New law raises minimum age of smokers to 20 in bid to discourage youths
IN A MOVE to discourage youths from smoking, the National Legislative Assembly yesterday raised the minimum age for young people to buy cigarettes to 20 years old from the current 18 years old.
Under the new Tobacco Control bill, anyone who sells cigarettes to under-age teenagers could be jailed for three months or fined up to Bt30,000 or both.
The new law also stipulates that people who sell cigarettes must be at least 18 years old and each cigarette pack must contain 20 cigarettes, prohibiting the sale of individual cigarettes.
The regulations, which are intended to discourage new smokers, particularly teenagers, also bans online sales of cigarettes, which can now only be sold in a specified location licensed by authorities.
Ban on marketing, promotional |activities
As well, vendors are not permitted to organise marketing or promotional activities, and all types of advertising are prohibited. The penalty for those who advertise could be a month in prison or a fine of Bt500,000, while producers, importers or advertisers who launch cigarette advertising campaigns could face |jail terms up to a year and a fine of Bt1.5 |million.
Sellers cannot reduce prices or offer rewards to promote cigarette sales and they are also not permitted to display cigarettes.
The new law also includes any products that contain nicotine substances, including baraku and electronic cigarettes. A committee will be set up, chaired by the minister of public health, which will supervise cigarette |production.
It will look into the implementation of the legislation and monitor the impact of cigarette consumption on the health of people.
There are an estimated 11 million smokers in Thailand and 50,000 deaths are attributed to smoking each year.