Cigarette Featuring Websites Will Be Blocked

[dominique355]

In today's The Nation (I could not find it in their website), the Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songhkla announced that cigarettes and tobacco products will not be available in duty-free shops anymore.

So far, no problem, one of the government's biggest source of income is tobacco excise.

But then, our friend Mongkol (yes, the one who declared a national emergency for HIV/AIDS drugs and heart drugs and cancer drugs, and ....levies VAT on these imported drugs and then complains about the high cost) announced that websites featuring or advertising cigarettes will be blocked in Thailand.

There is a real culture in Thailand, spreading like cancer, to block and censor everything and anything, and what is worst, it's done by people who do not even have a mandate of the public. Mind you, they came to the power with guns and tanks!

[A_Traveller]

Link

Cigarettes and tobacco products will not be available in duty-free shops worldwide if a new anti-smoking protocol proposed by Thailand is approved in principle at an international convention to be held in Bangkok later this month.

edit

Thailand has been recognised for its strict measures on anti-smoking campaigns and tobacco control.

Regards

Edited June 27, 2007 by A_Traveller

[Scott]

Yes, this guy, Mongkol, is a walking disaster. He seems to be good at taking up causes that are of little concern to him. First there is the handful of AIDS patients needing the 2nd line of drugs that he says Thailand can't afford--and the taxes on one former PM's family would take care of them for years to come. Then there is no alcohol advertising, and then a few other missteps and now this.

Meanwhile the infant mortality rate is one of the highest in SE Asia--I think the paper said 23:1000 as opposed to 7:1000 for Malaysia. There is Extreme Drug Resistant TB floating around, major outbreaks of dengue fever--but he doesn't seem to worry about these local problems.

He seems to want to attack anything that seems like it has a "western" aspect to it.

[kmart]

Another misguided twit who thinks he's some sort of saviour. Comedy Central.