In Vietnam law makers are law breakers

It was difficult for Vietnam to enforce tobacco control laws because the people who passed those laws also broke them, according to a story in Vietnam Net.

At a meeting of the National Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs, deputy Cuong described smoking in public places as a chronic disease that was never cured. “At the meetings of the National Assembly (NA), just during the break, the hallway was filled with cigarette smoke,” said Cuong. “It looked terrible.”

In the offices of the NA committees, he added, deputies closed the doors, turned on the air-conditioners and smoked.

Cuong said the implementation of the law had to begin with Congress because this was the law-making agency. After the NA had done so, the government and the agencies of the ministry of justice had to implement the law strictly, he added.