Last Friday, I attended the First ever stakeholders meeting on the Tobacco since the enactment of the Tobacco Control Act 2010.
In the opening remarks, His Excellency, the Minister of
Health who is also the Chairperson of the Tobacco Control Board said that unlike other Act, Tobacco Control Act should be more easy to implement. He cited that this is because Bhutan has already drawn rules and regulations in place to ban the sale of any tobacco products since 2004. He said this Act is only a tooth that was wanted by all the law enforcers to curve the illegal sale of tobacco products in the country.
However, considering the present Act, there are lot more to be done. In the past, only products can be seized and at the most, the licenses of the shops or retailers can be canceled and fined. Today, the Act has more. People can be put behind the bars if found smoking in public places and in any place if they are caught smoking without having any receipt from the customs.
Further, the discotheques and bars, people are prohibited to smoke or chew tobacco products. This means, the roles and responsibilities among the law enforcers are very huge and challenging.
In nutshell, the implementation of Tobacco Control Act is much waited to be seen .....
In the opening remarks, His Excellency, the Minister of
Health who is also the Chairperson of the Tobacco Control Board said that unlike other Act, Tobacco Control Act should be more easy to implement. He cited that this is because Bhutan has already drawn rules and regulations in place to ban the sale of any tobacco products since 2004. He said this Act is only a tooth that was wanted by all the law enforcers to curve the illegal sale of tobacco products in the country.
However, considering the present Act, there are lot more to be done. In the past, only products can be seized and at the most, the licenses of the shops or retailers can be canceled and fined. Today, the Act has more. People can be put behind the bars if found smoking in public places and in any place if they are caught smoking without having any receipt from the customs.
Further, the discotheques and bars, people are prohibited to smoke or chew tobacco products. This means, the roles and responsibilities among the law enforcers are very huge and challenging.
In nutshell, the implementation of Tobacco Control Act is much waited to be seen .....
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