Doctors call for higher taxes

The Society of Family Physicians of Ghana is advocating the imposition of higher taxes on tobacco products in an attempt to curb what the group describes as a rising level of interest in smoking among young people, according to a GhanaWeb story.

Vice president Dr. Gerhard Ofori-Amankwah reportedly said that the society’s members had been examining a 2010 Ghana Youth Survey that had shown that 7.7 percent of young people in second cycle schools smoked.

He said that an increasing number of tobacco-related diseases were being reported at the country’s health facilities.

Ofori-Amankwah was speaking at a ceremony to mark World Family Doctors Day in Kumasi.