More than 22,000 Turkish retailers risk losing their licenses to sell cigarettes under an anti-tobacco law being drafted by the government, according to a story in the Hurriyet Daily News.
If passed, the proposed law would ban cigarette retailers within 100 meters of schools, a regulation that the cigarette industry says would affect about one-sixth of the country’s 150,000 tobacco retailers.
The industry claimed that strict enforcement of the law could mean that some towns in Turkey would be without a cigarette retailer.
And it said the law might boost the illicit trade, which would rob the state of tax revenue.
Meanwhile, the health minister, Mehmet Müezzinoğlu, said the government would continue its efforts against tobacco use, including a requirement for cigarettes to be sold in black packages.
“Currently, Turkey’s tobacco watchdog is preparing the regulations,” Müezzinoğlu said.
“We need to give the perception that smoking is not fascinating, but wrong.
“In the new packages, the visuals will not be fascinating; they will reflect the ugliness, the negativity [of smoking].
“For the smoker, the package might not be important, but sometimes the pack is put on the table. Then he will not be ‘cooler’ for doing it. On the contrary, there will be a negativity associated with smoking.”
The minister said that the law had been prepared and could go into effect after receiving approval from the prime minister. “I expect it to be out in September or October, but also 2015 at the latest,” he added.
