Tobacco.org

Tobacco worth Nu.205,360 seized 

The vigilance team of the regional revenue and customs office in Phuentsholing b seized tobacco products worth Nu. 205,360 from a truck bound for Thimphu on the morning of October 11.

The sacks and boxes of cigarettes like Wills, Charms and other tobacco products like Baba, Montu biri, and Talab in the back of the truck were covered with a tarpaulin on which were a load of bamboo poles.

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• Bumthang not tobacco free 

“Welcome to a tobacco free dzongkhag”- that was the first sign that would greet people coming to Bumthang not long ago.

The dzongkhag was commended for being the first to impose a ban on the sale of tobacco. It even won an award of recognition from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for its efforts.

But today, after a nationwide ban was imposed on December 17,2004, finding a place to buy a packet of cigarette or a packet of baba (chewing tobacco) in Bumthang is difficult, only if you are a stranger.

“If you are new in the town, you won’t find any,” said a town resident. “They sell only to people they know.”

Tobacco is available, the only change is the price.

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• Thimphu to combat tobacco black market 

The trade department is roping in thromdey or town representatives in Thimphu to clamp down on the thriving tobacco black market. More than a year after the government banned the sale of tobacco, regulating authorities said that there were many shops selling tobacco products under the counter and through other outlets.

“Despite regular inspections and monitoring, the market is thriving,” said the trade joint director, Dophu Tshering,. “We want to bring this market under control and involve as many stakeholders as possible.”

The town representatives from Taba, Dechenchholing, Motithang, Changzamtog, the Sunday market area, and Norzin lam area will help the department and the various tobacco control committees in educating and creating awareness among the public besides keeping vigilance, according to the director.

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Bhutan to attend 59th World Health Assembly 

Health minister Lyonpo Dr. Jigmi Singay will be leading a three-member delegation to the 59th annual World Health Assembly to be held from May 22 to 27.

Among a host of other important issues, the meet, which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, will also discuss on HIV/AIDS, polio eradication, international trade and health, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and intellectual property rights.

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Tobacco Still Available in Bhutan -- at a Price  

Almost a year and a half after Bhutan banned the sale of tobacco, there is no lack of it anywhere within the country, according to a report by Ugyen Penjore in Kuensel online. Tobacco today is less visible but still available through a thriving black market that has been created.

The ban has not been without impact, however; so while people have not stopped smoking, smoking in public places has been reduced.

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• Ban on sale of tobacco- How effective is it? 

A shopkeeper in Samdrup Jongkhar has her tobacco stock well hidden in the ceiling of her pan shop; a servicemen in Gelephu helped a driver buy a bundle of Baba chewing tobacco; young girl in a Thimphu pan shop keeps a packet of Wills cigarette concealed in her blouse. On December 17, 2004, Bhutan banned the sale of tobacco products. The news drew global attention some even calling Bhutan the “first nonsmoking nation”. But more than a year after the ban, there is no dearth of tobacco anywhere in the country.

Today the ban in effect has made tobacco less visible but still available. From the open shelves in shops it has moved to cash boxes, trash cans, sacks of rice, shoes and socks, packed to look like soap bars- any place that would not meet the eyes of officials on inspection.

“What did the ban do besides skyrocketing the price of tobacco?” asks one smoker. “I have not changed my habit and all my friends (smokers) did not too.”

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EDITORIAL: Consistently inconsistent? 

The tobacco ban, which made headlines around the world, has actually been far more effective than most people would have guessed. This is particularly visible in bars and nightclubs where the air was thick with smoke in the past. Although nobody expected the ban to be fully implemented it has reduced smoking to the real serious addicts who find it difficult to light up without a sense of guilt.

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Burning cigarette behind forest fire 

The Babesa fire, which destroyed an estimated 7,000 acres of blue pine forest and covered Thimphu city with smoke for the past three days was believed to be caused by four teenage boys who were smoking in a thicket opposite the Babesa sewerage tank in Thimphu.

The boys, who have been apprehended by forestry officials confessed that two of their friends were smoking and had not stubbed out the burning cigarette which had caused the fire. One of the boys is still at large.

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• Young defy nation's ban on smoking 

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan offers a possible glimpse of how a smoke-free Britain might work.

A year ago it was proud to become the first country in the world to ban smoking completely, outlawing the sale of all tobacco products on pain of a severe 11,000 rupee (£140) fine.

Although the ashtrays in Thimphu's hotels have been converted into candle-holders, the country's young people, at whom the measure was principally aimed, appear to be smoking just as much as ever.

At one of the town's many bars, youths clad in leather jackets and fake Diesel jeans from China puff away on cigarettes that are smuggled from India.

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• Ban fires Bhutan smokers 

OUTLAWING the sale of cigarettes, banning smoking in public places and slapping up to 200 per cent tax on cigarettes imported for personal consumption may be the key to cracking public health's top problem.

Bhutan, a country known for its remote beauty and Buddist traditions, has found that this strict approach has prompted half of smokers, in at least one survey, to quit.

The move isn't without detractors though. The young urban middle classes are openly flouting the ban on smoking in public places and Indian cigarette manufacturers are none too pleased at the detrimental effect the measures are having on trade.

Perhaps inevitably, a black market in cigarettes is flourishing in Bhutan

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• Tobacco: good profits 

Sherub Dema (real name withheld), a housewife married to a civil servant working in Bumthang, recently made a visit to Thimphu. She took back a small consignment of cigarettes and chewing tobacco, purchased in the black market.

A packet of cigarette she bought in Thimphu for Nu. 30 will sell in Bumthang for as much as Nu.180. A packet of Baba chewing tobacco, costing Nu. 5.00 in Thimphu, fetches about Nu. 20 in Bumthang.

“I was enticed by the clean profit one can make if you are willing to take chances every now and then,” she told Kuensel.

The National Advisory Committee on Tobacco Control would call this a part of a smuggling racket that has emerged after the ban on the sale of tobacco products that came into effect on December 17, 2004.

The smuggling network seems to be flourishing even with the constant vigilance and frequent raids made by a multi sectoral task force monitoring the market.

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Meeting on smoke ban 

yesterday's meeting of the national steering committee on tobacco control with owners of shops, restaurants, pool rooms, bars and discotheques in Thimphu where smoking is widely known to be permitted despite the widely publicised ban.

Some entertainment center owners said that they were finding it hard to stick by the ban. It was hard to implement, they said, especially when faced with increased pressure from smoking customers, some of whom were unruly youths. One discotheque owner told Kuensel that he had little enthusiasm for irritating his customers, and even less for turfing them out for refusing to extinguish cigarettes. That just about summed up the general feeling among the business community at the meeting.

But health officials say they have not given up yet. Not by a long shot. Armed with literature on the effects of smoking, magnified by mutilated and defaced pictures of victims of smoking, health officials appealed to the moral values and duties of the business community to stand by the ban and support its campaign.

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With official tobacco ban, Bhutan says it is winning war on smoking 

Bhutan, the only country in the world to have completely banned tobacco sales, believes it is winning the war on smoking despite the efforts of cigarette smugglers and black marketeers.

"There are fewer people smoking, and we dont see them in public places," said Dophu Tshering, an official of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which is in charge of implementing the ban and stamping out smoking in public places.

Since they were imposed last December, the bans have had a visible effect. Where people once smoked openly in their offices, they are now seen standing sheepishly at the back of buildings or on balconies taking a puff.

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Coping with the smoke ban 

"No smoking on the dance floor guys, please," the DJ screams into the microphone.

As the bodies writhe on the dance floor, fingers gripping half-smoked cigarettes, clouds of smoke waft through the neon light. A young man turns towards the DJ and, with dramatic effect, breathes out thick rings of smoke into the air. He turns around to the approving grins of his friends, shrugs, and begins writhing, cigarette dangling from his lower lip.

Discotheques, bars, poolrooms, restaurants and other entertainment centers are trying to cope with the smoke ban in public places. But clearly it's a struggle.

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• Coping with the smoke ban 

Discotheques, bars, poolrooms, restaurants and other entertainment centers are trying to cope with the smoke ban in public places. But clearly it's a struggle.

"I am pretty much a chronic smoker," said 23-year old, Trinley Wanghug, 23, a recent university graduate. "And I resent being told to go outside the disco every time I crave for a cigarette."

Less rebellious ones go to the toilets or outside reduced, in the words of Trinley, "to pathetic groups of people puffing in the cold".

Owners of entertainment centers are having to confront many like Trinley who smoke openly in the premises. Most of the time owners pretend they are blind. They have little enthusiasm for irritating their customers. . . .

Some bar-owners and smokers, however, have been exercising their ingenuity in dealing with the ban. Light a cigarette and hide it below the table. It works, they say, as long as the owner gives warning signals whenever unwelcome guests, like the police, appear.

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