Bhutan to stub out tobacco sales
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has decided to ban all tobacco products from Wednesday, a government notification says.

Shops, hotels, restaurants and bars selling tobacco products have been ordered to dispose of existing stocks before 17 December.

The tobacco ban will not apply to foreign tourists, diplomats or those working for NGOs.

Bhutan is thought to be the first country with a full tobacco sales ban.

It is part of government efforts to make Bhutan a smoke-free nation.

"We want no pollution and good health for our citizens," said Bhutanese minister, Jigme Thinley.

Severe penalties

Eighteen of the kingdom's 20 districts have already banned the sale of tobacco products.

The capital district of Thimphu and the eastern district of Samdrup Jongkhar are yet to impose the ban.

Bhutan's trade and industry ministry has warned of severe penalties if any person, group or firm is found selling tobacco.

Those who violate the ban will be fined $210 and owners of shops and hotels will lose their business licenses.

The government has decided to impose a 100% tax on all tobacco products brought into the country for personal consumption by Bhutanese.

Foreigners selling tobacco to locals will be severely punished.

"If any foreigner is caught selling tobacco products to Bhutanese nationals, he will be charged with smuggling. Tobacco will be treated as contraband," Karma Tshering of Bhutanese Customs told the BBC.

In Thimphu, the price of popular Indian manufactured cigarettes has already doubled following news of the impending ban.

"In some areas of Thimphu, the ban is already effective. Community leaders are making the ban work," said Indian tourist Dilip Sinha. i do smoke, but still, good work by Buthan.

Thats great news. I cannot wait for the smoking ban to reach N.I. It will be great to go to concerts and be able to breath.

I remember going to an Opeth concert last year (in Dublin) and the smoke was killing me. Of course the venue was designed for 150 people and it seems that they crammed in about 300! Now that the Republic of Ireland is (largely) smoke free, hopefully it will not be long before the North follows in its footsteps.

[ December 03, 2004, 10:46: Message edited by: Cesard ]

Good luck to them. I sincerely hope it works better than Prohibition did in the US.

Interesting approach, banning sales instead of prohibiting smoking in public places. It probably makes sense if they felt there would be difficulties with compliance or enforcement.

On 10 December, smoking will be banned in almost all indoor public places in New Zealand.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3109959a1861,00.html

I echo Cesard's comments. Now I will be able to go out and breath and not come home having to dryclean all my clothes to get the smell out.

Christ, soon you will be banned from just breathing.

Only if you have really bad breath that stinks out everyone else's clothes.

The act of breathing doesn't harm other even if it harms the breather; the act of smoking harms the smoker as well as those who are around the smokers, and a lot of time, involuntarily.

What i was amaze, realizing this while walking to school earlier, comparing Buthan and Singapore.
- Buthan is a small poor country; Singapore is a small rich country.
- (Assuming) Buthan doesn't produce raw tobacco; Singapore doesn't produce anything agricultural, not even heavy on processing raw agricultural products.
It would seem that Singapore is the more likely country to ban tocacco but then they never did it. Singaporean government had ridiculous high tax for tobacco but that's not their main income. What is the mysterious power that prevents Singaporeans from doing so? How long could Buthanians keep this?

Only one more day to go before smoking is banned in indoor public places in New Zealand. Anecdotal evidence around town is that many people are now going to give up smoking because the only time they did smoke was in bars anyway. But plenty of bars are now boosting the number of outdoor seats and areas they provide.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

I know lots of people that only smoke when they are drinking alcohol. I think this ban will be very positive and probably boost tourism - I have never thought "I have always wanted to smoke in (insert favourit holiday destination here)"