columbia

A lawmaker was forced to apologize after she was caught on camera taking a drag from her vape during a health care reform discussion in Colombia’s parliament on Tuesday.

Cathy Juvinao, a Green Alliance Party member representing the city of Bogota, was spotted in the Chamber of Representatives taking a sneaky pull from a bright yellow vaporizer just seconds before she was set to address her fellow lawmakers, according to footage circulating on social media.

Juvinao, 41, seems to only realize that she was caught in the act mid-puff — and quickly blows away the plume and hides the yellow device — as vaping and smoking is prohibited in government buildings in Colombia, USA Today reports.

Seconds later, she gave a speech against the health care reform that was being proposed in the Colombian parliament.

The lawmaker took to X to apologize for the infraction after the moment went viral.

“I will not join the bad example that is intoxicating the public discourse these days and which will not be repeated,” she wrote.

This is not the first instance of a government official being caught puffing a pen during official proceedings.

Back in 2018, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice was caught repeatedly and surreptitiously taking pulls off a vaporizer during a high-profile murder trial. 

The judge should have faced a $1,000 fine, but the city’s Health Department refused to press charges claiming there was only evidence of Giudice holding the device and not smoking from it.