tobacco

It’s a new year. And starting today, the Tobacco Control Act comes into effect. So if you cultivate or harvest, manufacture, supply or distribute tobacco and tobacco products, you’ll be jailed for at least three years and up to five years. If you possess tobacco, and if you can’t prove that you’ve imported it for your own consumption, you’ll be jailed for at least one year and up to three years, but only if you reveal from where you got your tobacco. If you don’t reveal your source, you’ll receive an additional sentence, jailing you for least three more…

Yesterday, as expected, the joint sitting of the Parliament passed the Tobacco Control Bill. Support for the Bill was almost unanimous. 61 of the 65 MPs present and voting endorsed the Bill, whereas only 4 of them rejected it. I was in the minority. Tobacco control is a good idea. But the Bill that we just passed is not. The main principle in the Bill does not make sense: that people are permitted to consume tobacco, but that the sale of tobacco products is illegal. And that the sale of tobacco is illegal, but that tobacco consumers are permitted…

Today is world no tobacco day. And, not coincidentally, the Parliament, in a joint sitting, discussed the Tobacco Control Bill. The bill had already been debated in both the Houses last year – today’s discussions were to iron out the differences between the two Houses. Parliament will probably pass the Tobacco Control Bill tomorrow. And I am concerned. I’m concerned that we will pass a law that the government will not be able to enforce: a law that criminalizes the sale of cigarettes, but permits smoking, even in designated public spaces. The proposed law imposes hefty penalties on people…