SS 13.30-15.00 Special sessions

DEVELOPMENT OF TOBACCO LEGISLATION IN LITHUANIA

Unrestricted tobacco advertising, smuggling, poorly controlled sales and other manifestations of the "free market" were typical for transitional period of Lithuania's liberalisation and return to Europe. The urgent need to control tobacco was evident; the draft law on tobacco control has been prepared by the joint team of professionals of Kaunas Medical Academy and Ministry of Health and submitted to parliament for hearing in the end of 1992. At that time country was facing severe political and economic hardships and tobacco issue was not on the top of the agenda. To improve the situation, under the pressure of tobacco control activists government has issued regulations on tobacco import and advertising in 1993. Smuggling of cigarettes decreased, though the problem still exists; but the ban on tobacco advertising was never enforced and all kinds of tobacco advertisements, including TV, flooded the country. After numerous appeals to parliament, the law on tobacco control was at last adopted in December 1995. The law has been prepared in line with WHO recommendations and covers practically all spheres connected with tobacco growing, product manufacture and labelling, advertising and promotion (including total ban on direct and indirect tobacco advertising and sponsorship), trade, tax and price policy, restriction of smoking in work and public places, support to smokers for quitting, economic strategies, public information and tobacco control programmes, formulation of state tobacco policy, and application of liabilities for violation of the law. In spite of some loopholes and inaccuracies that occurred in process of amendment, the law in general may be considered as comprehensive and rather stringent one. The paradox is that during the last six months almost nothing was done to enforce the law, since there was no enforcement control institution. According to the law on health system passed in July 1993, the State Tobacco and Alcohol Control Service must have been established almost two years ago together with National Council for Health and State Health Foundation, but government simply ignored the law and any of these institutions necessary for tobacco control does not exist yet. Even worse, under the pressure of certain forces government has presented to the parliament a proposal to abolish the State Tobacco and Alcohol Control Service as unnecessary and disadvantageous bureaucratic institution; at the same time a group of MP's presented an amendment legalising tobacco advertising and sponsorship. Fortunately, both proposals were declined by the parliament.

According to the plans of government the total ban on tobacco advertising should come into force since July 1996, but there is much doubt about implementation of the law, the more so that a large fraction of the parliament brought recently an action against the above mention decision of the parliament to the Constitutional Court. The only quite clear thing is that the fight against tobacco industry promises to be hard and long lasting.

Smoke Free Europe Conference Abstracts - 19 SEP 1996

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