Why religions never ban smoking too ?

May 27, 2011

Bhutan jails more smokers amid criticism

NEW DELHI - BHUTAN'S opposition leader has condemned the country's anti-smoking law, the strictest in the world, as 'utter madness' after another three people were sent to prison for possessing cigarettes.

The remote Himalayan country banned the sale of tobacco in 2005 and tightened up its law again last year to combat smuggling, requiring consumers to provide valid customs receipts for any cigarettes or chewing products.

The leader, writing on his blog in a posting dated May 26, said a local court in the Paro district had sentenced another three men to three years in jail after they were stopped at an airport with undeclared cigarettes.

'Their crime: they were caught smuggling ten packets of cigarettes,' wrote the opposition leader in the national parliament. 'I called the Tobacco Control Act draconian. It's much worse. It's utter madness.' He added that 'countless others - I've lost count really - are in detention or undergoing trial in various parts of the country.'

In March, a monk became the first person jailed under the anti-smoking law after a court handed him a three-year prison sentence for smuggling tobacco worth US$2.50 (S$3.10).

Bhutanese smokers are restricted to 200 cigarettes or 150g of other tobacco products a month, which can be legally imported with tariffs of 100 per cent from India or 200 per cent from elsewhere. -- AFP