On March 3, Sonam Tshering, a Buddhist monk, was sentenced to three years in prison in the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. His crime? Trying to smuggle $2.50 worth of chewing tobacco into Bhutan from India. In January, Bhutanese police caught the 24-year-old carrying 48 packets of tobacco while traveling from an Indian border town back home. Tshering was detained for more than a month, and, after a week-long trial, found guilty by a district court of violating the country’s stringent anti-tobacco laws.
Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy that transitioned from absolute monarchy in 2008, has recently put the world’s strictest anti-tobacco legislation into action. Passed in June 2010 and implemented in January, the new law forbids the sale or smuggling of tobacco into Bhutan, and hands out jail sentences of up to three years to anyone caught smoking in a “restricted area,” such as a bank. In both the cases, there is no chance of being granted bail.
While it’s legal for residents and tourists over 18 to buy cigarettes outside Bhutan, any tobacco brought into the country incurs a 100-200% duty, and amounts are limited to 200 cigarettes, 30 cigars, or 150 grams of chewing tobacco. The accompanying import receipt, issued at the airport or at the border check post upon declaration, is valid only for a month, and must be kept at all times if a person wants to smoke in public, say while walking to a store or waiting outside a store, as evidence that the import tax has been paid and the tobacco was purchased for self-consumption — not to sell.
Bhutan’s anti-tobacco enthusiasm goes back to December 2004 when it became the first nation in the world to ban the sale of tobacco. Two months later, smoking was banned in public places like pubs and restaurants. The law was not exactly the ruling of the government; it was proposed and passed by Bhutan’s erstwhile unicameral parliament, a body in which, under the monarchy, ministers and people’s representatives from across the country met twice a year to discuss progress and issues affecting Bhutan. Many of the representatives were from an older generation who said tobacco consumption was sinful and went against Buddhism and Buddhist values. Indeed, the country’s most revered Buddhist saint, Guru Padmasambhava, condemned tobacco in his teachings and scriptures as long as the eighth century.
Authorities heralded the ban in December 2004 by igniting a bonfire of cigarette cartons in the capital, Thimphu, and stringing banners across the main thoroughfare, exhorting people to kick the habit. Bhutanese officials also said that, by banning tobacco, they hope to set an example for the rest of the world. The country made worldwide headlines and earned accolades from the World Health Organization . But things did not go as expected. Tobacco products started popping up in the black market and soon became a lucrative business with wider profit margin, being sold at 200% over the sticker price. In clubs and pubs, curious tourists lit up in solidarity with defiant Bhutanese, making a mockery of the ban.
