Tobacco bill gathered dust as health costs and deaths soared

After four years of gathering dust in committee draft law 136, which establishes provisions related to the content and dissemination of information on tobacco products got Third Reading in the National Assembly on Wednesday, March 27. 

Data from the Ministry of health reveals that about $105 million is spent annually on basic care for people suffering from the ills that result from the consumption of tobacco products. and about 2.000  die each year from tobacco-related causes.
Under the new law only businesses with special licenses from the Health Ministry will be allowed to sell tobacco products.

The project was promoted by the deputies Crispiano Adames, Javier Ortega and José Luis Castillo on January 20, 2015.  It  was shelved in the Labor, Health and Social Development Committee of the  National Assembly and  discussion was postponed for almost four years, while it was reviewed by a subcommittee, until October 30, 2018, when it was approved in the first debate, with the favorable vote of five of the committee’s nine deputies

Subsequently, the legislative plenary voted in favor of forming an ad hoc commission, on February 6, 2019, to analyze the document approved in the first debate. On the recommendation of the committee, several modifications were incorporated during the discussion and it was approved, in the second debate, on March 26. A day later it was approved in the third debate.

Article 3 of the bill establishes that all commercial establishments that sell, distribute, manufacture or import tobacco products and their derivatives must have a special license that authorizes them, which will be issued by the Ministry of Health. (Minsa).

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