Through out the years, the Maldives has tried to tackle this issue utilising different tactics - ranging from educating and informing the youth, offering cessation clinics in the hospital, and ensuring that warnings are printed on cigarette packs.
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When cigarettes gained its popularity in the 19th century, people were not aware of the life-long harm that it can cause not only to smokers but also those around them. Originally invented in the 18th century in France, credible information around smoking and the effects of it were largely unknown. Smoking was so widely popular that it was not only depicted in movies and cartoons, but by the 1950s after filters were introduced, cigarettes were even believed to be promoted by doctors as healthy. By this time, it had gained world-wide popularity as smoking became second hand nature, not only in social settings but also common in households. It was not until 1960s that the first suspicions around the harmful impacts of smoking started getting discovered.
From popular social habit to health risk
By the 1980s, scientific advancements progressed enough to show the negative side-effects of smoking, making condemnation of smoking more widesoread across the globe. However, by this point, smoking and addiction to the habit had also become extremely widespread. Although there might have been a decline in smoking compared to the 50s or 60s due to smoking becoming prohibited in common areas, the habit continues to fester among the youth - spreading its negative impacts. Even in small corners of the world such as the Maldives, smoking has become such a normalised habit, and years of educating and putting warnings labels has proved to be an insufficient manner of stopping the habit that has spread across the islands of the Maldives. Through out the years, the Maldives has tried to tackle this issue utilising different tactics - ranging from educating and informing the youth, offering cessation clinics in the hospital, and ensuring that warnings are printed on cigarette packs.
New administration : new approach to a smoke free society
In the past year, however, the current administration has decided to take a stronger approach to ensure that the next generation in the Maldives does not get influenced by the smoking culture. In addition to introducing some of the biggest cigaratte tax hikes that the Maldives has seen, the administration also introduced a full ban on vapes - which has become as popular as somking among the younger generation. However, as taxes and hiked up prices of cigarrates has proved to be less effective, the Government has also taken a stronger approach to providing help for those who are seeking to quit smoking by starting work towards introducing more cessation clinics alongside the introduction of a ‘quit line’. This helpline, reachable through dialing 1767 ensures those who seek to give up smoking can have easier access to nicotine patches, gums, and other treatment options as well.
And now, as a third major step towards ensuring that the younger generation can give up the habit of smoking, the administration is discussing introducing a ‘generational’ ban, which seeks to prohibit the sale of cigerattes for people born after a set date. This is one of the more modern approaches that the Government of the Maldives has been discussing when it comes to ending the habit of smoking within the Maldivian society. The ‘generational ban’ is an option that several countries are currently seeking in order to take similar measures as the Maldives, with countries such as New Zealand and the UK looking into taking this approac as well.
Although the bill is yet to pass, the previous Government in the UK was seeking a generational pan through a proposed law called the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which would see the ban on selling cigarettes or any other tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009. In New Zealand, a similar bill was seeking to put a similar ban on anyone born after 2008 - this bill, however, was repealed by the current Government of New Zealand saying it would help fund tax cuts.
Although the generational ban is still in the works for these countries, stricter smoke bans in a large number of countries ensure that selling cigarettes to youngsters is banned. In a country like the Maldives, where it is often easy to buy cigarettes even for the youth, a generational ban could be a new era of crating a cigarette free society. Even though a generation ban’s effectiveness could still only show its success down the line, with such a forward thinking measure, the Maldives could ensure that the younger generation of the country do not continue the habit of smoking.
