Tobacco.org

Kevin O'Connor | Could tobacco play a part in Uganda’s population control? 

If current trends continue, it is projected to kill 10 million people a year by 2020, with 70 per cent of those deaths occurring in developing countries like Uganda. Tobacco also takes an enormous toll in health care costs, lost productivity, not to mention the pain and suffering inflicted upon smokers, second-hand/passive smokers and their families.

And, it is more painful to die of cancer in Uganda, as most hospital and clinics do not have the sophisticated pain-relieving drugs that are readily available in rich countries. Having ratified the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Uganda now needs to speedily implement it.

This would mean that Ugandans will become more aware of the dangers of smoking; for example, through large, powerful warnings on cigarette packets, which will replace the current tiny weak ones. Above all, the welcome but modest increase in tobacco excise duty in the 2008 budget needs to be followed by a more substantial one in the 2009 budget. Raising tax on cigarettes both increases Ugandan tax revenue and reduces Ugandan deaths and sickness. It is indeed a win-win government policy option made in heaven.

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