Loose cigarettes targeted

LOOSE cigarettes and those in packets of fewer than 25 will be banned from sale under the new Tobacco Act.
Health Secretary Pascoe Kase said the purpose of such measures was to discourage young people from purchasing tobacco products and to make it less attractive to them.
“It is smaller and therefore cheaper packages of tobacco product which tend to be more likely to be purchased by young people who often have less available money to spend,” he said.
Kase said the law would enable close monitoring of sales, distribution, manufacturing and use of tobacco in PNG to protect the young generations from the dangers of smoking.
He said the department was working on drafting a National Executive Council submission for the governor-general to approve for gazettal and the date the law would become effective would be 12 months from the date of the Gazette Notice.
“This will give affected businesses enough time to make changes to prepare themselves to meet the requirement of the new law,” Kase said.
Cigarette vendor Gina Lancy from Wabag, when asked about the new law, said she sold loose Cambridge, Pall Mall Red and Green, Spear and Double Happiness to earn income to sustain her family in the city.
She said if the Government totally banned manufacturing of cigarettes in the country, then they had no choice but to stop selling loose cigarettes.
“It will be the same as the betel nut ban, they banned betel nut sales in public and chewing but we are still doing it, it’s the same with the cigarette,” she said.